On March 15th & 16th, the Arts Educators at TAPA: Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts gathered for professional development work around Diversity in Arts Education. While TAPA students have been coming to the Egg as Artists in Residence for several years now, this was the first time the adults (educators, artists in residence, staff, administrators, etc…) from TAPA came to the Egg. As always, the Egg provided a brave and open space to reflect, engage in meaningful dialogue, and creatively express important ideas and questions.

 

“…Our relationship with the learners demands that we respect them and demands equally that we be aware of the concrete conditions of their world, the conditions that shape them. To try to know the reality that our students live is a task that the educational practice imposes on us: Without this, we have no access ‘ to the way they think, so only with great difficulty can we perceive what and how they know. Educators need to know what happens in the world of the children with whom they work. They need to know the universe of their dreams, the language with which they skillfully defend themselves from the aggressiveness of their world, what they know independently of the school, and how they know it. ”

• – Paulo Freire – Teachers as Cultural Workers, p. 72

 

This most recent Residency at the Egg was an opportunity for the TAPA community of Educators to strengthen their practice in a few areas:

• Building community around diversity and creativity

• Supporting TAPA’s diverse students and families

• Supporting each other as diverse professionals in arts education

• Explore art and creative practice as effective practices to learn

• Strengthening collaborations and understanding amongst teachers, artists, administrators, staff, and board members

• Setting aside significant time and space specifically for discussing diversity, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, religious discrimination, and other forms of oppression as they relate to our work as educators and our shared experience as human beings

For more information about TAPA’s Diversity work, please contact Matt Garza – Mr.Garza[at]TAPAProvidence.org