Welcoming Affiliate Colleagues to NYC for YA's Transforming Education through the Arts (TEA) Retreat

Last week (July 22-24), the National Office of Young Audiences Arts for Learning (YA) had the honor of welcoming 16 network colleagues from five YA affiliates to our New York City headquarters for our first Transforming Education through the Arts (TEA) Retreat. Participating affiliates included Arts for Learning Connecticut (Hamden, CT), Arts for Learning Northwest (Portland, OR), Arts for Learning Western New York (Buffalo, NY), Center for Arts-Inspired Learning (Cleveland, OH), and Young Audiences of Louisiana (New Orleans, LA).

TEA, an NEA-funded initiative, seeks to impact educational practice by developing healing-centered and culturally responsive arts-based teaching practices. The project teams up select affiliate staff and YA Nationally Credentialed Teaching Artists who each bring their unique professional learning expertise to developing teaching artist- and classroom teacher-geared professional learning courses. The courses will cover fundamentals of lesson design and facilitation in order to build capacity of teaching artists from underrepresented populations, especially those new to the field of teaching artistry. Next, the TEA teaching artists in each partnering location will apply their learning through school residencies, alongside classroom teachers, thereby deepening the impact of teaching practices that center both the arts and student experience.

The three-day TEA Retreat prompted extensive conversations around the importance of collaborations between YA program staff and teaching artists, between YA National and affiliate sites, and encouraged participants to ponder the multifaceted connections between our network's programs and core values. With affiliate presentations, group discussion, and fun art-making activities sprinkled in for good measure, participants had ample opportunity to reflect on ideas explored in relation to professional learning.

YA looks forward to putting these conversations and reflections into action, getting to the heart of what the national YA network – comprised of 30 affiliates nationwide – can uniquely contribute to arts-infused, human-centered teaching practice. In future years, YA also expects to expand the TEA project across the network.

Check out photos from the TEA Retreat here.