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getting started

Congratulations! Your school has a residency grant!
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Next Steps: Moving Forward

AIE Partner
Now your AIE partner will become part of your school team to guide you through the entire process, from grant contract agreements to artist interview through the planning and administration of the residency to the community culminating event and Final Report. To begin, your AIE partner will review AIE panel comments and their recommendations to inform your residency proposal plan.

Artist/Teacher Institute (aTi)
As planned in your residency proposal, teaching staff (individual or group) will confirm advanced registration(s) and attend aTi – a professional development program in which educators participate in hands-on, intensive creative experiences with master teaching artists in order to grow artistically and as educators. The Institute is a non-residential, 10-day experience offered annually in both North and South Jersey. Daily discipline-based studio workshops are enhanced by sessions on important educational issues and critical topics in arts education. In addition, participants receive professional development credits, and may apply for graduate and/or continuing education credits.

AIE Administrator’s Day
School administrators attend AIE Administrator’s Day at either aTi campus site to receive the grant contract, attend orientation and visit teacher workshops. Administrators also network as a group, share insights and reflect on current challenges. The AIE Consortium moderates these sessions and AIE Partners meet with administrators to discuss panel review comments, residency plans and next steps for selecting and interviewing artists. This technical assistance day launches the AIE Partner’s supportive role in guiding both the school and the artist through the entire residency process.

Creative Movement Workshop at the Artist/Teacher Institute

“I never imagined myself doing this! Now I wonder what else I might be able to do. I hoped to learn some storytelling and writing techniques I could use in my classroom of reluctant writers… I had no idea that I ould take away as much as I have.”

Ann Damron, Trenton
Community Charter School, Trenton

Identifying, Interviewing and Selecting a Teaching Artist

Your AIE partner will identify three teaching artist candidates from the NJSCA AIE Roster for your school team to interview. The AIE Partner will arrange the interviews with you at your school, provide artist resumes for you and share copies of your residency application with the artists. The key members of the Steering Committee and your AIE Partner all take part in the interviews. The artists come prepared to present their own work portfolio, examples of past residency work, and a vision for bringing the residency plan to life. (see Artist Interview section)

Changes in teaching staff and/or school leadership
If any changes occur in the residency’s participating teaching staff and/or school leadership, please inform your AIE Partner immediately.

Once the teaching artist is selected and has agreed to conduct the residency, your residency team is complete and the work can begin.

NOTE: The selected Teaching Artist is now referred to as the Residency Artist who will lead and be present each day of the residency.

Mosaic mural at Maple Shade High School, Maple Shade, NJ

Maple Shade High School, Maple Shade

Under the guidance of AIE Teaching Artists Baily Cypress and Julie Deery, students at Maple Shade High School created a 60 foot mosaic mural using both hand-made tiles and donated tiles from Habitat for Humanity. The student group for this residency was unique as it brought together high school art students and the 7th and 8th grade special needs students. The school houses both a junior and senior high school and joint activities between the grade levels had not previously been attempted. In addition, the 7th and 8th grade students do not currently receive classes in visual arts. This residency allowed new peer groups to be developed within the school and establish a mentorship between the junior high special needs students and the senior high school art students. Student Jessica H. wrote, “This residency made me more interested in art because you weren’t just sitting at your desk making your own project but instead were up moving around and interacting with kids you didn’t usually talk to most of the time. The class in mosaic inspired me to take art again next year and for the rest of the years I am here at high school. For me, art is now a class that I can come to, focus on myself and be calm.”

As a result of hosting their first AIE residency, the school has now implemented two new mosaic art classes and hired a second full-time art teacher. This additional help will allow the other art teacher more time to focus on their Two-Year AIE grant beginning September 2008, the new mosaic classes and developing an art curriculum for the junior high students. An Art Club has also been established for both the junior high and senior high school students. Principal Scott Arnauer wrote, “Having the staff and students working towards a common goal was very valuable for our school community. The project worked on so many levels but it especially taught everyone to appreciate art, to use more teamwork and the positive feeling associated with making a contribution to the school that will stand the test of time.”