CommonGround 2008
Mindful Innovations

Join the VSA arts’ Teaching Artist Fellows in identifying ways to include students with disabilities in the classroom and to position people with disabilities in leadership roles.

The educational programs of VSA arts have been a vital part of building teaching artist collaborations to engage students with disabilities. During 2007, VSA arts launched the Teaching Artist Fellowship to support teaching artists with disabilities in the visual and theater arts. This session, led by VSA arts Teaching Artist Fellows, will explore ways to enhance classroom practice, share techniques for inclusion, and relay the Fellows’ personal and practical knowledge. It will include 30 minutes of presentation, 30 minutes of participatory exercise, and 30 minutes of response and reflection, based on audience need. Presented by VSA arts in collaboration with the Association of Teaching Artists.

Conference Strand: Core Knowledge

Educators, Artists, Cultural Organization Administrators, Education Administrators, Community/Parents: will explore adaptive approaches to arts education, share multiple learning modes for diverse learning styles using the arts, and be able to identify and utilize strategies for developing inclusive arts learning experiences

________________________________________

Mary Liniger is the Director of Education Services for VSA arts. Previously she worked as Arts Program Specialist and ADA/504 Coordinator for the Washington, DC Commission on the Arts, where she managed arts education and fellowship programs for the agency.  Prior to working for the Commission, she worked with Kennedy Center Education.  She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from USF, and has also worked as an actor, director, and theater educator for over 15 years.   

Jaehn Clare has more than thirty years experience as an actor, director, producer, playwright, teaching artist, and arts administrator. In 1980, while working on a production of Samuel  Beckett's "Endgame," she fell 27 feet from the top of a ladder, permanently altering her life.   She is a 2006 VSA arts Teaching Artist Fellow, a GA Wolf Trap Teaching Artist, and she works with the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theater.  Jaehn has also danced professionally for three years with Atlanta's Full Radius Dance.  

Nilea Rohrer-Parvin is a sculptor who teaches using many disciplines, including performance art and creative writing. Rohrer-Parvin has designed and taught art programs for 30 years in museums, public and alternative schools, juvenile detention centers, and adult learning centers. She has served as director of a community arts center and is a published poet. The Arkansas Art Educators Association presented Rohrer-Parvin with “The Most Distinguished Service Award-2000,” citing her excellence of leadership in statewide arts advocacy and the mentorship of students.   

Barbara Romain is a painter and performing artist who exhibits nationally, and has created many public art installations and performances in the Los Angeles area. She has been an artist-in-residence for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs as well as the California Arts Council.  Romain is co-founder and director of Art Options, an award-winning arts and education program for at-risk students.  Romain also teaches at Columbia College Hollywood, a film school in Tarzana, California.

Christopher Wolfe is a drama specialist, actor, and director who has 20 years experience teaching various high school and middle school theater courses, and has been on the faculty of Georgetown, American, and Temple Universities. Wolfe directed main-stage performances for these universities and has written and directed his own versions of popular theater pieces, including Much Ado About Nothing, Peter Pan, and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He is currently teaching at the High Point High School. 

back to Workshop Offerings