Our eight principles are viewed as equitable solutions to address the problems Teaching Artists collectively experience.
Members identified eight specific problems Teaching Artists experienced as exploitative.
TAMA Board Members Denise Jones, Jennifer Ridgway, Khaleshia Thorpe-Price, and Devin Walker presented the principles at the Maryland Art Summit 2023, hosted on the campus of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, on Thursday, June 8, 2023.
Special thanks to Devin Walker and WEE Nation Radio for making this conversation available on the Wee Nation Podcast. Click the button to listen now!
Teaching Artistry is an art form, and artists who pursue the Teaching Artist profession strive for excellence.
Teaching Artists are not artists of excellence seen on American stages and exhibited in American museums.
Teaching Artists are professionals and leaders seated at the table where decisions happen.
Teaching Artists are not-yet-capable and are not interested, nor have the time, to be at the decision-making table.
Professional Teaching Artists seek quality, robust training to master their profession & hone their expertise & skills as artists, teachers, business owners, & leaders.
Teaching Artists require ongoing oversight, support, and training for each project and for organizations to tell them what and how to do the work.
Professional Teaching Artists (who regularly seek training) must be valued at their minimum livable wage & recognized as independent businesses.
Teaching Artists are starving artists desperate for work and grateful for the funding crumbs organizations give them.
Professional Teaching Artists recognize their self-worth and account for and are respectfully paid for all hours worked.*
Teaching Artists can work free hours (planning meetings) because as independent contractors Federal law extends the opportunity for profit and loss.
Professional Teaching Artists control their content, ownership, and licenses.
Teaching Artists work for organizations that own and control the intellectual property of Teaching Artists, i.e., lesson plans, videos, etc.
Professional Teaching Artists take the initiative, with little to no project orientation needed, and are committed and ready to work and able to improvise based on changing circumstances.
Teaching Artists are poor communicators, slow to follow up, show up late, and lack commitment requiring additional support before they can work.
Professional Teaching Artists join organizations like TAMA to actively participate in collective action to achieve and equitable, sustainable, and vibrant arts ecosystem for Teaching Artists.
During virtual meetings, we identified the problems Teaching Artists experience.
As a network, we developed our solutions (the 8 principles) to address each problem.
As a region, it is time to collectively recommend actions stakeholders (Teaching Artists and those that hire, train, and support/fund Teaching Artists) take to uphold each principle.
Together, we advance solidarity and justice in our profession.
Teaching artists feel powerless and are forced to look to an individual or a few people for solutions and answers. We spend a lot of time complaining about the problems. We don’t get to the solutions and the actions we need.
Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic is a network that advocates for, supports, and empowers Teaching Artists in the mid-Atlantic region.
TAMA is an all-volunteer, non-profit endeavor and is free to join. Our vision is to create connections, answer each others’ questions, and share inspiration through our collective experience and wisdom. We grow together!
©2021 Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic
info@teachingartists.org
PO Box 212, Riverdale, MD 20738-0212
©2023 Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic
This form routes member questions to different emails based on their needs.
As professionals, we face the challenge of limited data about who we are, what we do and where we work, which makes it hard to advocate for and secure funding and policies that benefit us. But worry not! Your profile can help promote your work and provide data for our region. When filling out your profile, you can control who sees the content in every field. Visibility options include: everyone, only me, all members, and my friends. Just a heads up, the “Only Me” option includes TAMA administration so we can collect the data for the field.
