When we originally put out a call for submissions to this issue of the Teaching Artist Journal, we had wanted to explore the ways in which teaching artists develop individuals’ and communities’ artistry across the life span and outside of traditional classrooms. We wanted to ask questions like: What is the value of offering and promoting lifelong opportunities for artistic expression? What adult populations have historically been absent or excluded from spaces that nurture artistic expression, and how does your work address these populations’ previously unattended needs or potential? How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected teaching with adult populations?
Our call for submissions was focused on two demographic factors of populations that teaching artists were working with: the age of participants and where the teaching artistry was taking place. Instead, what emerged as predominant themes among the submissions were feelings of anxiety, isolation, and ways that certain communities’ needs were being underserved. Since 2020, these themes have dominated headlines. Luckily, the authors in this issue offer concrete ways in which they are addressing these needs.
Cordelia Driussi offers arts-based ways to assess the emotional experiences of Japanese learners of English, an endeavor that has allowed her to uncover students’ perceptions of and emotional connections to English and the opportunities it provides. Driussi’s research responds to the narrow modes of assessment that are usually used to measure English learners’ progress in Japan and elucidates how arts-based assessment can uncover richer detail, leading to more responsive pedagogy. Daniel Kenner describes his experience of bringing together a group of people who often feel underresourced and isolated from community: people who are or have been primary caregivers to family members who are sick or have passed away. He offers humble reflections and concrete examples of activities he used to strengthen community bonds among the caregivers with whom he worked. My article details the buzz of anxiety that pervaded an applied theater course I assistant-taught at the graduate level, and the specific classroom strategies my mentor, Joe Salvatore, and I created to help ground emerging teaching artists in purpose rather than fear.
I believe that arts-based community practices, interventions, and assessments will be key to our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As these articles illuminate and as teaching artists have long known, the arts catalyze connection and community building. I hope that these articles spark inspiration for your own practice.
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