ArtistCorps Tennessee
ArtistCorps Tennessee (ACT) is a specialized training program for teaching artists that integrates arts learning objectives with service learning objectives. Modeled after the national Learn and Serve America program, ArtistCorps Tennessee utilizes an arts-based service learning approach, engaging students as active participants in service learning initiatives. ArtistCorps Tennessee is composed of members of the Teaching Artist Roster who are in the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Artist-in-Residence program and have undergone training in arts-based service learning provided by the Commission.
What is Arts-Based Service Learning?
Arts-Based Service Learning projects involve students in researching and
identifying community needs and social justice issues that become the focus of classroom arts projects, performances and/or exhibitions. Citizenship, creativity, problem-solving skills, leadership, and teamwork are among the personal growth opportunities that students, teachers, and artists experience as designers and participants in arts-based service learning projects. Young people are actively engaged in identifying community needs and, together with an artist and their classroom teacher, they work as a team to apply academic concepts in a real-world setting.
Artist Corps Tennessee: Arts-Based Service Learning for Teaching Artists Guidebook
Curriculum Connections
To ensure that students receive a high quality academic experience, ACT is curriculum-based, integrating national arts education standards with national service learning standards. In arts-based service learning projects, the arts serve as primary pathways to learning and are the catalyst for highlighting a social issue or drawing attention to a need within the community. Learning occurs when students actively reflect on the service through the arts.
Funding for ArtistCorps Tennessee
Schools may apply for Artist-in-Residence grants to secure the services of an ACT-trained artist. Deadlines and requirements are the same as traditional residencies but projects must be structured around arts-based service learning.
For more information contact:
Ann Talbott Brown
Tennessee Arts Commission
Director of Arts Education
ann.brown@tn.gov
615.532.5939
Nan Zierden
Tennessee Arts Commission
Arts Education Special Projects Coordinator
nan.zierden@tn.gov
615.532.5934