An Introduction to the Teaching Artist Research Project (TARP)
The Survey Lab is collaborating with the National Opinion Research Center to carry out the first large scale survey of teaching artists. We are currently in the phase of locating and contacting teaching artists to participate in online and phone versions of our nation-wide survey.
If you are a teaching artist, or if you manage a program that hires teaching artists - please register for our survey by clicking here! We will send a link to the survey itself as soon as it "goes live" in your community.
If you are someone who hires teaching artists, you can help us develop a more complete list. Please call us at (773) 834-6913 or email us at teachingartists@uchicago.edu.
To learn more about the Teaching Artist Research Project, please read on.
The Motivation for the Study
There have been remarkable advances in arts education, both in and out of schools, over the last fifteen years, despite a difficult policy environment. Teaching artists, the hybrid professionals that link the arts to education and community life, are the creative resource behind much of this innovation.
Research shows that the work of teaching artists makes a large and important contribution to our communities. But there is no systematic information about teaching artists' career
- How were you trained?
- What are your goals and experiences as a teaching artist?
- How do you support yourself?
- How does your teaching affect your art and your art affect your teaching?
- Who hires you and on what terms?
- Who do you teach? Where/how do you stay active practicing your art?
- What does your career trajectory look like? What keeps you going or pushes you out?
TARP will deepen our understanding of the lives and work of teaching artists through studies in twelve communities, and it will inform policy designed to make their work sustainable, more effective, and more meaningful.
The Project Approach
For the first phase of the study, begun in fall 2006, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) worked closely with Nick Rabkin and Columbia's Center for Arts Policy to design the research, conducting stakeholder meetings and focus groups, and developing survey instruments for teaching artists and administrators of teaching artist programs. The study sites are Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Providence and eight California communities (San Francisco/Alameda County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Salinas, and Humboldt County).
The second phase, which started in the summer 2008, builds samples of teaching artists and program administrators in each of the study cities, and then fields the web survey to all sample members. NORC will use a multi-mode strategy for data collection, following the web survey phase with subsequent waves of interviews by phone and mail to ensure the highest possible response rate.
The third phase, anticipated to begin in spring 2009, will focus upon the selection of a subsample of survey respondents as well as key informants in each study site for participation in qualitative interviews. These interviews are intended to gather more detailed information on the local character of teaching artist communities, in-depth descriptions and narratives of teaching artists' experiences, and follow up on items or issues that arise in preliminary analysis of the quantitative survey data. These conversations will illuminate the work teaching artists believe is their best and identify the kinds of structural and organizational supports that enable work at the highest level. We will investigate how best to develop teaching artist capacities, to understand the dynamics between artistic and educational practice, and to keep artists engaged in the field. We will explore how higher education can make a more meaningful and strategic contribution toward preparing young artists to work in the field.
How you can help
Our goal is to get the best possible coverage of teaching artists in each of our target cities. If you know other teaching artists, please encourage them to sign up and be part of this study. Do you know any artists who also teach? We are looking for ...
- Visual artists (videographers, painters, sculptors, photographers, other visual media)
- Performing artists (musicians, dancers, actors, etc.)
- Literary artists (poets, authors, etc.)
TARP Funders
Chicago Site Study:
Chicago Community Trust
Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
Fry Foundation
McDougal Family Foundation
Morse Charitable Trust
Harris Foundation
Chicago Tribune Fund
Boston Site Study:
Barr Foundation
Boston Foundation
Massachusetts Cultural Council
Providence Site Study:
Rhode Island Foundation
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism
Seattle Site Study:
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
Harvest Foundation
Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
Tacoma Foundation
Washington State Arts Commission
Raynier Foundation
Tacoma Arts Commission
4Culture
Bay Area Site Study:
Heller Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation
Walter & Elise Haas Fund
California Site Studies:
Hewlett Foundation
Irvine Foundation
General Support:
JPMorgan/Chase Foundation
