Empowering students to make meaningful art as confident, expressive, and independent thinkers is key to high-quality art education in our schools. With the support of a $10,000 Development & Expansion grant from AEF, all of Arlington’s art teachers will receive professional development on Teaching for Artistic Behavior, an innovative, choice-based art education teaching strategy.
Starting this year, every student who takes an art class in Arlington’s public schools, and particularly K-8 students, will benefit from this broad-reaching grant.
Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) is rooted by the goal of giving students much greater choice about the type of art they want to create. TAB is nationally recognized and enables teachers to help their students express their own feelings and personal ideas through art.
The goals of Teaching for Artistic Behavior is that students will:
- Gain confidence as artists
- Obtain skills in collaboration
- Recognize their own unique artistic identities, and that of others
- Make independent decisions and choices of their own personal work
Following a successful 2017 AEF Innovations in Education grant for an after-school TAB art experience at Peirce School, the current grant will develop and transform the quality of instruction throughout the Visual Arts department in the Arlington Public Schools.
During the 2019-2020 school year, art teachers will:
- Participate in workshops and attend presentations from TAB art teachers from other districts
- Visit art teacher studios where TAB is currently being used
- Attend an art teacher retreat
Continued implementation and expansion of TAB will continue into the 2020-2021 school year.
AEF is excited to support the Visual Art Department in bringing new art programs to our schools.
Learn more about AEF’s District Development & Expansion Grants.
