New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and Rutgers University–Newark School of Arts and Sciences (SASN) have unveiled an innovative Teaching Artist certificate program aimed at equipping individuals with practical skills and a comprehensive understanding of sound business practices for teaching artists. This pioneering initiative, marking the first educational partnership between a performing arts center and a research university, seeks to empower teaching artists to apply their expertise in educational, community, healthcare, and corporate settings.
Jennifer Tsukayama, Vice President of Arts Education at NJPAC, emphasized the significance of this collaboration, stating, “Rutgers University–Newark is the ideal partner for this groundbreaking collaboration because we share an ethos for education that is grounded in culturally-responsive, trauma-informed, and justice-oriented ways of teaching. We are excited to collaborate with higher education to further advance the vocation and train future teaching artists with the skills they need to facilitate arts engagements equitably and inclusively.”
The Teaching Artist certificate program, facilitated by faculty from RU-N’s Urban Education Department and Arts, Culture & Media Department, along with nationally-recognized experts like Eric Booth, author and teaching artist, aims to provide students with a robust curriculum focusing on culturally responsive and inclusive teaching practices. Lynnette Mawhinney, Sr. Associate Dean at SASN, emphasized the program’s role in creating pathways and opportunities for high-quality teaching artists, while also supporting them in establishing their businesses.
Jacqueline Mattis, Dean of SASN, highlighted the program’s alignment with the university’s commitment to the arts and social good, stating, “This program is especially exciting because it deploys a unique teaching model, and because it powerfully integrates the many strengths of an outstanding center for the arts and the transdisciplinary excellence of a liberal arts university.”
The inaugural semester of the Teaching Artist Certificate program, commencing on June 10 and concluding on August 2, 2024, will consist of an eight-week summer intensive. Classes will be held from Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM, at Rutgers University–Newark and NJPAC’s Center for Arts Education. The program fee is $3,500, and applications will be accepted until all seats are filled, with the priority deadline set for April 30.
Eric Booth, founder of International Teaching Artists Collaborative and an advisor to the certificate program, commended the initiative, stating, “The new NJPAC-Rutgers Teaching Artist Certificate program provides exactly what the field and its emerging talent needs: effective pathways into the field. This strong new program sets a foundation of the best learning in the field, strengthened by a blend of academic and practical savvy, which will invigorate the teaching artist field as much as it will inspire its students.”
