National Artist Teacher Fellowships for public arts school teachers

Letters of Intent due Nov. 19.

The Center for Arts in Education invites arts teachers from public arts high schools and Title 1 high schools and middle schools to apply for funding for artistic development through its National Artist Teacher Fellowship program. Join us in celebrating 15 years of the NATF program, which offers arts teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in their own creative work, interact with other professional artists, and stay current with new practices.

(Teachers from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and The Fine Arts Center of Greenville County are past recipients of this Fellowship.)

The purpose of this Fellowship is to expand and/or rejuvenate the applicant’s artistic range and abilities in their artistic practice. Teachers will be expected to design a fellowship program that provides opportunities to enhance their understanding of current techniques, activity, and thinking in their artistic domain(s). It may include: study in arts courses; attendance at advanced art-making workshops, festivals or institutes; residencies at artists’ colonies; formal mentor relationships with recognized professional artists; independent study towards the completion of an artistic project (which includes interaction with other professionals), or other artistic entities. Please see our Meet a Fellow page for examples of previous fellowship projects. Feel free to explore and create other options.

Up to 20 awards of $5,500 each will be made, with a complementary grant of $1,500 to the Fellow’s school to support post-fellowship activities. The fellowship award is for the Fellow to use towards the completion of their project experience. It may be used to defray the cost of tuition and other fees, room and board, travel, purchase of materials and/or equipment for personal art-making, childcare, mentor fees, and other relevant expenses. The post-fellowship funds are to be used at the discretion of the Fellow for the benefit of their students, school and classroom.

All arts disciplines are eligible: visual arts, photography, theatre, stage design (sound, lighting, set design), music, dance, film, video, multidiscipline, architecture and creative writing. Proposals which will not be considered include: participation in educational conferences; art therapy; development of pedagogy; academic research or graduate study; curriculum building; learning of new skills solely towards the development of new courses; or accreditation.

Who’s eligible?

• Schools must:*
  • Be a public arts high school, magnet school, or charter school with the primary mission of fostering the development of artistic talent; or a Title 1 middle or high school with a sequential arts program.
  • Offer sequential arts courses as a requirement for graduation
  • Employ artists as teachers

• Arts teachers must:
  • Be permanently assigned full- or part-time faculty (teaching a minimum of six hrs/week in an arts discipline)
  • Be minimally in their fifth year of teaching arts at the high school or middle school level (middle school educators must be from a Title 1 schools)

Previous NATF and Surdna Fellows (Rounds 1-14) are ineligible to apply for 2015 NATF program.

*The 2015 NATF program includes arts teachers at Title 1 schools that have demonstrated a commitment to using the arts to improve student engagement and achievement. Please be in touch with Adriane Brayton, Program Coordinator, for more information.

Please note that teachers from high schools that are not arts-specialty schools are not eligible to apply at this time even if those schools have an arts concentration (unless they have Title 1 status). If this is the case, please be in touch with Program Coordinator for further information.

The NATF application process has two steps:

Step 1: Letter of Intent (LOI) – due Nov. 19.

Applicants visit our website to submit LOIs online along with an attached resume or curriculum vitae (please do not include work samples.)

Step 2: Final Applications

Following a review of the Letters of Intent, a select number of candidates will be invited to submit a final application. Finalists will be asked to submit a full project description, project budget and all available supporting materials (including notification of venue acceptances and mentor letters).

For more information, contact Adriane Brayton, program coordinator, abrayton@bostonartsacademy.org or (617) 635-6470 ext. 312.

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