Position Overview:
- Schedule: 2-10 hours a week, M-F between the 2:30pm – 6pm
- Type: Part time, regular
- Pay: $75/hr, non-exempt
- To apply, please submit:
- a resume highlighting your work as an educator and visual artist.
- a cover letter describing your interest in being a teaching artist at Abrons Arts Center.
- an original curriculum sample designed for a theater project with elementary age students and indicate what grade level the curriculum is for.
About Abrons Arts Center
The Abrons Arts Center is the arts division of Henry Street Settlement. Abrons is a world-renowned institution that advocates for diverse artistic communities through educational programs, residencies, exhibitions and presentations. Each year Abrons welcomes over 35,000 people with over 20 commissioned performances, 5 gallery exhibitions, 5 artist residencies for performing and studio practitioners, and 100 different classes in dance, music, theater, and visual art. Abrons also provides New York City public schools with teaching artists, introducing more than 3,000 students to the arts. Abrons Arts Center supports bold, visionary experimental artists and believes that the arts can provide a unique opportunity to build human connection, radical empathy, and understanding. Abrons values freedom of expression and creativity while striving to provide creative communities with a space that celebrates diversity of thought and experience.
Overview:
Abrons Arts Center’s Arts Education Program is seeking a theater arts educator as part of Henry Street Street Settlement’s after school programs. They will design and teach a unique arts class for K- 6th graders (5 to 11 years old) in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Abrons Arts Center’s Education Programs are built on the belief that arts and culture build healthy communities, and that access to a diverse range of creative opportunities enriches the lives of the people we serve. Abrons Arts Center education partnerships deliver classes, workshops, and projects in Dance, Theater, Music, and Visual Arts within the Department of Education as well as within the larger Henry Street Settlement agency.
Teaching artists design and lead project-based, age-appropriate residencies for Abrons’ in-house and partnership classes:
- In-house classes meet 13-20 times per semester on Saturday and during after school hours at Abrons.
- Classes with our partner schools and HSS sites meet once a week during after school hours. Abrons works with schools on the Lower East Side.
Classes culminate in an end of the year exhibition at Abrons Arts Center. Examples of projects Abrons teaching artists may work on include: theatrical adaptations, devised theater, monologues, musical theater, multimedia performance, spoken word, comedy improv, mime and clowning
You will be:
- Committed to Arts Center’s values of accessibility, equity, and inclusion
- Creative, confident and highly skilled at designing arts curriculum and uplifting young people through the arts
- Motivated to provide best-in-class arts projects to the Abrons Arts Center students
- Highly collaborative, with a strong ability to teach diverse young people
- Enthusiastic and interested in contemporary arts practices and arts education innovation
- Committed to submitting lesson plans, time sheets, supply orders and other administrative documents to Abrons on time
- Excited to continue growing your artistic practice in tandem with teaching
You will have:
- 3-5 years of teaching artist experience
- Proficiency designing and facilitating art projects from start to finish
- Experience with students early childhood to 18 years old
- Strong classroom management skills
- Proficiency in social-emotional learning methods
- Arts materials literacy
- Robust awareness and passion for diverse contemporary art
- Conflict mediation and de-escalation skills
- Enthusiasm for working with young people
- Social adaptability and ability to work with a range of learning styles
- Art installation and exhibition experience
You will support the Abrons Arts Education Program by:
- Ability to instruct students ages 5-18 in innovative and dynamic arts classes
- Passion for designing unique curriculum that is culturally relevant, skills-based and high quality
- Strong ability to connect with students building positive relationships and sense of community and belonging
- Commitment to professional development and literacy in a range of art making and materials
- Build strong relationships with students and Lower East Side community members through arts engagement
- Strong classroom management skills
- Developed sense of teaching for social emotional learning
- Excitement and knowledge of contemporary art and the lower east side
- Clear communication with Abrons Education, school and/or partner site staff members as needed
- Collect and keep track of student artwork
Essential Physical Job Functions:
- Must be New York City based and be present on-site to instruct classes
- Must have strong arts education skills and experience
- Possessing or obtaining de-escalation training
- Must be COVID-19 vaccinated
- Must be able to move throughout our 40K square foot facility that includes stairs, ramps, indoor and outdoor spaces.