NETAC | Community Engagement Lab

New England

Teaching

Artist

Collaborative

The River project, designed and facilitated by Gowri Savoor, at The Vermont Gathering, July 2023

The purpose of NETAC is to build regional capacity to develop thriving communities by preparing teaching artists to serve as catalysts who activate creative potential and foster partnerships with educators, organizations and community groups.

NETAC is an emerging Collective Impact initiative guided be a steering committee with backbone support from the Community Engagement Lab.

Get involved!

INTEREST FORM

The Vermont Gathering
IMAGINING WHAT'S POSSIBLE

NETAC hosted its first gathering in July 2023, when fifty teaching artists and community leaders from across New England convened in Burlington for a day-and-a-half of planning, learning and visioning together.

The Gathering's goal was to "start well" and shape the next steps for NETAC to develop as an Collective Impact initiative serving teaching artists and communities throughout New England.

NETAC's strategic framework, designed by the Steering Committee over several months leading up to the Gathering, outlines three growth areas for the network that were explored and further defined at the Gathering: Communication, Network Building, and Professional Learning.

Next Steps

For NETAC to realize its vision, we need a network of individuals and organizations throughout New England that contribute time and resources to its development.

To help build NETAC's capacity to support teaching artists as community catalysts in your area, complete this INTEREST FORM and we will be in touch.

Corey DePina, ZUMIX (MA); Rhoda Bernard, Berklee College of Music (MA)

The Rhode Island cohort

L to R: Rebecca Teeters, Long School of Music (MA); Allison Hawkins, NH State Council on the Arts; Jason Young & Randall Nelson, Queerlective (NH); Troy Hickman, VT Arts Council.

L to R foreground: Tyler French, Colby College (ME); Erin Maile O'Keefe, Teaching Artist (VT); Natalya Tausanovitch, New England Foundation for the Arts.

L to R: Majesty Reyes, Teaching Artist (CT); Hanna Ross, Rhode Island Philharmonic; Jane Wegscheider, The Arts Garden (MA)

Steering Group

We believe that the New England Teaching Artist Collaborative can:

model the equitable and inclusive practices that foster wellbeing and social justice;
build a teaching artist collaborative that increases sustainability, visibility and the continually-improving practice of the field;
amplify the impact of creative community engaged projects on communities throughout the region through strong communications, effective knowledge-sharing, and pioneering models which can be adopted and adapted widely;
develop cross-sector partnerships that foster broad support and participation in creative projects to strengthen personal, school and community well-being.

What do we mean by thriving communities and well-being?
A “thriving” community doesn’t mean that residents never have difficulties. It means that any difficulties are accompanied by access to well-being, which comprises: relationships (individuals feel seen, heard and valued; a sense of belonging), support (individuals feel people have their back), and engagement (individuals feel a part of something bigger than themselves, and will show up with their creative energy).

Thanks to Tasha Golden for inspiring this definition of thriving communities and well-being.

STEERING COMMITTEE

click an image to read bios

Eric Booth

CEL ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR

Anne Campbell

Anne is the Education Director at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, a position she has held since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Smith College and a master’s degree in community education from Goddard College, Anne has spent more than 30 years in the nonprofit realm, primarily in the arts, education, and community development. She plays percussion in the all-female ensemble, Shebang, and dances whenever she can.

Vanessa Ford

Vanessa’s rich Central American heritage has encouraged her to embrace family, to appreciate every culture and racial background and to find a way to always be of service to others. She is on the voice faculty at the Community Music School of Springfield (MA), and the founder and Program Manager of the Trust Transfer Project, which focuses on community care centered around Mental Wellness and Food Justice by transforming the health of our communities one artistic message at a time.

Paul Gambill

CEL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ashely Hensel-Browning

CO-CHAIR

Ashley is a teaching artist, dance educator and choreographer whose work investigates how movement creates a more aware, engaged, and connected community. She has received multiple grants for her work in public schools and community sites and is a Juried Teaching Artist through the Vermont Arts Council. Projects include teacher trainings, school residencies, dance in libraries, restorative justice and correctional facilities programs as well as community-inspired and inclusive original productions. She received her Ed.M from Harvard Graduate School of Education and teaches at the Dance Factory in Springfield, Vermont.

Erin Maile O'Keefe

Erin is a grateful settler on the indigenous lands of the Sokoki Abenaki in Southern Vermont. Born and raised in Hawai’i, Erin Maile is supported and nourished by her Hawaiian ancestry, culture and continued mentorship from her elders. As an educator, trainer and community artist/activator, she has developed kinesthetic, multigenerational curriculums that facilitate group inclusion, connection, co-authorship and empathy. Erin’s background in dance, theater and architecture has made the crafting of temporal spaces and community arts engagement at the core of much of her work.

Jeannette Rodríguez Píneda

Jeannette is an afro indigenous visual storyteller and education designer residing between Kiskeya/Ayiti and Lenape Mohican land. Using ancestral plant-based image making as a means of remembering soils called home, their work explores the tension of narratives within intergenerational trauma. They collaborate with cultural institutions to design art and ecology programs that decolonize canon based models of learning through a decentralized approach. Their pedagogical thought extends to educational frameworks such as 'The Teaching Artist Companion to Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change’, 'Meditative Curriculum’ , ‘How to hold the whole of a human’, with MoMA and the Studio Museum in Harlem on historical black erasure, the preservation of memory and the internal somatic shifts of abolition. They are also a licensed DEC backcountry guide, leading free bilingual hikes through Movimiento, an initiative to strengthen BIPOC connection to land.

Gowri Savoor

CO-CHAIR

Gowri is a visual-teaching artist, whose practice includes sculpture, illustration, and writing. Born in England, she moved to the US in 2007. She has been a practicing teaching artist for over 20 years and is the instigator of A River of Light, a movement committed to bringing art to the community through participatory art events, installations, and lantern parades. She is also the co-founder of Teaching Artists Connect, an organization providing creative and inspiring professional development workshops for teaching artists and educators in North Carolina and beyond.

Ally Tufenkjian

Ally has devoted most of her life to facilitating programs and processes with youth and adults to work towards a more creative, just and equitable world. She is humbled and grateful to be a Program Manager at Rockwood Leadership Institute, an organization amplifying and nourishing the capacity of social justice and movement leaders, and to serve on the Selectboard of her town of Hartford, VT. A theater Teaching Artist at heart, Ally aims to use artistic practices to build cultures of care and community with others.

Linda Whelihan

Linda is an artist and educator who specializes in engaging individuals and building community through shared art experiences. Her background as a teacher, museum educator, and artist informs her practice and she excels at creating art-full experiences that make lasting impressions. In her studio, she employs a variety of media and art-making techniques including puppetry, creative bookmaking and recycling. She has exhibited and conducted art-making workshops for teachers and students in the Baltimore/Washington area and in Vermont where she has lived since 2007.

Lead Sponsor

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