“Courage to Love” (and Teach) in the Time of Coronavirus

By: Heleya de Barros* and Jean Johnstone^

This blog is published as part of the #KeepMakingArt campaign. The curated series features voices in the arts/culture, education, and social change sectors to capture the deep thinking and innovation occurring as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

“It is impossible to teach without the courage to love, without the courage to try a thousand times before giving up.” - Paulo Freire 

A blog-conversation between Association of Teaching Artists Executive Director Heleya de Barros, and Teaching Artists Guild Executive Director Jean Johnstone:

Heleya: Teaching artists are infinitely creative. My ATA Board president, and Artistic Director of Spellbound Theatre Company, Lauren Jost, says this often. I couldn’t agree more. In the past month as teaching artists have watched their beloved programs disappear, schools close, organizations furlough/fire/or dissolve  contracts; as community centers, parks, after-school programs, and in-person private lessons have been canceled in order to protect the health and safety of our country; teaching artists have shown incredible creativity and resolve to continue to find ways to #KeepMakingArt with our communities. 

Jean: I love this prompt from Creative Generation, #KeepMakingArt. Even as we have been stressing out over moving programming online, and over our livelihoods and lost connections to students and projects, it fully encapsulates the power of WHAT WE DO as artists and teaching artists. How do we get through this? We keep making art. 

Also, Heleya, that quote from Freire you pulled in is so deeply appropriate for me right now: “It is impossible to teach without the courage to love, without the courage to try a thousand times before giving up.” As a teaching artist, arts administrator, and parent to two elementary aged kiddos sheltering with me, this feels about as accurate as it gets!  

Heleya: Right?! And we’re certainly trying hundreds of times over right now. It’s why artists and teaching artists are so well trained to respond (and re-respond, and respond again, and again) to a situation like this. 

Jean: Both our organizations have been working to provide information to teaching artists about what to do during this pandemic: what monetary resources and reliefs are out there, and how to engage effectively online using our arts content and pedagogy. But we also wanted to showcase the spirit and power we have witnessed (online! And in our own homes) of just engaging in art right now. 

Heleya: Here are a collection of links which focus on independent teaching artists and their work to #KeepMakingArt. We know we’ve missed many, this is a selection of what’s come across our inboxes and feeds at TAG and ATA. If you’re a teaching artist also continuing to make art, reply or tag us in a post so we can share your work with a wider audience. 

Music

Visual Arts

Dance

  • If you’re not already on Tik Tok--go sign up right now. Really. Go do it.

  • Looking for other ways to move and grove in your home? Dancing Alone Together is regularly updating all online dance classes around the world.

Photography

  • Hyphen Photo is posting daily photography challenges on their instagram

  • Is now the time to learn documentary photography? Here’s a free online video series by TA Stephan Herbert

Storytelling/Theatre

Groups/Community

  • Need to be in community with other TAs (and wine, lots and lots of wine)? Check out Amelia Robinson’s Creative Happy Hour Zoom sessions for teaching artists.

  • There has been a proliferation of groups started in the past month to help TAs develop resources. Check out this group for Teaching Theatre Online. Or groups dedicated to sharing work such as Created in Quarantine and Artist Quarantine whose group description is, “Cause quarantine is just another word for residency.”

And remember, it’s also okay … to do nothing.

What else have you teaching artists been working on? Tag ATA and TAG on social media and we’ll repost!

*Heleya de Barros

Heleya de Barros is an actor, teaching artist, and arts education advocate whose work focuses on how to use theatre skills across disciplines. Heleya has served as faculty at The New School for Drama and has taught with such organizations as Lincoln Center Theater, McCarter Theater Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Center for Arts Education, People’s Theatre Project, Young Audiences New York, The Geffen Playhouse, The Los Angeles Music Center, The Orange County Performing Arts Center, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Will & Company, CRE Outreach, and 24th Street Theatre. She is the Executive Director of The Association of Teaching Artists, the oldest organization serving teaching artists in the country and formerly sat on the Board of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. She is also the Director of Arts Education for Arts Corps in Seattle,WA. As an actor Heleya earned her Actor’s Equity card touring TYA shows to schools and communities. Currently Heleya acts as a performer and researcher with the Verbatim Performance Lab using theatre to examine and uncover unconscious bias. She can be found on social media using @Heleya_deBarros.

^Jean Johnstone

Jean Johnstone is the Executive Director of Teaching Artists Guild. She was the interim director of the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, and founding Director of the international Applied Theater Action Initiative. Jean studied at The Moscow Art Theater in Russia. She spent several years teaching drama and directing new work in Hong Kong, China, and was a delegate at the IDEA International Arts Education congress. For the last several years she has directed productions in San Francisco by formerly homeless artists, pairing them with local artist mentors.  Previously she served for four years as the theatrical director for the David Herrera Performance Company of San Francisco, a modern dance/theater company, and The Red Gate Performance Collective’s Rococo Risque Cabaret (Best Theatre Ensemble SF Weekly). She holds a graduate certificate in Theater Arts from University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a B.A. in Theater Arts from UCSC, and certificates from the Moscow Art Theater and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and the Presencing Institute. She sits on the Policy Council for the California Alliance for Arts Education, and is a board member of the Francophone School of Oakland.