Teaching artists are deeply valuable members of the education community and should be funded accordingly, a UW–Madison School of Education faculty member argued in a recent editorial. 

Erica Halverson, chair of the Department of Theatre & Drama and professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, pushed for year-round, well-paid jobs for teaching artists in an editorial published by The Hechinger Report.  A teaching artist is a working artist who brings arts learning into schools.

In the editorial, Halverson points out many teaching artist jobs are part-time or seasonal and lack benefits or competitive salaries. She contends this should change, as teaching artists’ work provides an essential educational experience to students.

“Teaching artists do far more than provide instruction in an art form,” she wrote. “They bring different ways of seeing students, valuing skills and behaviors that are dismissed in the traditional classroom, like creativity, risk-taking and physicality.”

Halverson’s research focuses on how individuals learn through the arts, particularly the performing arts. She is the author of “How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction,” and host of the award-winning podcast, “Arts Educators Save the World.” She is also the founder of Whoopensocker, an arts education residency program and performing ensemble that uses theater as a tool to teach creative writing and social-emotional skills.