There is no consensus definition of “teaching artist” in the evolving field of arts education. Five years ago, even the term would spark arguments from those who preferred the traditional labels of “visiting artist,” “resident artist,” or even “artist educator.”

To know who you are, you must know where you come from. So too for the emergent profession of teaching artistry, which might be described as a young adult—past teen years but still not moving with a twentysomething’s confident stride. This essay aspires to trace briefly the history of teaching artistry.

These six inclinations, understandings and habits of action of artists form the Six Fundamentals of Teaching Artistry. 

After an era of intense specialization of the arts, our understanding of artistry has begun in the past two decades to expand again. Development of the field of “teaching artistry” has led to artists working experientially in educational, lifelong-learning settings and expanding into health care, corrections, and non-arts professional development. Community artistry has developed “social practice,” the work of artists engaging with communities in the cocreation of participatory art for social impact.

Here are some suggestions about planning and practice for Teaching Artists to consider as they begin their work. This collection derives from asking myself the question, “What advice would I want to give to a new Teaching Artist in any artistic discipline?”

Let’s start with a few agreements.

Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, famously said that “The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”

To help the field of teaching artistry grow, I have long sought an analogous profession as a comparative example, to clarify our identity and potential.