Chairman Mary Anne Carter announced today that organizations in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, will receive federal funding for arts projects from the National Endowment for the Arts in this round of fiscal year 2020 funding. Included in this announcement, for the third year in a row, is an Art Works grant to Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington for its Teaching Artist Studio, a professional development program for teaching artists.

The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports artistically excellent projects that celebrate our creativity and cultural heritage, invite mutual respect for differing beliefs and values, and enrich humanity.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is a gold standard for quality arts education programs,” said Cary Clarke, Executive Director of Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington. “We are deeply honored to be recognized with an NEA Art Works grant. This investment in our Teaching Artist Studio program will help teaching artists throughout our region grow as educators and attain a new level of excellence in meeting the diverse arts learning needs of all children in our region.”

My teaching artist practice immediately changed.

Young Audiences’ Teaching Artist Studio (TA Studio) is a professional development program for teaching artists in Oregon and SW Washington. TA Studio facilitators work with artists from all disciplines and media—performing, visual, literary, digital, and more—to empower them in their practice and enhance their impact on students’ lives and education.

“My teaching artist practice immediately changed,” said 2019-2020 TA Studio Cohort member Karen De Benedetti. “[TA Studio] helped me develop my unique ideas and voice to bring to my current and future lessons.”

Launched in 2013, the TA Studio program is the only in-depth, multi-disciplinary, teaching artist–focused professional development offering in Oregon. It addresses a critical need in the community for training for underserved arts educators, and builds on other local arts education training efforts.

“This federal funding will leverage the generous support of our local community and ensure that more young people derive the transformative benefits of creativity in their classrooms,” said Clarke. “The impact in our region—and in kids’ and artists’ lives—will be profound.”

Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington offers a wide range of artist residencies, workshops, and performances in a variety of art forms across multiple cultures to over 70,000 children each year. Founded in 1958 as an affiliate of the country’s largest arts-in-education organization, the organization has grown into the region’s primary provider of in-school arts programs.

Since the appointment of Executive Director Cary Clarke in 2013, Young Audiences has become an even stronger and more relevant organization by launching an array of new, responsive programs. These include community-focused programs like the TA Studio, which is designed and led by Tony Fuemmeler, Briana Linden, and Subashini Ganesan; as well as collaborations with schools such as the Business of Music program, which pairs professional composers with a high school choir to create and perform new compositions and teach about careers in music.

For more information on the Young Audiences Teaching Artist Studio, visit artsforlearningnw.org. For a listing of Teaching Artist Studio workshops that are available to the public, visit artsforlearningnw.org/for-artists/pdworkshops.

For more information on the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.