TEACHING ARTISTS PROGRAM | TAP

FREE, QUALITY ARTS EDUCATION FOR RAPID CITY'S PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

CONTACT EDUCATION COORDINATOR, KATIE WOLFF FOR MORE INFO!
katie.wolff@thedahl.org | 605-394-4101 x3

BRING FREE ARTS EDUCATION TO YOUR SCHOOL!
TAP pairs local artists with teachers so that they may integrate visual arts lessons into their classroom curriculum.

BECOME A TEACHING ARTIST!

• Receive training and pay while boosting your career.
• Share your knowledge and skills in a meaningful way.
• Build relationships within the community. 
• Be inspired by working with youth and local educators​

HOW IT WORKS

• Schools interested in TAP contact TAP coordinator Katie Wolff (Rapid City Arts Council's Art Education Director) to discuss eligibility and teaching artist availability: phone: 605.394.4101 (Press 3); email: katie.wolff@thedahl.org
• Principal approves of program and schedule.
• Teaching Artists receive their residency site placements.
• Teachers meet one-on-one with the artist to discuss curriculum connections, student-learning goals, and process.
• Artists visit a classroom and teach a one-hour session, once a week, for six consecutive weeks. Each artist is trained prior to teaching.
• Watch your students benefit, learn, and grow!

MISSION
Teaching Artists Program (TAP) bridges a deficit in Rapid City public elementary schools by bringing free, standards-aligned art education to classrooms. TAP empowers local artists to bring art lessons to students and matches them with classroom teachers. TAP builds community advocacy for art education through communication with parents, students, teachers, and administrators, through accurately measuring and demonstrating its impact on student learning.

VISION
Teaching Artists Program strengthens Rapid City's public school students' capacity for imaginative learning, creativity and innovation by bringing standards-aligned art education to Rapid City area elementary schools. TAP's asset-based approach builds meaningful connections between Rapid City's students, artists and schools by training artists to collaborate with educators to create lesson plans that meaningfully integrate art into elementary classroom curriculua. TAP is a parntership between Rapid City Area Public Schools, the Rapid City Arts Council and The Scupture Project:Passage of Wind and Water that builds advocacy for art education and is inspired by The Sculpture Project's artist Masayuki Nagase's themes of transformation, shared values, and our common aspiration to live in balance.

TAP'S BENEFITS
​Art is a catalyst for learning, and integrating arts instruction into the school day heightens a student's engagement across subjects. 

• Art education isn't only creative, self-expressive, and fun, it teaches students to see clearly and think creatively. 
• It is a practical tool for our future engineers, designers, architects, and scientists.  
• Arts education cultivates a love for creative problem-solving, a vital skill for any occupation in our ever-changing world. 
• Art instruction provides classroom teachers with additional resources to strengthen student understanding on a variety of classroom topics. 
• The school, educators, and students strengthen ties to the Rapid City community as a whole.