Oregon Arts Education Collective

Oregon Arts Education Collective connects and nourishes arts education practitioners and advocates, using our collective power to cultivate thriving arts ecosystems across the state of Oregon.

About Oregon Arts Education Collective

We are collective of arts education practitioners and advocates from across the State of Oregon who meet monthly. Our collective includes teaching artists, arts educators, arts administrators, funders, community advocates, and more. This group strives to approach collective statewide work in ways that challenges oppressive and exclusionary approaches to this work, centering the voices of working teaching artists, rural communities, BIPOC voices, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.

We are currently welcoming folks from across the state to join the collective. Learn more and consider applying today! Application review will begin May 4th.

The recording of our April 7th information session is here.

Approach to Work

  • We will hold a vision and plan for arts education in Oregon that will become the foundation of our work together. We will name the focus areas, needs, and opportunities and then work together to prioritize our actions as a collective, evolving our approach as needs shift across our state. 

    • Our vision and plan will include, though not be limited to, the specific actions taken thus far to 1) identify and support the unique needs of teaching artists 2) understand what’s needed to cultivate quality arts education programs in rural places and 3) build connections between organizations and grantmakers to increase understanding. 

  • Our work together will be iterative and generative. While we will have a foundational vision and plan, we will create space for our needs and ideas to change shape as our context changes. 

  • We use art and creativity as tools for connection and advocacy. Creativity is not just something we talk about, it’s something we regularly engage with as a collective. We design our meetings to include creative entry points to conversations or to process and digest information. 

  • We hold space for peer support and collective wisdom. We know that there is a lot of knowledge and expertise in the room and we make space to learn from and with each other. 

  • We will work to have a membership that holds a wide range of lived experience including geographic diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, and diversity of roles. We will work to create a space that acknowledges power and privilege where it shows up and elevates voices that more often experience marginalization. 

  • We will spend time in full group meetings and have smaller groups working on specific projects. We value having full group conversations and time for connection and we also want to honor the energy of a small group with a particular focus. 

  • We will meet annually for replenishment and restoration as well as planning actions and activities together.

Co-Created Benefits of participation

This is intended to be a collective, cooperative model of working together. The participant/members shape the community and are shaped by it in return. We come together around shared care for arts education ecosystems and we opt into this community to nourish ourselves and the communities in which we work. 

Participants in Oregon Arts Education Collective will:

  • Provide and gain knowledge, skills, and insights in the fields of arts education, teaching artistry, nonprofit administration, and more. 

  • Connect with state systems and advocates across arts, education, and philanthropy sectors. 

  • Contribute to a collective voice addressing current (and future) context or themes in arts education. 

  • Use the languages of arts education to connect, to make, and to advocate because we value the field and its impact. 

  • Contribute to the deepening and legitimizing of the field of arts education across Oregon. 

  • Be valued as an equal participant, regardless of role or “power level” in the arts education field. 

  • Provide and gain connection to resources, creative opportunities, and shared projects. 

  • Shape and attend an annual gathering of the collective.

How this collective was started

Oregon Arts Education Collective has met since February 2021 with shared goals to:

  • strengthen and build connections among arts education advocates across the state;

  • provide personal/professional nourishment & support the well-being of those in the arts; 

  • use arts and creativity as opportunities for connection & learning;

  • invite participants to engage in deeper learning & skill development to support healing, empowerment, cultural expression and creative inspiration within schools and communities.

Our Story

Coming out of the first years of the pandemic many in the arts education sector felt isolated and eager to connect to others, especially others who know deeply the power of arts and creativity as a tool for healing, empowerment, cultural expression and inspiration. 

Over the first two years of meeting together monthly, the learning community saw the value of coming together in a way that was relational, adaptive, spacious, and creative. Relationships were built across geography and role. Teaching artists and non-profit administrators could hear and learn from each other’s realities. State system administrators had opportunities to hear from the field on a regular basis. 

There were also specific pieces of work that came to the surface as priorities for the group and workgroups formed to take action on those: Creating a report on the current state of teaching artists in Oregon, writing a letter to funders to share what works and doesn’t for non-profits, understanding the needs of teaching artists when it comes to spending time in rural communities. These projects continue. 

The group is clear that there is value in a network of arts educators and arts education advocates that continues to meet regularly and there is a desire to have both a clearer focus and the ability to continually adapt to the changing needs of the field.

Structure

The Collective is organized and facilitated by paid consultants (Bring Consulting) and led by participants who are in paid planning and leadership roles.

Any arts education advocate (advocate is defined generally as anyone who believes in the power of arts education and wants more of it) who agrees to participant expectations and is willing to commit to a year of participation is welcome to join monthly meetings. Funded participant and leadership roles are limited and will be determined through an application process prior to the start of the year. 

Annual Membership runs from June through May.

Monthly Collective Meetings: 

Collective members will meet monthly on Zoom to connect and nourish and take action together. Working groups may develop focused on particular topics or actions. 

Quarterly Learning Sessions: 

Collective members and additional learning participants will meet quarterly in a session designed as shared learning on a particular topic. Topics will be sent in advance. 

Yearly In-Person Gathering: 

Collective members will gather in person yearly to connect, create and learn together. One day of the gathering may become an arts education conference with guests invited to join.

Upcoming Meetings

  • Collective Meeting

    Tuesday, June 24th 3:00-4:45pm

    We’ll kick off the Oregon Arts Education Collective!

  • Collective Meeting

    Tuesday, July 15th, 3:30-5:15

  • Learning Session

    Wednesday, August 20th, 4:00-5:30

    Sustainability in practice

join the collective

join the collective

This link will take you to the monthly collective member application AND the quarterly learning session sign up.

Application review will begin May 4th

Watch the recording of the information session to find out more about the Collective and the application process .

  • I’m thinking about my identity as an artist and educator, and this experience is helping me envision a world where we can sustain these relationships and opportunities.

    - Collective Participant

  • In arts orgs, we have so little time and space for creative thinking... [In this collective], I was allowed unstructured time. That’s when creative moments flow. We don’t have that in arts ed.

    - Collective Participant

  • Our state is huge and diverse. This is the first statewide [collective] where we have prioritized a balance between rural and urban. I’ve heard Portland folks say "I want this to work for eastern and southern Oregon."

    - Collective Participant

  • I really appreciated that there was conflict, and it felt productive. There were differences in perspectives, especially between rural and urban. People would name it in a way that was assertive, clear, and kind... we were educating each other.

    - Collective Participant

  • I was fascinated to see how it fomented, and how slowly. There was a pace that was not frenetic, that was process over product. We started with understanding and trust before focusing on product. That is the artistic process.

    - Collective Participant

  • There are great models of statewide advocacy work, but I don't think there are great models of this type of holistic approach to statewide work.

    - Collective Participant

Looking for more information?

We’d love to talk to you! Use the email below to connect with one of our collective members.

OregonArtsEd@gmail.com