Hourly Teaching Artist Job Description

Hourly Teaching Artist

About Performing Arts Workshop

Performing Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization established in 1965 with a mission to help young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and essential learning skills through the arts. The Workshop brings arts instruction to more than 5,000 students ages 3-18 each year through residencies in dance, music, spoken word, poetry, theater arts, visual arts, and media arts. 

We believe that access to sustained, sequential instruction in an art form should be part of every young person’s education and development. Because of ongoing disparities in such access, we advance equity by prioritizing partnerships which allow us to work with historically underrepresented groups including low-income communities, immigrant communities, and Black and Brown communities.

Performing Arts Workshop aspires to be a leading organization in arts education. We cannot achieve this without realizing our core values of both inclusion and excellence. This requires sustained focus on equity in all our efforts to recruit, hire, promote, and retain an exceptionally well-qualified staff. 

Hourly Teaching Artist Job Description

Position Overview:

Performing Arts Workshop seeks dance (Afro-Peruvian, Bomba, hip-hop, Hawaiian, Pan African, Bhangra, Mexican Folklorico, Son Jarocho, Tap, Contemporary, and others,) capoeira, spoken word, theater, hip-hop, visual and media arts teaching artists to teach semester-length and yearlong residencies at our partner sites in San Francisco, the East Bay, and Marin County. Our teaching artists are professional artists and experienced educators in their field. As representatives of the Workshop in the classroom and the communities they serve, teaching artists share a commitment to our mission and racial justice values. In addition to regular teaching duties, teaching artists receive extensive mentorship and support from our artistic and program management, including training in the Workshop’s teaching methodology, an 8-session internship, and monthly professional development.

Teaching artists can expect to teach 5-20 hours/week, depending on availability and experience, with starting compensation of $43 per hour for teaching, professional development, internship and all pre-approved administrative work.

Teaching artists are considered part-time employees—not independent contractors—and receive paid sick time, unemployment insurance, social security contributions, worker’s compensation, and other legally required withholdings.

Responsibilities:

• Create a culture of learning in the classroom that reflects the Workshop’s values and supports youth in their development as artists;
• Develop process-based, sequential curricula that reflect the Workshop’s pedagogy for each residency;
• For Visual Media Arts: Design a multi-lesson workshop using Performing Arts Workshop methodology grounded in Creative Youth Development. Workshops must weave first-person storytelling through art forms, including: creative writing, journaling, photography, animation, comic books, portraiture, etc;
• Mandatory and punctual attendance of monthly professional development meetings, in addition to one all-day PD;
• Connect students’ work to a broader audience through a culminating performance, publication, or open class demonstration for families and communities;
• Administer student and residency evaluations, collect student information and media release forms;
• Communication with site and Workshop staff in a timely and professional manner.

Required Qualifications:

• Commitment to youth development, building self-efficacy, racial justice, and cultural awareness;
• Knowledge of the main elements of composition in your art form and the ability to articulate and teach them to youth;
• Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal communication skills;
• Ability to work with diverse teaching and site partners in adapting to individual classroom needs and cultures;
• Passion and empathy when teaching high-need children and youth, such as English language-learners, students with special needs, incarcerated youth, or youth enrolled in court mandated schools;
• Ability to articulate and demonstrate critical thinking in the arts;
• Openness to receiving detailed feedback on teaching as it relates to the Workshop’s methodology;
• Availability to teach in at least two sites at a time (at least four residencies in either one full day, two mornings, two afternoons, or some combination thereof);
• Ability to provide own transportation or utilize public transportation to and from partner sites.

Exceptional Qualifications:

• Bilingual ability—Spanish and Mandarin;
• Experience working with special student populations, such as English language-learners and students with learning differences;
• BA and/or MA/MFA in art form or commensurate experience.

How to Apply:

Email resume, cover letter, sample lesson plan, and professional portfolio or work samples to, Performing Arts Workshop at info@performingartsworkshop.org. Only complete applications will be considered, please inquire if you have any questions about the requirements.

Performing Arts Workshop is an equal opportunity employer and seeks workforce diversity with respect to race, ethnicity, culture, gender, age, sexual orientation, and physical abilities.