From April 8 – 29, 2021, the Roundtable will host our annual flagship arts in education conference over Zoom. This specially-curated series of 90-minute sessions and events for arts administrators, teaching artists, educators, and artists will address the unprecedented change and upheaval faced by individuals, organizations, schools, and communities in the last year, while also exploring pathways to adapt, move forward, and thrive.
Face to Face 2021 recordings of past sessions can be accessed on this online gallery typically within 48 hours. Please note, some videos will expire by June 30, 2021. To learn more about Face to Face 2021 please click the button below.
Face to Face 2021: Resilience and Reinvention was sponsored in part by the generosity of Disney, National Dance Institute, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Conference Closing: Call and Response: Innovative Thinkers Propose Radical Solutions | April 29, 2021
During this TEDx-style presentation, three speakers share their insights on how individual, organizational, and community resilience impacts the field of arts education. Each presenter offers a radical theory of change inspired by the four pillars of the Roundtable’s Strategic Plan: Professional Development; Equity, Access, and Inclusion; Advocacy for Arts Education; and Sustainability for Arts Education. Following the presentation, attendees go into small groups to create actionable goals for their individual practice and the field at large. The event’s objective is for participants to walk away with an individual theory of change and for the Roundtable to better understand how it can support our members and the field at large. Speakers: Monae Freeman (Education Coordinator at Brooklyn Arts Council and Community Organizer at Pennie’s Pantry); Sara Morgulis (Director of Education at New York City Children’s Theater and Director of Programs at Actionplay); Ayesha Williams (Deputy Director, The Laundromat Project); Rebecca and Rachel Crouch (Artists). Access session materials here.
Keynote & Conference Opening: Seeding Resilience in Arts Education | April 8, 2021
The Face to Face 2021 Conference opening featured spoken word performances by Urban Word NYC’s Sergio Jimenez and Nathaniel Swanson and a dynamic keynote conversation with Kimberly Drew and Suhaly Bautista-Carolina about the importance of challenging and moving beyond trauma-informed frameworks.
Hip Hop Connects: What’s Real, What’s Relevant! | April 12
This workshop offers creative hip hop-based tools and activities that can be added to a culturally relevant teaching approach in connecting professionals to their students. Utilizing these tactics helps establish a social learning environment for students to learn from one another through their own intimate cultural experiences. This inclusion-focused workshop helps reframe traditional teaching methods by using hip hop fundamentals to relate to students and deliver effective instructions that are fun and intriguing to a young mind. Presented by Sheikia “Purple” Norris and Malik Whitaker.
Community Grief Ritual with Bernadette Pleasant | April 12
In our modern world, grief, death and loss are considered taboo topics; they are not to be discussed or expressed. Not only that, but if acknowledged, grief is considered a private matter, only to be experienced alone. But when we don’t grieve, we end up living numbed-out, half-lived versions of our lives. And when we only grieve alone, we miss out on the support and healing available to us when we grieve in community. Come dressed to move in this workshop centered on healing and release. Presented by Bernadette Pleasant.
Centering Disability Identity for Students of the Arts with Disabilities | April 15, 2021
All young people should have access to arts training and feel empowered by the work they create. Roundabout Theatre Company Director of Audience Services Sarah Hom will moderate this discussion between two industry leaders who share practical skills that can be integrated into your curriculum. Access Acting Academy Executive Director Marilee Talkington will share lessons from the creation of online acting classes for students who are blind/have low vision, while artist/educator Nancy Rourke will share about her experiences as a Deaf person and artist, explore advocacy around disability rights for people who are Deaf, and touch on the De’VIA (Deaf View / Image Art) curriculum, a genre of visual art that intentionally represents the Deaf experience and Deaf culture. Presented by Sarah J. Hom, Director of Audience Services, Roundabout Theatre Company; Nancy Rourke, Artist; and Marilee Talkington, Executive Director, Access Acting Academy. Access session materials here.
Digital Branding and Career Sustainability | April 15, 2021
**This recording is no longer available for viewing**
This workshop is designed to teach best practices and innovative approaches for individual artists to enhance their personal brand, grow their audiences with values-driven content, and leverage revenue streams in a 21st-century landscape. Takeaways include the essential elements of an artist statement, composing a visual identity for owned media, serving your community, diving into the nuts of bolts of a social media strategy, and exploring other digital strategies. Presented by Ceylon Mitchell II, Founder, M3 Mitchell Media and Marketing LLC. Access session materials here.
Art, Abolition and Radical Imagination as Sights/Sites of Educational Transformation | April 19, 2021
This session explores best practices in arts-based abolitionist teaching practices through an intimate discussion with Dr. Joni Acuff and Ashley Lipscomb. The discussion covers topics such as the need to dismantle white supremacy culture in our schools and reimagining classrooms as a place that honors the ancestral genius of BIPOC students. The discussion also looks at practical steps teachers and teaching artists can take to advocate in their schools. Speakers: Dr. Joni Boyd Acuff, Associate Professor of Arts Administration, Education and Policy at The Ohio State University; Ashley Lipscomb, CEO of The Institute for Anti-Racist Education, Inc. Access session materials here.
Sharing Power: Looking at Leadership Structures | April 19, 2021
This panel explores topics related to organizational structures, decision-making models, and pay equity while interrogating systems of power that stem from whyte supremacy culture. This panel also investigates the question, “when is it the right time for a leader to step back or step aside to allow for new ways of thinking at an organization?” The panelists discuss a path forward that honors all of the expertise of those working within an institution. Speakers: Tim Cynova, Co-CEO of Fractured Atlas; Toya Lillard, Executive Director of viBe Theater Experience; Brooke Whitaker-Royster, Independent Consultant. Access session materials here.
Talking to Funders About DEI Work | April 22, 2021
**This recording is no longer available for viewing**
This panel discussion explores issues of systemic racism and structural oppression as it relates to the philanthropic ecosystem. Here we explore the question: how can organizations led by and primarily serving different BIPOC community members expect to be liberated by the same whyte dollars that got them into this situation? It also explores some practical steps participants can take to build their philanthropic tribe in an increasingly digital landscape. Speakers: Durell Cooper, Founder & CEO of Cultural Innovation Group; Nadia Elokdah, Vice President and Director of Programs at Grantmakers in the Arts; Sharnita C. Johnson, Program Director at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; Donita Volkwijn, Manager of Knowledge Management at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Access session materials here.
The Arts and Ancestry | April 26, 2021
**This recording is no longer available for viewing**
The arts provide a powerful lens to understand the history and legacy of our foreparents while elucidating our own sense of self. The Museum of Chinese in America’s Education Director Lauren Nechamkin and Education Manager Nora Chen, and Redhawk Native American Arts Council’s Cultural Director Clifton Matias use music, performance, and storytelling to explore personal, familial, and grander historical narratives in this session. Speakers: Nora Chen, Education Manager at the Museum of Chinese in America; Lauren Nechamkin, Education Director at the Museum of Chinese in America; Clifton Matias, Cultural Director at Redhawk Native American Arts Council. Access session materials here.
The Art of Critical Love: Fostering Love and Healing in Our Learning Spaces | April 29, 2021
In bell hooks’s Teaching Community, she states, “To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.” In this interactive art-making workshop, facilitators share strategies on how to cultivate learning environments that build community through trust, care, and critical love. Workshop participants explore the definition of critical love and create a plan on how to incorporate core principals into their classrooms. Speakers: Robyne Walker-Murphy, Executive Director at Groundswell; Jeannette Rodríguez Píneda, Teaching Artist at Groundswell. Access session materials here.