Mark Almy, McCallum Theatre Institute teaching artist, departs soon for Hong Kong to help facilitate a week-long consultancy in aesthetic education. Almy will serve as the teaching artist in music in the advanced level workshop, part of New Vision for Arts in Education.
This annual aesthetic education professional training series will be presented by the Hong Kong Institute of Aesthetic Education (HKIAE) August 12-16 at the Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity in Hong Kong and is designed for teachers and educational administrators from that country.
Almy was invited to participate as a member of the consultancy team assembled by Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education (LCI) in New York City. He will be joined by Jean Taylor, LCI teaching artist in theater, and Heidi Miller, LCI program manager for teaching artists and strategic alliances as well as teaching artists from HKIAE. Almy has worked previously with both LCI consultancy team members. In fact, Taylor came to Palm Desert to assist with the creation of McCallum Theatre Institute in 1997.
Earlier this decade, Almy was one of eight teaching artists who made up a national facilitator team for the Teaching Artist Mentoring Project (TAMP), an initiative of LCI and the Association of Institutes of Aesthetic Education. TAMP was a two-year project designed to help teaching artists and institutes engaged in aesthetic education to develop their practice and to learn best practices in aesthetic education as practiced across the U.S. Almy, Taylor and Miller worked together on this initiative as well.
Almy expects to return from the consultancy with a better understanding of aesthetic education and its practice, a renewed sense of community among practitioners of aesthetic education and a new sense of enthusiasm gained by working with his LCI partners. He also hopes to discover new insights about the practice of aesthetic education that he can bring back to his work with his fellow McCallum Theatre Institute teaching artists.
Almy has been a teaching artist at McCallum Theatre Institute since the inception of its Aesthetic Education Program in 1998. He creates and facilitates workshops in schools throughout the Coachella Valley and helps guide other McCallum teaching artists in their professional development. He teaches at the College of the Desert and serves as co-director of its opera program, directing two productions annually. Almy has taught applied voice at University of Redlands, Riverside Community College and California State University, San Bernardino. An active performer, he has appeared in more than 100 roles in opera and musical theater locally and nationwide.
The Hong Kong Institute of Aesthetic Education is the host for New Vision for Arts in Education. HKIAE is modeled on the practice of aesthetic education as pioneered by LCI. It is the only institute practicing aesthetic education in Southeast Asia. Since its inception in 2001, HKIAE has worked closely with more than 10,000 students representing more than 150 educational institutions. It also has developed arts programs for corporate and community organizations, involving more than 9,000 adults and adolescents. -- www.mccallumtheatre.com
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
