We partner with schools to provide Professional Development to teachers wanting to use the curriculum in their classrooms. These group sessions can range from 5-50 teachers and include an overview of Bearden’s life and art, a step by step guide through the curriculum components, and hand’s on art making.

Introduces administrators and educators to Romare Bearden’s biography, his work and the NEA curriculum material through Educator’s Workshops held in partnership with local Boards of Education and cultural organizations. Educator’s workshops introduce participants to the curriculum and are structured to be accessible and appropriate for public school educators, classroom teachers, art teachers, school administrators and school district art coordinators and to facilitate discussions about African American art and visual arts in general. The Foundation workshops are in collaboration with educators in departments of education, professional organizations, universities and museums in key locations around the country. Introduced by a prominent local educator addressing regional challenges facing the arts educational systems, National Educator’s Workshops highlight the impact and significance of the Romare Bearden curriculum project.

Workshops can be scheduled as either half or full day programs, and are comprised of structured activities including the comprehensive introduction to the curriculum by a Romare Bearden Foundation’s program staff member, the hands-on collage-making exploring Bearden’s process and break-out small group sessions to collaboratively outline a lesson plan. Original Bearden works can be viewed in a museum setting, alongside art from which Bearden drew inspiration and works by his contemporaries and artists whom he influenced.

The Bearden Foundation introduces local artists to the curriculum and trains them to collaboratively implement it in an in- school partnership with classroom teachers; Teaching artists, selected by the Foundation, are trained and then placed in K-12 public and private schools in New York City. Placing teaching artists in schools provides them with financial assistance, while providing students with an in-depth exploration of the curriculum. This also provides opportunities for the Foundation to regularly assess the curriculum through the artists implementing it in a classroom setting.

In School Partnership — Artist and Educator
The Foundation works closely with school administrators and educators to build cooperative relationships, determining which schools would most benefit from the program and which schools’ educational goals best correlate with the objectives of the teaching artists’ residencies. Together, teaching artists and classroom teachers devise a lesson plan that will meet the teacher’s semester goals as well as the Foundation’s goal to integrate Bearden content and visual instruction.

*The Foundation is presently not accepting new submissions for this program.

To host or sponsor a workshop in your school or school district or contract a teaching artist for your school please send an email to info@beardenfoundation.org.