KID smARTβs ARTS & EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Education
Through
Imagination
June 25th-June 28th, 2024 β’ Higgins Hotel β’ New Orleans
Join us for a 4-days of joyful learning through the arts at the KID smART Arts & Education Conference. Immerse yourself in an experience that transcends traditional education, fostering creativity, and igniting a passion for learning.
Your ticket grants you access to all four conference days, with breakfast and lunch provided each day.
Why attend?
Arts Integration Expertise
Uncover the secrets of successful arts-integrated learning. Gain insights, strategies, and innovations that transform education into an imaginative adventure.
National Gathering
Connect with a diverse group of artists and educators. Share ideas, collaborate, and be part of a nationwide movement shaping the future of arts education.
Specialized Learning Cohorts
Dive deep into focused learning cohorts curated by KID smART. Experience hands-on workshops, interactive sessions, and exclusive insights tailored to your interests.
Did you know you can utilize Title 2 or ESSER III funds to cover the costs for teachers and administrators from your schools to attend our conference?
Simply email KID smART's Administrative Coordinator, Chrissy Purcell chrissy@kidsmart.org, with the number of tickets or bundle you'd like to purchase. Chrissy will have our Finance Manager create an invoice so you can go through your PO process and pay with a check.
Choose from 4 different tracks
Each morning, youβll dive deep into your chosen track's sessions. In the afternoon, youβll have the opportunity to select any workshop of interest to you.
-
The term βmagical realismβ is most often associated with Gabriel GarcΓa MΓ‘rquezβs wondrous novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. MΓ‘rquez captured critical elements of Latin American cultureβand our humanity in generalβhighlighting ways that imagination can illuminate our daily lives. Activating the imagination, and actually cultivating these magical experiences, can be a way of teaching and learning. Join the two founders of Habla, a lab school in Mexico, for an experience that will explore how to integrate the arts, languages, and literacies to create culturally dynamic classrooms. These sessions, for all grade levels, will focus on how to build rich and powerful experiences around any text you are teaching to your students.
This session will be presented bilingually in Spanish and English.
This transformative experience is designed to empower educators with invaluable tools and strategies for integrating the arts into their classrooms, nurturing a deep appreciation for diverse cultural narratives, and inspiring students to dream of limitless possibilities.
-
Arts integration is a researchβbased approach to teaching that connects learning in arts and nonβarts curriculum areas. This workshop will demystify the practice of arts integration, demonstrate the outcomes of integration practice for students, and offer a portfolio of resources. Through interactive experiences, participants will explore best practices in the hows and whys of arts integration using work from KID smART and other model programs such as the Kennedy Center and Harvardβs Project Zero.
-
Experience the power of the arts to help students build emotional literacy skills, make connections and promote inclusion. Using KID smARTβs With Feeling curriculum (free, arts-integrated, online SEL lessons) as a jumping off point, teachers will access tools to support students in developing language and constructively expressing their emotions. After engaging in these social-emotional arts integrated lessons, participants will leave with strategies to facilitate a range of emotional literacy activities to better serve ALL students.
-
At the helm of every joyful learning community is a committed leader. But how often do these unsung heroes get to have some joyful time for themselves? This workshop will be a three-day Art Spa for school leaders. With a cohort of people who share similar day-to-day challenges, we will explore the pedagogy of Arts Integration, unpack innovative frameworks for teaching and learning, and have time to honor our own artistic practices, which often get pushed to the back burner.
Afternoon Workshops
-
Be Loud in the Classroom!
By: Be Loud Studios
Transform your classroom into a creative powerhouse with Be Loud Studios' workshop: Learn to write, record, and produce dynamic podcast projects, empowering students through the magic of storytelling.
-
The Emotion Compass Project
By: We Scribblin' and Whole Village Art Therapy
The Emotion Compass Project merges poetry, art, and the processing of feelings. Youβll into a journey of self-discovery where poetry and visual art converge to explore and name emotions, fostering emotional intelligence and empowering young minds to express themselves lyrically and visually.
-
Social Emotional Cultural Learning
By: Preservation Hall Foundation & Cultural Curriculum Project
Explore the transformative power of music, arts, and cultural understanding to foster community engagement, build relationships, and enhance classroom dynamics, all while tapping into the rich heritage of New Orleans and its culture bearers.
-
The Embellished Self
By: New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA)
Celebrate studentsβ unique voices through mixed media portraits! While taking inspiration from culturally diverse artists, and combining ink, collage and a bit of bling, these non-traditional portraits made with accessible materials can be used in the classroom at varied levels of complexity.
-
Playwriting: Centering Student Voice
By: Goat In The Road
Center student voices, literacy, and creativity through playwriting. Learn about the philosophy and activities of Goat in the Roadβs award winning Play/Write program, which brings student plays to life with professional performers.
-
Using grids with all ages to create collaborative art
By: NOLA Artist Incubator
Explore art as a collaborative experience while learning about the various uses of the grid method across different ages and ability levels. After individually drawing and learning about the grid method in drawing, educators will then work collaboratively to create a work of art.
-
Connecting Writing and Visual Arts through Pairing Strategies: How Educators at all Levels can Integrate Visual Arts into Poetic Forms, Narratives, and Argument Writing
By: Louisiana State University Writing Project
In this hands-on, interactive workshop, educators will learn adaptable writing strategies that push back against formulaic writing instruction and instead encourage authentic writing that centers student voice. Through integrating visual arts into the writing process, transform a singular writing piece into three forms- poetic, narrative and argumentative- while fostering genuine writing and expression.
-
With Feeling & Music
By: Lyrica Baroque
Help your students identify and understand their emotions through live chamber music.
-
Think Less/Do More
By: Le Petit Theatre
This workshop offers educators a unique approach to integrating creativity into the classroom. Through theater-based exercises, participants will explore the connection between body, mind, and artistic impulses, gaining valuable tools to enhance creativity and engagement across subjects. -
Discovery through Deletion: Sparking Creative Inquiry through Erasure Poetry
By: Tiana Nobile
Discover actionable strategies in this workshop for helping students navigate challenging texts. Participants will explore erasure poetry, a dynamic approach where students select words from existing texts to construct their own poems. This method fosters a deeper understanding and engagement with the original material, providing educators with a valuable tool for enhancing students' comprehension and expression across subjects.
-
Materials from the Equipment Lending Co-op for Arts Integration
By: STEM LIBRARY LAB
Join us for a hands-on workshop focused on integrating art into STEM lessons using materials from our Equipment Lending Co-op. During this three-hour session, educators will collaborate on engaging activities, such as creating art with science materials. Explore our collection, including a Skull and Bone Collection for still life drawing, Digital microscopes for macro drawing and abstraction, Papermaking kit with seeds, Paper chromatography for color demonstrations, and more!
Track Presenters
-
Kurt Wootton
Track 1: Arts Literacy
Kurt Wootton (he/him) is the co-founder of the ArtsLiteracy Project. As the ArtsLiteracyβs Project co-director, his work in urban schools with diverse populations led him to work in different countries in Latin America, particularly Brazil and Mexico. He is also the co-director of Habla, ArtsLiteracyβs lab school in Merida, Mexico. With a specialty in creative literacy pedagogies, teacher professional development, and organizational change, Wootton works with teachers and administrators helping to design schools and organizations that are creative, meaningful, and welcoming places.
-
Marimar PatrΓ³n VΓ‘zquez
Track 1: Arts Literacy
Marimar PatrΓ³n VΓ‘zquez, co-founder of the lab school Habla, was born in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico where her family has lived for generations. Her work is focused on how stories, reading and literature are part of the daily life of communities. At Brown University she received the prestigious Presidential Teaching Award for her Spanish language courses for university students. Her unique approach to teaching involves storytelling, the literature, and culture of the language, from kids to adults.
-
Zeb Hollins III
Track 2: Arts Integration 101
Zeb Hollins III (he/him) has worked as an Arts Educator for over thirty years. He studied Speech/Theatre at Southern University, Educational Theatre with New York Universityβs Creative Arts Team and worked as a Master Actor/Teacher for six years.
-
Paul Fletcher Malbrough Jr
Track 2: Arts Integration 101
Paul Fletcher Malbrough Jr. (he/him) is a native New Orleanian digital illustrator, consent educator, and arts educator. He attended the University of New Orleans, graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts Digital Media in 2011. Paul was chosen as one of the top 20 young artists in New York in the 2011 Curate NYC Juried Exhibition, and also has illustrated textbooks such as βChildren with Audiological Needsβ by Kate Reynalds, Ph.D. Paul recently finished the KID smART Homegrown Fellowship, AXIS training, and was the summer camp artist for ReNEW Schools Camp at Schaumburg Elementary K-2.
-
Mia Rotondo
Track 3: Social Emotional Learning and the Arts
Mia Rotondo (she/her) is an activist educator with 20 years of experience in the classroom serving students whose needs are often not met in the general education setting. Mia works closely with fellow radical educators, students, and community members to build and facilitate flexible, child-led learning spaces.
-
Samantha King
Track 4: L.E.A.D. (Leaders Experiencing Artistic Discoveries)
Samantha King (she/her) has been teaching theatre in New Orleans Public Schools since 2000. Trained in Arts Integration at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, she worked for 14 years with elementary and middle school students at Lusher Charter School, and high school students at Edna Karr.
Speakers and Afternoon Presenters
-
Krystal Hardy Allen
Keynote Speaker
A native of historic Selma, Alabama, Krystal Allen (she/her) is the Founder & CEO of K. Allen Consultingβ’, an award-winning former teacher and principal, respected organizational leadership and DEI thought leader, and best-selling author of "What Goes Unspoken: How School Leaders Address DEI Beyond Race". Krystal began her career teaching elementary school, then moving into instructional leadership as an administrator, and in 2017, became a social entrepreneur founding what has become a highly sought after global education & management consulting firm serving over 8 countries; major corporate brands, such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft; school systems, nonprofits, and government agencies.
-
Jeanette McCune of The Kennedy Center
Advocacy Day
Jeanette serves as the strategic and vision leader for Kennedy Centerβs local and national partnerships with PK-Grade 12 schools and community based organizations, including DC School and Community Initiatives, Changing Education Through the Arts, Turnaround Arts, Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child and Partners in Education.
-
Dr. Kyley Pulphus-Smith
The Emotion Compass Project
Dr. Kyley Pulphus-Smith is a mama, educator, and writer from New Orleans. Her nine-year-old describes her best as βa reading and writing doctorβ because she looks for ways to help young people become and stay healthy readers and writers. She has written with thousands of children, and her expertise has been sought to support dynamic projects across the country. Recently, her research was recognized and awarded by the International Literacy Association. Outside of work, Kyley enjoys spending time with her hubby and kiddo, and eating delicious, small-batch ice cream. -
JoDee Scissors
Social & Emotional Learning in and through Culture
JoDee Scissors is an education media producer, arts-integration specialist, and digital resources creator for Preservation Hall Foundation. She spent 13 years in the classroom before launching into digital learning, ensuring rich education and media content is accessible to teachers, students, and families.
-
Tiana Nobile
Discovery through Deletion: Sparking Creative Inquiry through Erasure Poetry
Tiana Nobile (she/her) λ¬Έμμ is a Korean American adoptee, educator, and author of the full-length poetry collection, Cleave (Hub City Press, 2021) and chapbook, The Spirit of the Staircase (Antenna, 2017), a collaboration with artist Brigid Conroy. Her writing has appeared in Poetry Northwest, The New Republic, Lit Hub, and Southern Cultures, among others. She is a Kundiman fellow, recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writerβs Award, two-time finalist of the National Poetry Series, and a member of The Starlings Collective.
Tiana earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, MAT in Elementary and Special Education from the University of New Orleans, and MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She lives with her family in New Orleans, Louisiana.
-
Shannon Flaherty
Playwriting: Centering Student Voice
Shannon Flaherty (she/her) is a performer, arts administrator, and educator originally from New Hampshire. She is co-Artistic Director of Goat in the Road (GRP), and is the project director, as well as a teaching artist, for GRP's young playwrights' program, Play/Write. Shannon has performed in and helped create many GRP productions including The Stranger Disease, Foreign to Myself, Numb, and Major Swelling's Salvation Salve Medicine Show. Shannon has also appeared on stage with Skin Horse Theater, Cripple Creek Theatre Co., and Dillard University. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006 and has been living in New Orleans since 2008.
-
A.J. Allegra
Think Less/Do More
A.J. Allegra (he/him) is the Artistic Director of Le Petit Theatre in New Orleans' historic French Quarter. Originally from Chicago, A.J. is a founding member of The NOLA Project theatre company where, prior to Le Petit, he served as Artistic Director for sixteen years. He has worked as a director and actor for several New Orleans area theatre orgs including The NOLA Project, The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, Southern Rep, Le Chat Noir, JPAS, and Rivertown Theatres and has been nominated for more than twenty Big Easy Awards, winning two. Under his leadership, The NOLA Project was awarded the American Theatre Wing's National Theatre Company award in 2015 and again in 2017 thanks in large part to the uniue partnership forged between The NOLA Project and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Allegra has 16 years of theatre teaching experience at The Willow School and NOCCA. He holds a BFA (Theatre) from NYU and MS (Nonprofit Leadership) from the University of Pennsylvania.
-
Alex Owens
Be Loud in the Classroom!
Alex is a dedicated educator with over 10 years of classroom experience. Throughout this time, Alex has stewarded creative schools and learning environments that encourage hands-on learning, student autonomy, and collaborative problem solving. In New Orleans, he founded and manages Be Loud Studios, a non-profit radio station dedicated to amplifying child confidence through radio and digital media production.
-
Dr. Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell
Connecting Writing and Visual Arts through Pairing Strategies: How Educators at all Levels can Integrate Visual Arts into Poetic Forms, Narratives, and Argument Writing
Margaret-Mary Sulentic Dowell, PhD, (she/her) is a Cecil "Pete" Taylor Endowed Professor of Literacy Leadership and Urban Education β School of Education β Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. She is Director of the LSU Writing Project, and Coordinator of the PhD Program in Educational Leadership. Her research agenda focuses broadly on issues in urban settings including access to writing and the arts (arts integration), literacy leadership, and pedagogical practices that empower students as learners. She is a current NBCT. -
Lissie Stewart
Using grids with all ages to create collaborative art
Lissie Stewart (she/her) is the Founder & Executive Director of the NOLA Artist Incubator, a nonprofit focused on arts, education and sustainability. Lissie is a Teach NOLA Master Teacher with ten years classroom teaching experience at the high school level, a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership, and is a certified Louisiana Master Gardener and Permaculture Designer. She serves on the Community Committee for Sprout, and as the Vice President of the NOLA Nature School Board. Currently she facilitates Budding Artists, an early education arts and literacy program she created for 2-5 year olds and their caregivers. Additionally, Lissie advocates for arts, education, and the environment through offering programming at the Galvez Garden, a USDA Peopleβs Garden located in St. Roch.
-
Brenna Gourgeot
Materials from the Equipment Lending Co-op for Arts Integration
Brenna (she/her) was born and raised in New Orleans, but if you really press the issue, sheβll tell you her early years were spent in St. Bernard Parish. She graduated in 2013 from the New Orleans Center for Creative Art and was New Orleans Charter Science and Math High Schoolβs 2013 Valedictorian. Unsure of what she wanted to study in college, she studied everything and graduated in 2018 from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, two minors in Religion and Biology, and fluency in four languages. Libraries have been Brennaβs passion since she was a child. Not only does she believe in the human right to free and accessible information, but the order and tranquility of libraries have always provided her a personal safe space. She is thrilled to work at STEM Library Lab where she creates a welcoming and exciting place of discovery for tireless educators in the Greater New Orleans area.
-
Eleanor Humphrey
Eleanor Humphrey is an actor, creative arts educator, and all-around lover of crafts. She recently made her New Orleans stage debut in No Dream Deferred NOLAβs The Defiance of Dandelions. As an educator, she has taught music theory, theater, vocal technique, choral direction, visual arts, and culinary arts to students of all ages since 2015. In addition to her work with GRP, Eleanor is also a teaching artist for Community Works of Louisiana and a standardized patient for medical schools across the country. She loves to bring her creativity, joyful sense of play, and performance experience into every teaching space. In her free time, you can usually find her reading, crocheting, cooking, or making candles. Eleanor earned her bachelorβs degree from Saint Louis University in 2014 and now lives in New Orleans.
-
Jeff Carver
Be Loud In The Classroom!
Jeff Carver (he/him) is the Teacher Fellowship Coordinator for Be Loud, and the Director of Learning at New Harmony High School. He has been teaching and working in education in New Orleans for the last nine years. Prior to teaching, he spent the good part of a decade working in music and advertising.
-
Szabolcs Varga
Szabolcs (he/him) was born in Budapest, Hungary and immigrated to the United States in 1989. He attended Sophie B. Wright Middle School and graduated from McMain High School in New Orleans. Having attended schools in three countries and two states β the lack of funding, equipment and opportunities made an indelible impact on his lifeβs work. Szabi received his undergraduate degree in Fine Art from LSU and a Masters in History from Southeastern Louisiana University while working as a graduate assistant. He was a mentor teacher who taught 3rd-8th grade Science, Math, ELA and Social Studies for nine years in Orleans, Jefferson, and Tangipahoa parishes. Szabi was also a Louisiana Teacher Leader presenting at the Teacher Leader conference, a LEAP Test review committee member, and a STEM summer camp coordinator. Now, Szabi is the Lending Co-op Program Manager at STEM Library Lab.
-
Ann Schwab
The Embellished Self!
Ann Schwab (she/her) is on the Visual Arts faculty at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts- of which she is an Alum. Ann is a current member and past Mentor in the Art21 Educator Network- a cohort of educators passionate about teaching through Contemporary Art. Ann Schwab has been honored in Whoβs Who Among American Teachers, has received Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for Teaching, and recognition by the National Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in the Arts. Ann received her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MFA and Teaching Certification from Tulane University, and has studied at SACI in Florence, Italy. Schwab has been awarded fellowships by the Maryland State Arts Council, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the Surdna Foundation, and professional development grants from the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation, the Creative Capital Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Anderson Ranch, and the Surdna Foundation. Ann Schwabβs artworks are held in corporate, private, and the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans collections. Exploring human relationships with both the natural world and the technological world that we have constructed, Ann Schwabβs artwork utilizes photography, mixed media, installation, audio, and video to illuminate the conflation of these two worlds. Her professional website is: http://www.annschwab.com -
Holly Wherry
Holly Wherry, ATR-BC, LPC-S is the Executive Director and founder of Whole Village Art Therapy. She is a board-certified art therapist, licensed professional counselor, and board-approved supervisor with nearly two decades of experience in providing art therapy to the New Orleans community, with a specialization in trauma. In 2006, Holly created the nonprofit Whole Village Art Therapy as a way to provide high quality, community based art therapy services to improve access and reduce systemic barriers to mental health services in New Orleans. Holly has been a fierce advocate for the needs of children whether she is providing mental health support after natural disasters and school tragedies, working as an art therapist for a year in India, or even riding her bike across the country with a trailer full of art supplies to make art with everyone she met. She also teaches an introduction to art therapy course at Xavier University. Her passion for creative problem solving includes making some of the best Mardi Gras costumes you have ever seen.
What to expect
Breakout Sessions
Immerse yourself in dynamic breakout sessions led by both local and national arts partners. Discover actionable takeaways, fresh perspectives, and innovative approaches to arts education.
Panel Discussions
Engage with thought leaders in arts education. Explore diverse topics that spark inspiration, provoke thought, and challenge conventional wisdom.
Culmination Day
Join forces with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a final day focused on policy and advocacy for arts education. Be a catalyst for change and champion the cause of arts-rich education.