Sometimes I think we don’t do a very good job of tooting our own horn. We get bogged down in the day-to day, and while we get excited in the moment about new projects, we don’t always pass on the story of what we are doing to you all. This is an end-of-year review of some of the notable things Teaching Artists Guild has been up to over the last 12 months!
Starting off 2015 with a bang, TAG premiered its Membership Services program, offering teaching artists not just the tools, resources, and network for their professional careers, but the life services they might not otherwise be able to get, including health, financial, and legal services. We also formed an 18 person National Advisory Committee to help guide our work and share it across the US and Canada. The bi-monthly meetings of this prestigious group of teaching artists, artist-researchers, and administrators are helping build a broad coalition of individuals and organizations in the realm of arts in community and arts education, focused on the artists who teach.
After bringing in a new Membership Director and the establishment of our strong National Advisory Committee, we saw tremendous growth, including 320% website traffic growth, and an audience in the thousands on our Youtube channel and Twitter account.  And yours truly came out of the Gen X bubble to learn to effectively live tweet! That was fun.
What did Teaching Artists Guild get up to this year?

• We premiered a digital magazine in June 2015, the TAG Quarterly, with readership at roughly 3500.
• We partnered on a Google Impact Challenge Grant with The Flight Deck (a new co-working/arts and performance space in downtown Oakland, CA), on an initiative creating sustainable jobs for local artists and teaching artists.
• We brought on a social media intern, and a membership coordinator.
• We conducted a search and hired a consultant for research and development of the  Teaching Artists Asset Mapping Project, an interactive digital resource about who is doing what, where, and it’s impact.
• We premiered a Professional Development and Training database for teaching artists.
• We partnered with the National Guild for Community Arts Education to help create the Teaching Artists Pre-Conference as part of their larger annual conference.
• We worked with Americans for the Arts on an advocacy resource for teaching artists.
• TAG and Teaching Artist Jean Taylor at Lincoln Center Education began a new project on the Philosophy of Teaching Artistry.
• We joined the CA work group for the National Arts Education Data Project along with the Haas Foundation, CA Arts Council, CCSESA and CREATE CA, and continued to serve on CA’s regional Teaching Artist Support Collaborative.
• We began a new strategic planning process with our National Advisory Committee.
• We travelled! Aside from many shorter California trips (we’re based in Oakland and Long Beach), we visited Kansas City, Chicago, and Philadelphia for presentations and conferences.

It’s been a big year! We are looking towards 2016 with excitement. Let us know what we can do for you, and keep in touch about the work you are doing!