OAC defines a professional artist/arts professional as someone who has developed skills through training or practice, is recognized by artists working in the same artistic tradition, has a history of public presentation or publication, seeks payment for their work and actively practises their art.
How Do I Find Artists?
Connect with the local arts community: Consider approaching your local arts council, cultural centres, regional art gallery, museum or studio (dance, visual art, music).
Check in with your principals and teachers: They may know artists in the region or artists may have approached schools directly.
Check in with your Parents’ Council and/or all parents: Some may be artists or know practicing artists in the region.
Research previous projects: Consult the list of artists and organizations who have been
recently funded in the
Artists in Communities and Schools Projects program to see if there are any in your area.
Assessing and Selecting Artists
In planning your project consider the following:
- documents to ask for, such as resumes (including arts activity and teaching activity), a sample lesson plan, project outline, references/testimonials
- connect with other AIR(E) partners about their selection process and criteria
- who will interview and select the artists
- how you’ll assess artists skills and competencies for classroom
- call for artists
- Police Checks
- payment method (timesheets, etc)
- insurance (liability, WSIB, etc)
- WHMIS
In the event that interested artists have never done education work, establish what kind of training is needed for artists so that they are ready to deliver an AIR(E) program. Many arts organizations (whether they have a community-engaged arts, arts learning mandate or not) are often providing training for artists in community-engaged arts. Or perhaps your school board offers some kind of classroom-ready training that can be accessed by artists? You may also contact OAC staff members about opportunities to develop a community training session for artists.
Connecting with Indigenous Artists
With school boards aligning their projects and the Ministry of Education’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit Framework coupling with the desire to address Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, many school boards are working with Indigenous artists.
In doing so, they have developed authentic partnerships to guide this work to include artists and Elders in their projects respectfully. Some ways they have done this work is by having an Indigenous Advisory Council in place at the school board level, including the board’s Indigenous Learning Coordinator in project design, connecting to local Indigenous leaders and arts and culture groups, and convening Indigenous artists to discuss the challenges and the supports needed to work in an educational setting before embarking on a project.
Cultural Literacy
A working definition of cultural literacy, within an arts context, is the ability to reflect on the histories, protocols, worldviews and cultural practices that are embedded within an art form and its teaching. This also includes an understanding how one is personally situated in the cultural context of an art form and the teaching of that art form.
All OAC community-engaged programs encourage artists to teach from their strengths and expertise. These programs value when artists bring their own lived experiences to the classroom and carry cultural literacy of their art form.
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the intentional or unintentional use of a people’s culture or cultural expressions, traditional knowledge, intellectual property or artifacts without the training, lived experience or permission for use.
When a community faces historical or institutional barriers, it is more likely to experience cultural appropriation of its artistic and cultural practices. It is particularly important to ask who has the right, permission and experience to teach cultural knowledge and cultural expressions when projects focus on Indigenous cultural content.
OAC has adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular Articles 11, 13 and 31 to guide our decision-making. We’ve also created a video to support learning on Indigenous Arts Protocols. Other school boards have shared their resources, listed below, on how to incorporate Indigenous perspectives in projects respectfully.
| Resource |
Description |
| Letter of Interest from School to Artist |
Sample letter from a teacher, principal, or administrator, approaching an artist to work with them on a project. |
| Artist Contract, Durham District School Board, 2017 |
Example of a contract to be signed by artist, teacher and AIR(E) project administrator. |
| Indigenous Arts Protocols |
An OAC-produced video on understanding of the responsibility that comes with cultural practices, and ways to honour the guiding principles of protocols. |
| United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples |
Guiding principles, with emphasis on Articles 11, 13, and 31, used by OAC in decision-making on projects engaging Indigenous artists, communities and/or cultural knowledge. |
Getting to Know Turtle Island: Incorporating First Nation, Métis and Inuit Perspectives K-8
Limestone District School Board 2013 |
Disponible en anglais seulement. |
Best Practices in Including Aboriginal Peoples in the Curriculum
Toronto District School Board 2012 |
A resource on how to include Indigenous peoples, perspectives and content respectfully in the classroom. |