Arts For Learning NW

Arts for Learning NW and Kinship Teaching Artists, with support from the Oregon Arts Education Collective, invite teaching artists and arts education community practitioners to gather around The Teaching Artist Table. Inspired by mycelium—the often unseen network that nourishes and connects an ecosystem—this gathering is an opportunity to connect, share, learn from one another, and strengthen networks of support across our teaching artist community. In the spirit of radical hospitality, Briana of Arts for Learning NW and Michelle of Kinship Teaching Artists will prepare a generous seasonal spread celebrating the bounty of Fall, with salads, tarts, soup, and more. Together, we’ll make space to recognize the often-unseen impact of our work, celebrate what makes us unique and what connects us, and imagine how stronger relationships can help our creative ecosystem thrive.

Come gather, eat, connect, and nourish the networks that sustain us.

This week, we asked “what if” — what if school felt like this every day? What if curiosity had no ceiling? What if making something together felt like joy? What if every kid got to feel this kind of joy, this often?

That's not a hypothetical. It's what happens when kids have real access to the arts — and it's what our teaching artists make possible, week after week, school after school.

Arts in Education Week may be wrapping up, but the case for arts education doesn't end with the week. Share your own moment of joy — a photo, a drawing, a memory — and tag so we can see it too.

Teaching Artists: Jen Hernandez () at Stephenson Elementary · Jess Graff () at Imlay Elementary · Kids Junk Orchestra () at Happy Valley Elementary · Ali-Olé at Bethany Elementary

There's a particular kind of focus that shows up when a kid is drawing something they're genuinely curious about — and you can see it all over this one.

This student was deep in a Right Brain Initiative residency at Imlay Elementary, using real (ethically sourced) natural history specimens to study and sketch the animals in front of him — part observation, part science, part art, all curiosity.

That's the throughline of this whole week: arts education isn't separate from how kids learn. It's how a lot of them learn best.

Teaching Artist & Photo: Jess Graff () at Imlay Elementary

This week we've shared plenty of our own words about why arts education matters. This time, we'll let a student say it herself.

“Dance lives in the moment. There's a uniqueness that's fleeting and special — this moment will never happen again.” — Eila, 8th grade

Another student, Nina, shared a different angle from the same conversation: “Dance has helped me with discipline and focus. I'm a big procrastinator, and the way dance requires you to 'do it now' has shown me how you build your abilities over time. Having to focus on what needs to happen right now — and then seeing that build into something — has helped my procrastination, because I can see how investing my time and energy builds toward the future.” — Nina, 8th grade

Two students, two entirely different truths about what dance teaches them — this is the throughline of Arts in Education Week: kids don't just make art. They think about it, deeply, and it changes how they move through everything else.

ALNW Executive Director Briana Linden attended the Arts Education Proclamation reading alongside board members Jill Giedt and Rashelle Chase-Miller. What made the morning memorable was not only the proclamation but what surrounded it: student work, alive and in the room. Denis, a fourth grader at Rigler, described the joy of color in his piece and the sense of mystery he had built into it on purpose.

For Linden and the two board members, the reading was a chance to see arts education doing exactly what ALNW believes it does. The creativity was boundless, but just as visible were the durable skills the arts build in students: the risk-taking it takes to share your work, the leadership of guiding an audience through it, the adaptability of responding in the moment. These aren't extras layered on top of learning. They are learning — the kind that follows a young person into every classroom, every job, every room they'll walk into.

Photos: Briana Linden

This is what "engaging in the arts" looks like on a Tuesday afternoon at Hayhurst Elementary — big smiles, bigger leaps, and a whole gym full of kids finding out what their bodies can do.

We're celebrating it in more ways than one today — join us this afternoon as the City of Portland reads an official Arts Education Proclamation.

Teaching Artist: Nicole McCall at Hayhurst Elementary

Tomorrow, the City of Portland is putting something in writing: arts education matters.

Join us Tuesday, September 15 at 1pm at the Portland Art Museum for a City of Portland Arts Education Proclamation reading — right in the middle of the HeART of Portland exhibition, surrounded by the work of more than 100 student artists.

Our Executive Director Briana Linden will be there alongside Portland Public Schools and the Office of Arts & Culture, joined by ALNW board members Jill Giedt and Rashelle Chase-Miller. It's free and open to everyone — if you can make it, come say hi.

This week is about making visible what's true every day: the arts aren't extra. They're essential.

📅 Tuesday, September 15, 1:00–1:45 PM 📍 Portland Art Museum, Silver Family Youth and Community Gallery Free, registration requested — link in bio

Teaching Artist & Photo: Arcadia Trueheart at Culver Elementary

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Say hello to this future sculptor, caught mid-reveal with his newest creation.

This week, we're celebrating National Arts in Education Week by sharing moments just like this one — kids fully absorbed in making something, all week long, across our community.

It takes a lot of people working together to make room for that: teachers, teaching artists, schools, districts, and families. This week is for celebrating all of it.

Follow along with us this week — and if you've got a favorite arts-in-school memory of your own, we'd love to hear it in the comments.

Teaching Artist & Photo: Jen Hernandez at Stephenson Elementary

You know how you can hear your roommate's music through the walls? For us, that's a good thing. 🎸

We share our building at 8911 SE Stark with the incredible team at My Voice Music — and this Thursday, they're throwing their doors open for their Fall Open House.

Tour the studio. Meet their team. Learn about their free and pay-what-you-can music programs for ages 9–24. Six free guitars are up for grabs for young people who don't have access to an instrument of their own — must be present to win.

If you've ever walked past our building and wondered what's happening just down the hall, this is your chance to find out. Come say hi to our housemates.

📅 Thursday, September 10
🕒 3:00–5:30 PM
📍 8911 SE Stark St, Portland — free & open to all

Shared with love (and permission) from our friends at 🙌

15 percentile points. That's the average gain researchers found for students participating in arts education — in academic achievement, creative thinking, and social-emotional growth.

Real research. Real impact. This is why our teaching artists show up in classrooms every week.

📊 Wan, Ludwig & Boyle, American Institutes for Research / Wallace Foundation, 2018

Teaching Artist & Photo: Lulu Moonwood Murakami at Atfalati Ridge Elementary