NH Arts Ed Conference

Culturally Responsive Leadership

Martha Piscuskas

Recently Martha Piscuskas, Interim Director of Arts Education at the Maine Arts Commission attuned the New Hampshire Arts Education conference. The theme was Culturally Responsive Leadership. There were great discussions and learnings on how to create more inclusive  creative spaces, for educators and the young artists we mentor.

Martha returned with several resources to share – some listed below with Martha’s comments included. Martha suggests that you take a look and consider how to use them in your classroom and/or with policy makers.

• The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement Great cogent argument for focusing on the wholistic approach rather than defining our students by what’s happened to them.
• RACE – The Power of an Illusion: Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race Yup, it’s a cultural construct, and if we want to work towards inclusiveness these points are a fast-track to looking deeper.
• Anti-bias terminology A good up-to-date primer on how folks are defining themselves, and what they mean.  Bottom line, if you’re not sure – listen to how people define themselves and go from there.  You could even respectfully ask!
• On a plate, a comic about privilege  In a nutshell, this is a clear visual depiction of how privilege, specifically class-based, works over time.
• White Privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack  This is an expanded update on a classic handout, an excellent resource for digging deeper into our own assumptions, with notes for facilitators.
• It’s about Money, Not Education Here’s a statistical analysis of what that comic about class privilege says in pictures.

If you have any questions please contact Martha at martha.piscuskas@maine.gov.