artist residency

Project Information

Through our partnership with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts*, Artists in Schools & Communities at Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media (PCA&M) offers Artist Residency Projects and other vital arts services to schools, community organizations, and nonprofit service agencies working with both children and adults in Allegheny, Beaver, Greene, and Washington counties.

Artist Residency Projects have lasting benefits for all participants: students are fully immersed in an art form and see how it connects to life and learning, teachers are exposed to alternative ways of experiencing and sharing the creative process and what it brings to their classrooms, administrators observe the ways in which the arts fully engage students and impact their learning across the curriculum, and our dedicated Teaching Artists are artistically reinvigorated through the collaborative creative process.

As stated in the National Endowment for the Arts’ publication Learning Through the Arts “…the arts help us all better understand and interpret the world around us. The arts improve our ability to think critically and act creatively and offer us the opportunity to communicate our most profound thoughts and deepest feelings. Arts learning ensures that this creative spirit lives on, instilling a love and understanding of the arts to each new generation.” PCA&M and our Resident Artists fully embrace this philosophy and welcome the opportunity to share the skills and rewards of the creative process with enthusiastic and motivated participants.

Through residencies in dance, craft, music, folk arts, theater, media arts, literature, visual and interdisciplinary arts, schools, community organizations, and service agencies can expect to improve themselves and strengthen their communities. By immersing participants in the creative process from beginning to end, and giving them ownership of the process, Resident Artists model the needed focus and rigor of their school and life. The arts are proven to stimulate and enhance student performance in all curriculum areas and to encourage the development of improved self-image and empowerment.