highlights

Professional Development

We love to collaborating with educators and administrators to create customized learning experiences for professional development workshops. Sessions can take place either at school sites or in the studios of our Shadyside campus, depending on the programming needs and media specifics. Not only do educators learn new skills that can be incorporated into the classroom, but colleagues can have FUN while creating together and building community with each other.

In 2023, we began partnering with Brentwood Borough School district to offer arts-specific professional development to its art department teachers:

• In 2023, Teaching Artist/Papermaker Katy DeMent created collaged crankies (a storytelling device that uses a hand-cranked illustrated scroll to add visuals to a story or music).
• In 2024, Teaching Artist/Metalsmith Lindsay Huff explored metalsmithing and enameling during a pair of visits to the school. With a well-established metalsmithing program already established, they were able to explore both basic dry-sifted and torch fired enamels, as well as hammering/stamping with transparent enamels, and even delved into liquid enameling techniques.
• In 2024, Teaching Artist/Fiber Artist LaVerne Kemp shared the process of wet felting with the art department, breaking down an ancient process into simple, manageable steps accomplished with many everyday items.

In 2024, Teaching Artist/Metalsmith Lindsay Huff traveled to Moon Area School District to explore penny hammering/stamping and torch fired enamels with the district’s art department. Huff later reflected: The teachers clearly have such a strong sense of community and camaraderie. It was a joy to watch them encourage and support each others’ creativity and to see the myriad ways they utilized their newly learned skills. The physical nature of the process seemed to lend itself to a sort of meditative process and certainly the noise encouraged lots of curious school colleagues to visit the art room to see what was taking place.

In 2023, both Teaching Artist/Fiber Artist Tina Williams Brewer and Teaching Artist/Metalsmith Lindsay Huff were invited to the 2023 Pennsylvania Art Education Association’s annual conference, held in October in Erie, PA. Brewer served both as the keynote speaker and facilitated a hands-on quilt square workshop, and Huff presented the hands-on workshop “Simple Metalsmithing in the Classroom: Utilizing Basic Tools for Creative Outcomes.”

We’ve also been partnering with Pittsburgh Public Schools for several years to offer arts programming during the district’s in-service days. In 2023 and 2024, Teaching Artists created programming under the theme of Learning to Leave: The City is Our Campus, part of an initiative to integrate collaboration within the Pittsburgh arts community.

• In 2023, Teaching Artist/Interdisciplinary Artist Maritza Mosquera facilitated “Spoiling Us with Art,” combining reflection time, self-care, and art making.
• In 2024, Teaching Artist/Ceramicist Marcé Nixon facilitated a hand building workshop, using Gholdy Muhammed’s Equity Framework to encourage deep learning, explore equity, and to work hands-on with clay to learn about hand building, underglazes, and kiln firing.
• In 2025, Teaching Artist/Fiber Artist Tina Williams Brewer facilitated “Elements and Ecosystems through Lukasa” during which participants explored how we can alter our emotions through connections with our natural environment […] Participants created personal fiber Lukasa memory boards as vessels for remembering, exploring, and teaching using a variety of collaging, stitching, beading, and Adinkra stamping techniques. Download a PDF copy of Ms. Brewer’s presentation about her journey as a quilter and a teaching artist here: Tina Williams Brewer PPS PD 2025. Comments from participating teachers included: “Thank you for allowing us to share your space with the wonderful Tina Williams Brewer. It was very productive, relaxing, and enjoyable”, “This session was such a wonderful opportunity to learn something new and something I can truly bring to the classroom”, and “I felt that this was a great segway into sewing-collage and very accessible. She built our confidence and gave us advice.” Listen to the Spotify playlist Where Flamingos Fly created by AS&C Assistant Lindsay Huff to soundtrack the day. Our inspiration was the Gil Evans Orchestra song of the same name, and we hope it will similarly inspire you to get into the flow state, feeling relaxed and in touch with your creative side!

In 2022, PCA&M hosted the I’m Fine Project for both an exhibition and a hands-on workshop creating handbuilt ceramic masks and encouraging conversations about mental health. Workshop participants included PPS teachers, PCA&M teaching artists, and local arts community members. The I’m Fine Project traveled throughout the entire Commonwealth, offering mask making workshops to diverse audiences around the state. The project included an exhibition of 1,200 masks at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA.