There are lots of changes happening around the Arts Every Day office – from our almost finished website to our new office space in The Motor House. We are also thrilled to announce the addition of a new staff member, Sarah Coleman, as our Partnership Coordinator. Sarah joined Arts Every Day at the end of the summer, but became a full-time staff member at the beginning of December 2015.

Sarah Merry-go-Round HeadshotIn her role as Partnership Coordinator, Sarah is responsible for all aspects of developing and maintaining partnerships with the teaching artists arts institutions, and cultural organizations that offer educational programming in Baltimore City. Sarah works on expanding our offerings to, and in support of, cultural organizations and teaching artists providing opportunities to City Schools teachers and students. Additionally, she works closely on professional development programming and supports grant writing.

I’m thrilled to be a part of the Arts Every Day team. I believe so strongly in the arts – both fine arts skills and arts integration – as a way to engage, motivate and connect young people to the joy of learning. I look forward to building strong relationships between the great arts education work happening in Baltimore and City Schools teachers and students.

Sarah brings a wealth of experience with over ten years of work in arts integration, teacher professional development, program management and non-profit arts administration. Prior to working with Arts Every Day, Sarah managed Drama for School (DFS), a research-based professional development program out of the Department of Theatre and Dance at UT Austin. She worked with pre-service and in-service teachers, higher education faculty and teaching artists to strengthen active, embodied learning in the classroom through a drama-based pedagogy and arts integration practices in Texas, across the U.S. and in Adelaide, South Australia. Through Drama from Schools, she was a key collaborator in Austin Independent School District’s Creative Learning Initiative (the outcome of Austin’s Any Given Child Strategic Plan). Sarah spent three years consulting on the development and implementation of arts integration charter school in Wisconsin. Additionally, she was also on faculty at UT Austin teaching courses in theatre for young audiences, teaching artist practice, arts integration and drama-based pedagogy. As a teaching artist she offers playbuilding residencies with middle and high schools students that focus on ideas of home, community and language building – often collaborating with immigrant and refugee youth. As a theatre practitioner, she has produced multiple new work festivals in Washington, DC and Austin, TX.