POSITION DESCRIPTION
Job title: Youth Teaching Artist
Classification: Nonexempt, temporary position: 8-16 hrs a week
Contract Start Date: January 6, 2025
Contract End Date: June 8, 2025
Benefits: Accrued sick pay.
Compensation: $25/hr
Location:
- Creativity Explored Studio and Gallery, 3245 16th Street, San Francisco
- Creativity Explored CE2 Studio, 1 Arkansas Street, San Francisco
- School and community sites throughout San Francisco and surrounding areas
Reports to: Youth and Community Programs Manager
Application Review Begins: December 26, 2024
# of Hires: 3
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
Creativity Explored is a San Francisco nonprofit that partners with people with developmental disabilities to create an artistic, studio-based collective where the creative capacity of any person can flourish. We do this by placing the work, needs, culture, and experience of artists with developmental disabilities at the center of the community in a way that honors humanity, respects self-agency, and nurtures creative potential.
CE is a warm, fast-paced, and fun place to work, with a long-serving multidisciplinary staff that is deeply committed to our community. A San Francisco icon, CE was named Best Nonprofit this year.
Creativity Explored is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and sustaining an equitable and inclusive work environment where diversity is celebrated and valued. BIPOC, people with disabilities, and bilingual/bicultural individuals are strongly encouraged to apply.
POSITION OVERVIEW
CE’s Youth Teaching Artist will help implement CE’s new Youth Programs for youth of all abilities, with a focus on youth with disabilities. They will serve as a teaching artist for multiple youth programs for youth of all ages. The Youth Teaching Artist will be a practicing arts educator, with the skills to facilitate growth for youth artists with diverse needs and art-making backgrounds. The ideal candidate will foster creativity and curiosity for youth of all abilities.
The Youth Teaching Artist will lead art-making and educational workshops every Saturday for neurodivergent transition-aged youth in CE’s DCYF-funded program, Imaginate YAY! They will also support Imaginate Youth, a CAC-funded four-week series of art workshops for neurodivergent youth with Bay Area public school transition programs during the school week and weekends. Additionally, they will assist with CE’s special projects, leading tours, providing workshops, and participating in various initiatives with partner schools and nonprofits.
The Youth Teaching Artist will collaborate with other staff and volunteers to develop and implement a scaffolded art curriculum that meets the needs of youth artists, while participating as a member of the direct service team. The ideal candidate will have expertise in mediums such as painting, drawing, ceramics, or digital art.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Led by the Creativity Explored Youth Programs Team, Youth Teaching Artists will support CE’s Youth Arts Program by:
- Proceeding from respect for the individual preferences and choices of each youth artist
- Encouraging each youth artist to find their own voice and develop a unique style of artwork.
- Developing strong relationships with youth artists and helping them in facilitating their art practice
- Encouraging the development of a deep and focused art and arts education practice that meets the youth artists’ potential
- Supporting youth artists in learning new skills such as building growth mindsets, self-efficacy, social awareness, and positive relationship-building
- Working collaboratively on youth programs across the organization that advance the goals of Creativity Explored
Youth Artist Support
- Assessing artistic skills, establishing goals for each youth artist artist and developing teaching strategies to assist each youth artist in meeting their goals
- Participating actively in a learning community centered around person-centered thinking
- Engaging in additional training that helps teaching artists identify and develop skills that support the organization’s goals
- Implementing and continuously improving the art curriculum to meet the evolving needs and interests of the youth artists
Program Operations
- Attending to all individual youth artists’ needs
- Ensuring that all artists, youth, and occasionally adults, are safely supervised at all times
- Ensuring all activities are conducted in a safe and prudent manner by following studio policies
- Maintaining clean, organized and orderly work areas and storage for art works in progress
- Ensuring that all reporting requirements are completed according to established guidelines
Inclusion
- Supporting CE’s adult artists on visits to youth programs, both CE led, and at local partner schools and organizations
- Assisting CE’s adult artists with artist talks & presentations of their art work at local schools or non-profits
- Facilitating participation in special projects and community partnership with partner schools and nonprofits
Exhibitions, Marketing and Partnerships
- Assisting other staff to select, prepare, exhibit youth artists’ work at culminating exhibitions and showcases
- Ensuring that all youth artists who wish to present their art work have an opportunity to do so
Other
- Contributing to the development and improvement of CE programs
- Performing other reasonably related duties as requested
ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP
The Youth Teaching Artist is expected to work productively in a team environment and provide leadership as a member of our Youth Programs Team and engage with other staff across the organization. They are also expected to work towards embodying the four components of CE's Staff Philosophy: Community, Creativity, Collaboration, and Compassion.
COMPLIANCE WITH POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
The Youth Teaching Artist will comply with established Creativity Explored policies and practices.
KEY SELECTION CRITERIA
- Post-secondary education in fine arts or other arts related or equivalent experience.
- Minimum 2 years of arts teaching experience preferred
- Previous experience working with people with disabilities preferred
- Process-based, inquiry-based approach to artmaking
- Growth mindset, with strong ability to collaborate with people across the organization
- Interest in or experience working with people with disabilities in an arts context
- Excellent communication skills including the ability to communicate effectively with people with developmental disabilities
- Ability to work in a team-based environment, as well as work independently
- Sound organizational skills
- Bilingual/bicultural a plus; We specifically encourage applications from Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, and Vietnamese speakers
TRAINING & COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
- Complete and maintain CPR, First Aid, and AED certification (initial certification to be completed within 30 days of date of hire)
- Workplace Harassment Training
- Complete Creativity Explored staff training pertinent to position job responsibilities as assigned
OTHER INFORMATION
This position is a contract, nonexempt, temporary position with a contract end date of December 22nd, 2024. The position’s schedule will consist of 1 set work day working in the CEI or CEII studio on Saturdays from 8:30am - 4:30pm, with additional work days assigned weekly as needed by CE taking place at CE studios or community and school sites. The position receives accrued sick leave time.
Offers are subject to satisfactory Criminal Records Clearance, National Sex Offender Registry Review, and proof of negative TB test results completed within the last year. Creativity Explored will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act. You do not need to disclose your criminal history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if Creativity Explored is concerned about a conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report. Find out more about the Fair Chance Act by visiting the Civil Rights Department Fair Chance Act webpage.
To apply, please submit the following form:
https://jobs.gusto.com/postings/creativity-explored-youth-teaching-artist-dee5265c-2981-4612-b224-574506609e0c
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and review will begin December 26th, 2024
