MAEA Fine Arts Leadership Institute 

The Fine Arts Leadership Institute course is appropriate for any arts educator or team seeking to be a stronger, more collaborative leader.  Effective facilitation skills and leadership dispositions make each member of an arts team stronger and make the whole team more effective.  Participants will learn how to assess a team’s effectiveness and apply new tools, structures and processes to help a team grow towards stronger practices. Participants will explore how to strategically advocate within their school or local school system and with community partners to advance the arts in Maryland schools.  The focus of this course is on strong student needs, team functions, reflective practices, and decision making around arts policies, resources, partnerships and practices. 

Earn 3 CPD credits!  This course consists of 4 face to face sessions (7 hours each) with a focus on leadership development and 17 hours of independent projects and assignments that include studio practices, personal reflection, implementation, collaboration, and research to support the in-course learning.     

MAEA asserts that meaningful, rigorous professional development, targeted toward the the arts and arts education, are essential to the lifelong learning of visual art and other fine arts educators. MAEA believes that all arts educators should have access to ongoing professional development appropriate to their role. MAEA supports opportunities for building enriched relationships between theory and practice.  

Early Bird Registration Costs: $120 for MAEA members and $210 for non-members.  After June 15: $150 for MAEA members and $250 for non-members.

Space is limited to 75 participants.

More Information

Participants will explore how to strategically advocate within their school or local school system and with community partners to advance the arts in Maryland schools. This will be evidenced by strong leadership and communication plans for outreach and building partnerships.  By the end of this course participants will be able to  – 

• evaluate their leadership identity; identify their leadership style; and develop “growth plans” for reaching into other styles of leadership.
• evaluate and analyze their assertiveness while exploring strategies to shape conversations and to keep teamwork productive.
• Evaluate their listening skills and consider how this influences a leader’s ability to build relationships and the importance of relationships when inducing change.
• Identify current issues in arts educations while discovering processes for digging to the root causes of these issues.
• Reflect and connect new learning to their current context and commit to new action. 
• Explore how narrative develops followers and three constructs of leadership.   
• Develop a theory of change and explore the resources they have to implement change. 
• Identify strategies they might use to lead change.   
• Evaluate and analyze the level of collaboration and structures that exist for inducing change.
• Reflect on their own capacity for dealing with conflict and fostering collaboration. 
• Analyze the notion of trust, its importance in leading change, and the key elements required for making decisions that support change. 
• Discuss the norms required for a strong and healthy school culture where the arts can thrive 
• Address the culture of their own buildings and begin to think about the future.  
• Participants will learn strategies and techniques for addressing culture and climate to increase support of arts education for all students. 
• Propose and implement an action plan that reduces inequity in student access to fine arts resources, teachers and programs. 
• Create artistic works in a selected media to reflect their personal identity as a leader and their vision for the role arts in education. 
• Evaluate the current pedagogical practices and assess alignment to school, district, and/or state strategic priorities.