Creative Wayfinding: Teaching Artist Panel

Featuring Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Monday, Nov. 13, 2023

4:30-6 p.m.

Winifred Smith Hall

Reception to Follow

Creative Wayfinding is intentionally signaling to Claire Trevor School of the Arts (CTSA) students opportunities for their professional pathways. It is being intentional about how we educate and prepare our students as creative leaders and how their education with us provides transferrable skills in both arts and industry.

The Teaching Artist Panel, featuring Segerstrom Center for the Arts, is an opportunity for our CTSA community to learn more about teaching artistry as a profession. Segerstrom Center, and many other organizations, employ teaching artists in their arts education and community programs. This panel will expose our CTSA students to how they can become teaching artists, what employers are looking for when hiring, and how teaching artists themselves develop their career.

Join us for a FREE live panel, Q&A, and reception on Monday, November 13, 2023 in Winifred Smith Hall.

• 4:30 p.m. - Panel Discussion
  • Moderated by Dr. Tiffany Ana López, Dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and Talena Mara, Vice President of Education at Segerstrom Center for the Arts
• 5:30 p.m. - Panel Q&A
  • Featuring Teaching Artists from Segerstrom Center's Arts Teach Roster: Shyamala Moorty, Chantrell M. Lewis, MFA '22, Andrew Grueschow, and Ellen Schulze 
• 6:00 p.m. - Reception - Arts Plaza

Event is FREE and open to the public.

RSVP

About the Panelists:

Shyamala Moorty is a Director, Choreographer and Educator dedicated to healing and connecting communities through the arts. Incorporating contemporary Indian dance, theater, and multimedia, her performance work has toured in Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, and the U.K.  She has worked as a teaching and performing artist for Segerstrom’s Arts Teach Program since 1998, first with the Aman Dance Educators and currently with the Dancing Storytellers.  In addition to working with students hands-on, she has coached classroom teachers to teach dance, and trained new teaching artists.  Shyamala has developed a wide range of curriculum and has been a part of the team developing inclusive dance for the Segerstrom’s Arts School for All Abilities, and ESCAPE, a Segerstrom partnership with UCI embodying science concepts through movement.  With an MFA in Dance from UCLA, Shyamala is currently teaching choreography at California State Long Beach, and has two award winning short films touring the film festival circuit. www.shyamalamoorty.com

Chantrell M. Lewis, M.F.A is a multi-disciplinary arts educator, published author, award-winning researcher, and artist. Lewis holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kent State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from The University of California, Irvine. She is a certified specialist in the social-emotional development of youth stamped by The University of California, Riverside. Lewis has been performing since she was eight years old. Lewis has worked as a Teaching Artist and Adjunct Professor for various educational theatre programs, including Cleveland Public Theatre Education, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Dance Arts Academy, Orange County School of the Arts, The University of California, Irvine, and the Riverside Arts Council. Through these programs, Lewis carefully designs and teaches programming and curriculum that emphasizes literacy and other skills in alignment with the state standards for visual and performing arts education. Notably, Lewis serves as the Executive Director of Jar of Sunshine Incorporated, a 501©(3) nonprofit dedicated to increasing accessibility to literacy, wellness, and the arts in under-resourced communities. In 2023, Lewis was named a 2023-2024 CA Creative Corps Fellow, a 2023 Arts OC California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow, a 2023 Community Engagement Grantee, and has been named an Honoree for the 23rd Annual Arts Orange County Awards.

Andrew Grueschow is a Los Angeles based percussionist with an interest in music the world over. He has traveled to Ghana, West Africa several times, studying the music of the Ewe and the Dagombas, as well as recording traditional drumming for Zadonu Records. Andrew is a member of Hands On’Semble, an award winning World Percussion trio that has performed all over the world. He is co-director of the World Music Department at California Institute of the Arts Herb Alpert School of Music, where he teaches African Music and Dance, World Percussion, and Pedagogy. For over 25 years Andrew has been teaching percussion based workshops, often focusing on the music of Ghana and composition/performance of original works, in schools throughout Los Angeles. He has been involved with training and lesson plan development for teaching artists, designing and leading training sessions for the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York. Andrew is active in teacher professional development through special projects such as the Music Center Summer Institute and the LLSN Network (Music –In-Education National Consortium). He is a consultant for Los Angeles County Office of Education, and a teaching artist at Segerstrom Performing Arts Center.

Ellen Schulze has been a Teaching Artist (Puppetry) since 1993, and is on the Artist Roster of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Music Center of Los Angeles, and various other arts organizations. In addition to Puppetry (Great Arizona Puppet Theater in Phoenix, AZ), she has also studied Mime and Movement (Chabot Conservatory of Mime in Hayward, CA) and Mask Building and Performance with various artists in Northern California. She attended UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) where she studied both Elementary and Special Education. In bringing Puppetry into the classroom, Ms. Schulze enables children to experience a robust creative experience where students build and perform puppets. In addition to tying into curriculum and educational standards, they also experience critical thinking and problem-solving (and have FUN while doing it!)

About the Moderators:

Dr. Tiffany Ana López is Dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, where she is a passionate advocate for inclusive excellence and DEI-centered leadership. Previously, she served as Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence at Arizona State University and directed the School of Film, Dance, and Theater. Dr. López is a first-generation college student who earned her B.A. from CSU Sacramento and an M.A. and Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara. For 21 years, she championed Latine initiatives and community engagement as a faculty member at UC Riverside.

Dr. López's work as a theater scholar and artist explores storytelling around trauma and creativity's role in personal and social transformation. Her publications, editorships and dramaturgical contributions to theaters reflect her significant impact on both scholarship and the arts. She is also a founding member of several prominent theater alliances, including Latina/o Theater Alliance of Los Angeles and the National Latina/o Theater Commons. Her influential leadership extends to a nationally recognized presence in Latine theater and a pioneering role in equity, diversity, and inclusion in higher education.

Talena Mara has spent more than two decades in education, arts administration, and community development. She has served as the inaugural Vice President, Education at Segerstrom Center for the Arts (SCFTA) since 2009 where she leads education programming serving 350,000 people annually across Southern California. Prior to arriving in California, Talena served as faculty and department chair at The Juilliard School in New York City for 16 years and has taught or mentored every level of student throughout her career. She also served as Director of Education at New York City Opera and on the faculty at City University of New York (CUNY). Talena taught on the graduate faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where she also led educational outreach efforts into NYC schools and community organizations, and prepared graduate students as effective teaching artists. Having spent years working in innovative collaborations with the New York City Department of Education, Talena was invited by Yale University to provide leadership for New Haven public school reform projects and for similar projects for Philadelphia public schools.

Talena has presented at United Nations diplomatic events held in New York City and Washington, D.C., where she shared her research on the creative process and the influence it affords cultural diplomacy efforts and community building. She has served as advisor/guide for a wide range of educators, including teaching artists, classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, administrators, and superintendents, each of whom share a common interest in building connections between the arts and other subjects and in creating sustainable arts programs in schools and throughout school districts.  She has often worked with national/international organizations in defining and applying the influence the arts have on classroom management, learning, and community development.  

Talena holds a Master of Science (Business) in Organizational Leadership, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance, bachelor degrees in Music Education and in Vocal Performance, and is a credentialed music educator.  

Driving & Walking Directions to Venues

Park in the Mesa Parking Structure, located at 4000 Mesa Road, Irvine, CA 92697. 

You may park on any level. However, we suggest you park on Level 3 for easy access to the pedestrian bridge located just to the right of the Level 3 elevator and staircase.