Welcome to my education through the arts page. I began my parallel career as a professional teaching artist in 1987 with the Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts program in East Tennessee and Nashville. Soon I also was involved with the Lincoln Center model of Aesthetic Education through the Nashville Institute of the Arts. Today I continue working in education through the arts at home in Nashville with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center Education Department, and anywhere else in the country people want me. I particularly enjoy those out of town trips that combine education through the arts with a singing gig or two - the best of both worlds.

Below is my current resume. If you have any questions about the work or my role in it, please email me. If you're an artist and think you might be interested in this kind of work, I'll be glad to point you in some directions.

SHORT RESUME OF EDUCATION THROUGH THE ARTS

"Carol Ponder is one of the finest Teaching Artists in aesthetic education history, with a depth of understanding and a sophistication of practice so remarkable that she can enhance any kind of arts program with her expertise." Eric Booth-Faculty: Juilliard, Tanglewood, and Kennedy Center Arts Advisory Committee: The College Board

Carol Ponder, a professional southeastern region (by choice) actress/singer/musician for over 30 years, has over a decade of intensive experience in education through the arts. She has partnered with classroom teachers, administrators, and other artists to develop and carry out dynamic, original, effective learning-through-the-arts curricula. In her capacities as Teaching Artist and consultant, Ponder has taught students K-12, and worked with many configurations of teachers, from one-on-one intensives to workshops of over 100 participants. She has logged thousands of classroom hours in dozens of school residencies. As a researcher, she has worked individually and with teachers in over 25 different projects to design and execute assessment strategies and program evaluations in education through the arts.

Education through the Arts Career Highlights:

• Ongoing, with the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) Education Department: Since 1988 as Teaching Artist, program designer, and researcher in Aesthetic Education and in the Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts program.
• Ongoing, The Empire State Partnership project in New York State, the nation's largest arts-in-education partnership network: Senior Faculty member and consultant.
• The Leonard Bernstein Center for Education through the Arts: One of three original Artistic Directors; Portfolio and Assessment Consultant to all ten Bernstein Pilot Model Schools.
• Various arts and education organizations including the New York Aesthetic Education Institutes in Utica, Rochester, and Syracuse; the Common Ground conference in Albany, NY; the ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes; Hangar Theater in Ithaca, NY; Nashville Children's Theatre, TN; Austin Peay State University, TN: consultant, teaching artist, researcher.
• For the TPAC, - author of many curriculum guidebooks, short essays, and papers.
• Published with an essay in Jane Remer's book, Beyond Enrichment: Building Effective Arts Partnerships with Schools and Your Community, 1996; and an essay in the upcoming Kennedy Center publication on teaching artist training (fall, 2001).

Throughout her engagement with education through the arts, Ponder has worked professionally as an actress, singer, and musician, and as a teacher of performance skills. She brings her perspectives and knowledge as a working artist to all of her education endeavors.

Teaching and Consulting Areas of Expertise:

• Arts-based curriculum: Developing curricula that honor both art and general curriculum needs, authentically serving the work of art and artistic process, other subjects, and necessary learning skills.
• The role of the teaching artist in the artist/teacher partnership: Exploring ways in which teaching artists can contribute fully to the school environment without sacrificing their own unique contributions as working artists.
• Aesthetic education: Using the aesthetic education processes and philosophy begun at the Lincoln Center Institute to open up and experientially explore individual works of art and the artistic process with students of all ages, teachers, and professional artists.
• Persuading reluctant participants, from teachers to school boards: Working to increase buy-in from all constituents or potential partners in an arts/education project through such means as identifying barriers to and benefits from participation, and identifying and enlisting effective change agents within each given population - using the arts themselves as a catalyst.
• Reflective practice, documentation, and assessment: All members of a partnership (teachers, teaching artists, and students) work together to design approaches to and means of systematic reflective practice, which are woven authentically into teaching and learning, and can contribute to documentation and assessment.
• Songwriting as reflective practice: Songwriting exemplifies the reflective artistic practices of surveying knowledge, creating a central theme, and selecting the most important facts or concepts through which to create a satisfying work of art.
• Performance skills in music and theatre: Vocal work for actors and singers; song interpretation and performance; script analysis; building a character; monologue and scene work for actors of all levels of experience.

References available on request.