REDI Teaching Artist Residency Program

The Florida Alliance for Arts Education, funded by a special initiatives grant from the National Endowment for the Arts via the Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, contracted two Master Teaching Artists from the Florida Children’s Theatre to teach arts integrated practices to the instructors of preschool 3, 4, and 5 year olds.  The Teaching Artist Residency Pilot and Program initiated in Palm Beach County at the Belle Glade location of Palm Beach State College.

After five very successful cohorts, the number of possible participants had been saturated.  For the 2020-2021 grant cycle, the REDI (Rural Economic Development Initiative) area of DeSoto County received two cohorts of training, led by Master Teaching Artists Mary Kelly and Laura Courter of the Association of Florida Teaching Artists (AFTA).

Our first set of cohorts in Belle Glade focused on specific techniques as warm-ups, storytelling, curricular connection, and reinforcing activities. The second set of cohorts in DeSoto County link preschool literature and curricular early learning targets in the areas of social-emotional learning, mathematics, science, and literacy.

Division of Cultural Affairs
National Endowment for the Arts