For Teachers

What is Artist in the School?

Artist in the School (AIS) provides high quality, engaging and culturally diverse programming for students across the territory. There are a wide variety of programs available through our catalogue, including workshops in visual arts, music, dance, literary arts, theatre, and digital media.

How does the AIS program work?

Every Yukon school is allocated a certain number of AIS hours to spend working with Artists. The base number of hours is 20 per community school, per year and 17 per Whitehorse school, per year and increases depending on school enrollment (1.50 additional hours per 50 students).
Each school has an Artist in the School representative that coordinates how that school spends their AIS hours. Some schools use their AIS hours on one big project involving the whole school, others divide the hours between individual classes. Find out more about the program through your AIS school coordinator.

How do I request an Artist?

Step 1: Consult

Look through the catalogue to find an Artist or Program you would like to work with.
Talk to the AIS contact in your school about the number of AIS hours available and to your colleagues who might be interested in enjoying the Artist’s visit on the same day as you.
Contact the Artist directly to learn more about availability, supplies needed and hours required for the project (including prep time). Please note that AIS does not cover the cost of materials or supplies.

Step 2: Request

When the days with the artist are confirmed, submit the Artist Request Form to the Artist in the School office. (Make sure to include both prep and instructional time.) Please note that hours cannot be guaranteed until this form is submitted.

Step 3: Complete and Evaluate

When the workshop is complete, fill out the Artist Payment Form and submit it to the AIS office. (This is the invoice and both the teacher and artist need to sign this form. )
Include the Evaluation Form and any available photos from the workshops. These provide valuable feedback to the coordinator, artists, and funders.

Does Artist in the School cover the cost of supplies and materials?

The AIS program does not cover the cost of the material required for the projects. Some Artists may offer to bring in supplies, but it is the school’s responsibility to purchase them. Arts Underground will be happy to assist you in finding any additional art supplies you need.

Does the program cover travel expenses for Artists?

If an artist is booked for a full day of teaching (minimum 5 instructional hours) the AIS program will cover applicable travel expenses. Artists are responsible for contacting the AIS coordinator to ensure their travel expenses will be covered.

What is the teacher's role while the workshop is taking place?

Teachers are asked to remain in the classroom and assist the artist. It is not the responsibility of the Artist to control the class and it is to the benefit of everyone if the teacher participates in the program.
Help ensure an engaging experience for your class by letting students know in advance what to expect from the workshops, highlighting the unique experiences and skills of the artist when you introduce them to the class, and actively participating with students in workshop activities.

Guest Artist Workshops

While we appreciate our local talent immensely, we are also excited to announce that we now have funds dedicated specifically toward bringing professional artists visiting the Yukon into our schools. Any artist teaching in our schools must have a current vulnerable sector check and experience teaching (if we are dealing with a visiting artist who wants to offer a workshop).

By taking advantage of opportunities to access artists that are here working in other venues or as part of a local event, we eliminate the hurdle of travel expense to the Yukon. Expenses covered include local travel, accomodations and artist fees up to $1,500. Talk to us if you know of a visiting artist that you are interested in bringing into your school to perform, teach or give an artist talk!

Have an even bigger project in mind?

Special Project Hours

There are 2 Special Project allotments for Yukon schools (1 for communities and 1 for Whitehorse) available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Each of these Special Project Allotments offers 20 extra hours of Artist time to be spent on specific, more time-consuming projects that involve a larger portion of the school population. These hours can be combined with some of your school’s allotted hours to make an even bigger project happen.
Schools that received Special Project hours last season will be placed on a waitlist until December 1 to allow other schools the opportunity to apply for Special Project Hours.

How about a smaller special project?

Individual Mentoring Workshops for Senior Students

The workshop ideas mentioned below are meant to illustrate opportunities that could be offered to Yukon senior students interested in further development in the arts - specific training that is not available in a full classroom experience. The AIS coordinator is available to work with teachers and contacts in schools to help identify senior students who would benefit from a few hours of individual training.

Some program possibilities could include (but are not limited to)

A student who wants to be a carver may request to apprentice with a master carver for a certain number of hours.
A student may be interested in jewelry design/smithing and might want to spend a few hours working with one of our local jewelry creators.
We have visual artists who could help students (who don’t have access to an art teacher in school) pull together a portfolio by critiquing and advising – could also be a small group.
A student may be an aspiring writer – perhaps we have an artist within our program who would be willing to work a few hours editing and working one on one.

The funding limit for an individual mentoring application is $525. We are setting aside $1,500 for individual mentoring projects, enough to fund 3 mentoring projects (or more if the projects are smaller). Materials are paid for by the school/student.

The individual / small group mentoring projects are part of the AIS special project program which means the same application process applies as with other special projects, there is no application deadline.