Mentor Teaching Artist for BASE and Creative Economies Makerspace Job Description

OPPORTUNITY 

Hiring for Mentor Artists for BASE and Makerspace cohorts, for winter, spring, summer and fall sessions in 2024. 

Creative Justice uses writing, music, visual, movement, and healing arts to increase understanding of the root causes of incarceration, systemic bias and all other forms of oppression. Creative Justice youth programming is led by a team of Mentor Artists (MA) with support from the Director of Program, Youth Fellows, Creative Justice staff and guest artists/community partners. 

The MA will teach (approx 5-7 youth) 2 days per week (M/W or T/Th, 5-7pm) and connect with their participants another separate day for 1:1 contact/conversation. Together, the teaching team, program staff and youth participants will plan and execute an appropriate culminating project determined in the session, where participants can share their new skills, business plan, and begin to implement their artistic and entrepreneurial vision.  

BASE arts Program Mentor Teaching Artist

The BASE arts program is the fundamental and largest program at Creative Justice, and meets twice per week on T/Th 5-7pm. The MA will collaborate with the team and program participants to envision and execute an artistic project to be determined. The art should be grounded in their own personal artistic discipline or practice, and be in response to issues facing our communities, including those issues which directly or indirectly lead youth towards incarceration or systems involvement. The artworks should be grounded in an understanding of the systemic causes of youth incarceration, provide pathways to justice that maintain public safety and avoid incarceration, amplify youth voice in social transformation, and emphasize leadership and community engagement. 

Creative Economies Makerspace Mentor Teaching Artist

The Makerspace MA should be a creative entrepreneur who makes a living from their art practice/craft, who is able to provide insight, connections, business acumen and general understanding of what it takes to run a creatively fueled business to youth participants. Makerspace meets twice weekly M/W 5-7pm. Creative Justice’s Makerspace facilitates opportunities for youth and young adults to grow their leadership and entrepreneurial skills through understanding and building creative economies. The MA will collaborate with the team and program participants to envision and execute a creative entrepreneurial project to be determined. Thriving as an artist, creative and/or entrepreneur can be challenging, but with the partnership of community mentors youth establish healthy and safe relationships and learn how to grow their own culturally rooted and community connected small businesses. Makerspace affirms the cultural, individual, and communal knowledge of participants, supports positive identity development, and encourages participants to leverage their ingenuity to develop creative solutions for addressing social issues and creating thriving spaces.

Specific roles and responsibilities for the Mentor Artist will include: 

• Develop and teach a series of weekly lesson plans that relate to the theme of what your curriculum is based on. 

• Participate in weekly staff meetings/call (TBD with Mentor Artists and Peer Mentor Artists). 

• Supporting youth in turning their creative ideas and interests into business ventures which includes the development and creation of products, branding and marketing strategies, business development, and connecting them with resources and opportunities to further support their emerging business. 

• Submission to Program Director a weekly written record of attendance with brief notes on discussion/activity, as well as a brief log highlighting 1:1 contacts with youth. 

SELECTION CRITERIA  

The Mentor Artist will be selected based on the following qualifications: 

  • Active art practice 

  • Creative Entrepreneur/business owner (for makerspace)

  • Experience teaching or working with young people; 

  • Demonstrated ability to build relationships, particularly with communities experiencing oppression; • Passion for youth voice and socially engaged art; 

  • Strong multi-generational collaboration ability. 

  • Competitive applicants will bring an abolitionist framework, a strong analysis of systemic oppression, a commitment to community solutions to public safety and justice.

COMPENSATION 

$50 per hour @ 7-12 hours per week

TO APPLY:

Please submit resume, cover letter and optional up to 5 work samples to by Fri Dec 8, 2023:

https://forms.gle/Md7Z8CuU5q7wHCVu8

For any questions of concerns email shelagh@creativejusticenw.org or assata@creativejusticenw.org

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PAST MENTOR ARTISTS

Jace (2020), Dalisha Phillips (2020, 2021, 2022), CoCo Decker (2019), Jerrell “Rell Be Free” Davis (2019), Delton L. Mosby (2018), Olisa Enrico-Johnson (2018, 2017, 2016), Brad Puet (2018, 2017), Silas Blak (2018, 2017), Shontina Vernon (2016, 2015), Daniel “Khazm” Kogita (2016), Jamil Suleman (2016), Daemond Arrindell (2015), Otieno Terry (2015), Nikkita Oliver (2015)