I've been working on an article about teaching artists for our March 2008 issue, which will focus on education. I first learned about teaching artists from Nancy Worden, who many of you probably know as an accomplished jeweler. But, perhaps just as important to Nancy's identity is the fact that many students in Washington state also know her as a teaching artist.

When she talked to me about teaching artistry, I was actually interviewing her about the state of high school jewelry programs (a topic so vast that I decided I need another year to research before I can tackle that for the education issue). She explained that teaching artists are studio artists who go into schools to use art to teach other subjects. For example, she taught fourth graders about the Underground Railroad by working with them to make a quilt out of copper and foam core.

I was intrigued by the concept and by the fact that the field is growing throughout the U.S. The reasons for this, as I discuss in my article, are many. When I started interviewing people, I was impressed by how passionate they are about what they do and by how important their work is. Often teaching artists are working with at-risk populations (and sadly, increasingly, typical students) who might never be exposed to art concepts and alternative methods of learning otherwise.

So, in our education issue, I thought it would be fitting to tell their story — well, a general story. There are so many inspirational anecdotes about how teaching artistry has changed the lives of teachers and students that I couldn't possibly tell them all in the magazine. But I wanted to give our readers background information about the field and tell them what the benefits of doing the job are (they are many), and give people who are interested in doing that kind of work some guidance about how to get started.

You can imagine my surprise to find out that Associate Editor Jill Erickson is a sometimes teaching artist. If you'd like to hear a bit about about her experiences, visit her post about it here.

Are any of you teaching artists? If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences!