OPINION: Arts education can change lives, but we must invest in people who make it possible

I was supposed to be dancing, but instead I had been chatting incessantly. The teacher sat me under the piano so I could focus. From that tucked-away spot, I could see nothing but feet. Sneakers and socks sliding across the floor, heels lifting and landing in time with the music. 

“Focus on their feet,” he told me. “Rejoin your friends when you’re ready.”

I watched. I listened. And slowly, something shifted. The rhythm pulled me in. The movement entranced me. I quieted. When I stepped back in, I was fully engrossed in a way I had not previously experienced.

That teacher was the legendary Jacques d’Amboise, the late principal dancer from New York City Ballet — a MacArthur Fellow, a Kennedy Center Honoree and founder of National Dance Institute (NDI), an organization that brings dance education into New York City public schools like the one I attended. 

But all I knew then, as a fourth grader, was that this teaching artist was different from the other adults in my school. And that he kept showing up. That last part, I would later learn, is rarer than it should be. 

Teaching artists do far more than provide instruction in an art form. They bring different ways of seeing students, valuing skills and behaviors that are dismissed in the traditional classroom, like creativity, risk-taking and physicality.

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

A teaching artist is a working artist — a dancer, a muralist, a spoken word poet — who works in partnership with classroom teachers to bring arts learning into schools. I was fortunate to have this experience, but most students never do. However, I believe we can fix this — to the benefit of these workers and the schools and students they serve.

If we believe arts education changes lives, we must invest in the people who make that change possible: Philanthropic funders should prioritize organizations offering a stable infrastructure for their workforce. 

Here’s why: Teaching artists look for what students can do rather than focus on the gaps in their skills or knowledge. And when they are able to stay — to build real relationships with students, teachers and school communities over time — the positive impact compounds.

Teaching artists are also place-makers who convert classrooms into studios, animate school hallways with rehearsals and art and bring families into schools to celebrate student achievements. They transform not just students but the adults around them. 

When classroom teachers collaborate with teaching artists, they discover new abilities in their students and learn new teaching approaches. 

Yet the arts nonprofits that maintain teaching artist rosters often cannot offer these professionals stable, sustainable careers. Teaching artists are typically hired part-time and employed seasonally, without benefits, at wages that are increasingly untenable as the cost of living soars.

Research on teaching artists reveals that they are the backbone of arts learning programs but also illuminates the hardships they face: A 2025 report found that teaching artists overwhelmingly worry about career longevity and cite “low compensation,” “inconsistent work often split over multiple organizations” and “hurdles like difficulty obtaining benefits.” 

Turnover is high, and when teaching artists leave, students lose trusted mentors, classroom teachers lose valued collaborators and schools lose partners who understand their communities. 

Today, I am a professor of education and have spent nearly two decades studying how young people learn in and through the arts. I now know that what I experienced under that piano wasn’t magic. It was the work of a highly skilled teaching artist. I was transformed over six years as a student with Jacques d’Amboise and the National Dance Institute.

I learned humility by dancing in ensembles in which my role was to support others as much as to shine myself. I learned cultural empathy by dancing with students from China and Russia, as well as from dancing in New York City neighborhoods different from my own.

As young artists, we connected through movement across language and cultural divides. I learned that dance was a way to express myself creatively, and that I didn’t need so many words.

Related: PROOF POINTS: The lesson the arts teach

National Dance Institute marks its 50th anniversary this year, offering a reminder that the enduring success of an arts education program depends on the well-being and tenure of its teaching artists and their ability to build dignified careers.

By providing its dance teaching artists year-round employment, including part-time roles with steady and reliable schedules, ongoing professional development and administrative support that alleviates many common burdens, NDI is able to recruit experienced dancers and educators committed to making teaching a long-term career.

The teaching artists, and the organization, become trusted members of school communities, with whom they partner for many years, and the artists find a pathway for promotion to full-time, salaried roles with benefits.

School districts partnering with arts organizations should prioritize contracts that reward continuity. And nonprofit leaders weighing budget priorities must realize that investing in their people is inseparable from investing in their mission.

This year, I am turning 50 alongside National Dance Institute. Looking back, what I remember most is not that Jacques d’Amboise was one of the greatest dancers of his generation. It’s that he captured the imagination of a chatty fourth grader by sitting her under a piano to watch feet, came back the next week and kept coming back after that.

Erica Rosenfeld Halverson is a board member of the nonprofit National Dance Institute, chair of Theatre & Drama and professor of Curriculum & Instruction in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and host of the podcast “Arts Educators Save the World.” 

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

This story about teaching artists was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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