An Artist-Led Collective
Teaching Artist Residency:
Design Process
This pilot was developed in partnership with the Issaquah School District, Issaquah Schools Foundation, and PTSA Council. Our aim is to strengthen elementary arts education by embedding a professional teaching artist in participating schools while supporting each school's existing Art Docent program. This work is entirely funded by a two-year Curiosity Pass grant from 4Culture.
How Schools Were Selected
The selection process was designed to be collaborative, transparent, and data-informed.
Out of all 16 elementary schools in ISD, six schools serve Title I communities and are located within King County Communities of Opportunity boundaries. Throughout the spring of 2026, Art Commons gathered input from these six schools through conversations with district and PTSA leadership, conducted surveys with all six principals and at least one art docent program leader or PTA president from each school.
Survey questions explored three key areas:
Program Landscape – How the current volunteer art program operates, its strengths, challenges, consistency, and indicators of equity gaps.
Capacity & Infrastructure – Volunteer availability, funding, supplies, scheduling, and space.
Readiness & Feasibility – Each school's interest in partnering, ability to host a teaching artist, and leadership’s alignment with the goals of the pilot.
The Art Commons Teaching Artist Residency team—Ali Marcus, Divya Rajan, and Tina V. Hays— met in person to review every survey response together. Each school received three scores - a principal score, a PTA score, and an Art Commons score - using a common rubric measuring Need, Readiness, and Feasibility. Principal scores were weighted 50% higher, to reflect the critical role of school leadership in implementing a successful pilot. The three highest scores determined the three schools best positioned for 2026/2027, the first year of the program: Apollo Elementary, Clark Elementary, and Maple Hills Elementary.
What We Learned
Across all six schools, surveyed leaders expressed a shared commitment to expanding access to visual arts education that builds upon learning, meets the unique needs of the school site, and strengthens existing Art Docent programs. The surveys also highlighted common challenges, including volunteer recruitment and sustainability, limited resources, scheduling constraints, and inconsistent access to arts instruction across classrooms, grades and schools. These findings reinforced the need for a model that supports consistent and qualified art instruction while helping to support existing volunteer programs.
Here are some visuals into the survey responses:
Looking Ahead
The Teaching Artist Residency Pilot is intended to be a service to participating school communities, a job creating program for local professional artists, and a growth opportunity for Art Commons and our community partners. Throughout the 2026–27 school year, Art Commons will evaluate the pilot's implementation, gather feedback from educators, volunteers, students, and school leaders, and use those findings to inform future program development.
We are deeply grateful to the principals, PTA leaders, art docent volunteers, district partners, and community members who contributed their time and insight throughout this process. Their collaboration has helped shape a pilot designed to support and strengthen arts education for students across the Issaquah School District.