Local-led Experience in a Community

Is able to facilitate ethnoarts research and other foundational learning activities with community members.

Completing a well-designed and implemented guided experience, sometimes called an “internship,” has three important benefits. First, the Arts Specialist builds relationships and develops skills that serve as emotional and professional anchors for the rest of her career.  Second, though the Arts Specialist is in a primary learning phase, the community and program she works with will benefit from her participatory research and encouragement. Third, the entity can observe how EthnoArts approaches work in a particular context, allowing application to other language programs. 

The Arts Specialist is guided by a mentor during this time in order to support, encourage and problem-solve situations as they occur. The community or program chosen could vary widely, ranging from an isolated monolingual village context to a multilingual urban diaspora. The primary intention for this item is for a new worker entering a cross-cultural context for the first time. It is possible that this requirement could be met in other ways by an individual coming into EthnoArts with prior field experience.