Perpich Center Partners with Hennepin Arts in Annual Theater Director and Educator Conference

A scene from Theater Director and Educator Summer Conference 2024 with Hennepin Arts (formerly Hennepin Theatre Trust)

August 13, 2024

On August 7th, Perpich Center for Arts Education partnered again with Hennepin Arts (formerly Hennepin Theatre Trust) to convene the annual Theater Director and Educator Conference, this year held in downtown Minneapolis. With the goals of preventing teacher burnout and helping educators navigate the shifting post-pandemic educational landscape, this year’s conference was themed “Taking Good Care: Cultivating Resilience and Sustainability in Theater Education”. Over 40 theater educators from across Minnesota gathered for a plenary session on “Supporting Students’ Growth Edges By Exploring Our Own” led by theater artist, educator, and facilitator Jay Owen Eisenberg; as well as breakout sessions on topics ranging from “Self-Care and Delegating for Directors”, to “Creating Safe Spaces Backstage with Hair, Wigs, and Makeup”, to “Utilizing Tech Tools and AI to Help Develop Curriculum and Assessments”.

Dr. Stephanie Lein Walseth, Theater Education Specialist in Perpich Center’s Professional Development and Resource Programs group notes, “We are hearing from arts educators all across Minnesota about the challenges of supporting their students and nurturing their own personal and professional needs in this post-pandemic moment. There are myriad new demands, pressures, and realities for arts educators in this era, and our work at Perpich is to continue to develop ways to help support them. Conferences like this one allow us the opportunity to draw upon the collective wisdom of the field in order to build sustainable teaching and artistic practices for the future.”

Participants left the conference feeling energized and prepared for the year ahead, with one commenting in their evaluation, “I have so many ideas! [From the conference, I am taking away strategies] to uplift students, preserve my own mental health, and organize my program!”