Dr. Lisa Donovan
At its core, Lisa Donovan’s work is about the spark of learning that happens within the creative process. A professor and arts educator with decades of experience and multiple published works, she seeks to develop and implement strategies that can create more space for students and teachers to find that spark—and develop a lifelong love of learning and the arts.
As a Professor in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Lisa has seen students find their voice and discover their agency through arts education (and many of her students have helped with or participated in her academic work).
As the Co-Founder of the Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network (BRAINworks), a federally-funded grant program, she has helped lead professional development in arts integration for Berkshire County educators across PreK-12 classrooms, leveraging the region's existing cultural assets and showing how to use the arts to create a lasting impact for students.
Think Like a Region | TEDxNorthAdams
Rural areas share similar challenges that can overshadow opportunities found in local contexts. Lisa Donovan, PhD, discusses her research: Leveraging change: Increasing access to arts education in rural areas exploring promising practices and sharing how she and her team are taking advantage of the cultural assets found in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts to enhance the public school academic curriculum. This engaging talk explores how the unique assets of rural areas can be activated by “thinking like a region.”
Teacher as Curator
Teacher as Curator provides a roadmap for using creative strategies to engage both educators and students in the learning process. Focusing on key qualities of culturally and linguistically responsive arts learning, chapters specifically demonstrate how arts integration strategies and formative assessment can be a catalyst for change in the classroom. Readers will be inspired by teachers and practitioners who have donned the role of curator to achieve significant results.
Kindergarten–college educators will find research-based protocols and practices that they can translate into any educational setting. In digestible chapters, this resource provides a theoretical base for building artistic literacy into the curriculum and for developing multimodal opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of content.
CONTACT LISA DONOVAN, ARTS INTEGRATION, MANAGEMENT, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Dr. Lisa Donovan
(413) 662 - 5581
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
375 Church Street, North Adams, MA 01247