NETAC | Community Engagement Lab

New England

Teaching Artist

Collaborative

The River project, designed and facilitated by teaching artist Gowri Savoor at NETAC's Vermont Gathering, July 2023

The purpose of NETAC is to build regional capacity to develop thriving communities by preparing teaching artists to serve as catalysts who activate creative potential and foster partnerships with educators, organizations and community groups.

NETAC is a Collective Impact initiative serving the six New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

It is led by a Steering Committee (below) that guides the efforts of Working Groups with support from a Backbone Organization, the Community Engagement Lab.

Common Agenda

The Common Agenda is the high-leverage action that participating organizations can do together that no one organization could do alone.

NETAC's Common Agenda is to create a rigorous teaching artist professional development program that builds and promotes exemplary models of school and community partnerships.

The Common Agenda was explored and affirmed by over 250 teaching artists and community leaders from across New England at the July 2023 Gathering in Vermont and subsequent regional meetings in Waterville and Portland, ME; Boston; Providence, RI; Lyndon and Brattleboro, VT; and Concord, NH.

Working Groups

Working Groups are the heartbeat of NETAC, where action occurs and the Common Agenda goals are brought to life. NETAC has three working groups: Professional Learning, Network Building, and Communication.

NETAC Strategic Framework

NETAC Hubs

Partnering Locally >> Networking Regionally

NETAC Hubs support teaching artists to build and promote projects that strengthen the well-being of youth, families and communities.

Hubs are a collaboration among cross-sector organizations that anchor the work of NETAC in their community or geographic area.

Hubs have three primary roles in the network:

Support professional learning for teaching artists to strengthen their skills as community catalysts who activate creative potential and foster partnerships with educators, organizations and community groups.
Develop and model creative projects that improve youth, family, and community well-being and can be adapted and adopted by communities throughout New England.
Share knowledge to strengthen the network.

What is a NETAC Hub?

Join Us!

If you are interested in getting involved to help NETAC support teaching artists as catalysts for creative projects that build more thriving communities in your area, please complete this Interest Form and we will be in touch.

Steering Committee

2024-2025

click an image to read bios

Anne Campbell

VERMONT
Anne serves as Co-Chair of NETAC's Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the Network Building Working Group. She is the Education Director at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, a position she has held since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Smith College and a master’s degree in community education from Goddard College, Anne has spent more than 30 years in the nonprofit realm, primarily in the arts, education, and community development. She plays percussion in the all-female ensemble, Shebang, and dances whenever she can.

Lanea Collins

CONNECTICUT
Lanea serves as Co-Chair of the Communications Working Group. She is the Creative Director of The Teaching Artist Hub CT where she acts on her passion for mentorship and collaboration in the arts by connecting and providing spaces for teaching artists. She is a Goodwin College award winning poet of “American Baby,” and is the writer, speaker and author of “My Heart Is Art,” a foundation of workshops, youth services and speaking engagements that promote creative healing for the inner soul. Lanea has appeared in theater performing in “For Colored Girls” and “Daisies On Harlem’s Doorstep” for CT Theater Company and Vintage Soul Productions, as well as “Expression Through Color” at the Jamaican Performing Arts Center in Queens,NY, which was written and produced by her. Along with writing and directing her very own “Agape” with Oddfellows Playhouse Theater, Lanea has created many workshops including Play+Write=Playwright, Culture Couture, and Life Through Colors. For the last five years she has been a teaching artist for grades K-12 and after school programs working in both school and community settings. As a certified arts trainer in the principles of nonviolence through the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence, Lanea has a passion for social justice and the arts and continues to share her gifts in all spaces.

Corey DePina

MASSACHUSETTS
Corey serves as Co-Chair of the NETAC's Steering Committee. and Co-Chair of the Professional Learning Working Group. He is the Program Director at ZUMIX, in Boston. Corey brings to NETAC expertise in professional learning for teaching artists, program design and implementation, and strategic planning. He is an accomplished rapper, a skilled workshop and program facilitator, and a longtime participant in ZUMIX programs. He has done workshops on the history of hip-hop, creative writing and performance at numerous city-wide agencies. Corey was influential in helping ZUMIX develop its award-winning curriculum, which was nationally recognized by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 2011. In 2015, Corey completed The Institute for Nonprofit Management certificate program at Boston University. In 2019, he was a recipient of the 2019 Institute for Nonprofit Management Change Maker Award.

Randall Nielsen

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Randall serves as Co-Chair of NETAC's Professional Learning Working Group. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Queerlective, in Manchester, NH. In his work with Queerlective he fosters inclusive spaces for Queer, BIPOC, and underserved communities through the arts. He has been chosen as a National Arts Strategies Fellow, a Western States Arts Federation Leaders of Color Fellow, and a NEFA Arts Leaders of Color Fellow. He serves as an Arts Commissioner for the City of Manchester. Through his passion for community development and inclusivity, Randall is driven to merge diverse ideas for impactful change. His journey reflects his aspiration to unite creativity, equity, and community growth.

Hannah Ross

RHODE ISLAND
Hannah serves as Co-Chair of NETAC's Network Building Working Group. She is the Assistant Director for Community Engagement at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, where she cultivates joyful musical experiences and education opportunities for thousands of youth throughout Rhode Island and the New England region. Hannah is devoted to sharing her passion for music with young people from under-resourced communities and connecting students to their inner spirit through creative expression. Her work includes directing the Community Engagement department, supervising the staff and operations for Victoria’s Dream Project, a free after-school strings program at two elementary sites in Pawtucket, RI and overseeing the production of Link Up, a music literacy curriculum and participatory concert series designed by Carnegie Hall for 3rd-5th graders. In addition, Hannah represents the Education Department on the Music Director Search Committee for the RI Phil’s current music director search.

Hannah also has extensive performance experience as a classically trained violist. Hannah earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School, where she also developed and co-directed a student-led performing arts initiative to Arusha, Tanzania for five summers.

Hannah is a current member of Cohort 6 of Sphinx LEAD (Leaders in Excellence, Arts, & Diversity), a current member of Cohort 3 of the RI Black Business Association’s Emerging Leaders Development Program, and a proud graduate of the RI Foundation’s Equity Leadership Initiative.

Beth Wilber Van Mierlo

MAINE
Beth serves as Co-Chair of the NETAC's Professional Learning Working Group. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Side x Side in Portland, Maine. Beth is an artist and an educator. She has dedicated her professional and adult life to promoting the importance of art and education. Beth has had the opportunity to work with a variety of community organizations facilitating insightful and productive connections through the arts. Over a decade ago, Beth founded Oak Street Studios, A Young People’s Art Institute, where she serves as director, curriculum developer, and instructor. In the spring of 2013, she co-founded Side x Side. Beth holds a BFA in sculpture and drawing from the University of Southern Maine. She lives with her husband and three children in Portland.

We believe that the New England Teaching Artist Collaborative can:

Model the equitable and inclusive practices that foster wellbeing and social justice.
Build a teaching artist collaborative that increases sustainability, visibility and the continually-improving practice of the field.
Amplify the impact of creative community engaged projects on communities throughout the region through strong communications, effective knowledge-sharing, and pioneering models which can be adopted and adapted widely.
Develop cross-sector partnerships that foster broad support and participation in creative projects to strengthen personal, school and community well-being.

What do we mean by thriving communities and well-being?
A “thriving” community doesn’t mean that residents never have difficulties. It means that any difficulties are accompanied by access to well-being, which comprises:

Relationships – Individuals feel seen, heard and valued, and a sense of belonging.

Support – Individuals feel people have their back.

Engagement – Individuals feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

Thanks to Tasha Golden for inspiring this definition of thriving communities and well-being.

VT Gathering

The Vermont Gathering
IMAGINING WHAT'S POSSIBLE

NETAC hosted its first gathering in July 2023, when fifty teaching artists and community leaders from across New England convened in Burlington, VT for a day-and-a-half of planning, learning and visioning together.

The Gathering's goal was to "start well" and shape the next steps for NETAC to develop as an initiative serving teaching artists and communities throughout New England.

NETAC's strategic framework, designed by the Steering Committee over several months leading up to the Gathering, outlines three growth areas for the network that were explored and further defined at the Gathering: Communication, Network Building, and Professional Learning.

Next Steps

For NETAC to realize its vision, we need a network of individuals and organizations throughout New England that contribute time and resources to its development.

To help build NETAC's capacity to support teaching artists as community catalysts in your area, complete this INTEREST FORM and we will be in touch.

Corey DePina, ZUMIX (MA); Rhoda Bernard, Berklee College of Music (MA)

The Rhode Island cohort

L to R: Rebecca Teeters, Long School of Music (MA); Allison Hawkins, NH State Council on the Arts; Jason Young & Randall Nielson, Queerlective (NH); Troy Hickman, VT Arts Council.

L to R foreground: Tyler French, Colby College (ME); Erin Maile O'Keefe, Teaching Artist (VT); Natalya Tausanovitch, New England Foundation for the Arts.

L to R: Majesty Reyes, Teaching Artist (CT); Hanna Ross, Rhode Island Philharmonic; Jane Wegscheider, The Arts Garden (MA)

Lead Sponsors

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