Jeff Mather
I’ve worked as a community-based public artist and teaching artist in Georgia (and SC and MA and UT) for over 30 years. I’ve been on the Georgia Council for the Arts roster of visiting artists since 1992. I received a BA degree in Proxemics from Hobart College. I co-founded the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning, an arts infusion non-profit with Dr. Lisa Delpit, Alice Lovelace, and Jane Fonda in 2001. I’m best known for conducting site sculpture residencies and directing public art projects. I toured an arts infusion program for nine years with a choreographer and also a storytelling program with master storyteller, Cathy Kaemmerlen. I have directed several experimental theater productions at the Center for Puppetry Arts and served as artist-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum. I am currently the STEAM artist-in-residence at Drew Charter School for 45 days each semester and have presented on my partnership work there at many national conferences, including the Georgia DoE’s STEM/STEAM Forum and Georgia Tech’s STEAM Leadership Conference. I have been a delegate and presenter at International Teaching Artist Conferences in Oslo, Norway, and Edinburgh, Scotland, and at Carnegie Hall/NYC, and in Oslo again in 2022. I have been the lead teaching artist for The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Access program in northern Utah since 2012, a program with a full inclusion mission working with students with disabilities, leading multi-teaching artist and multi-disciplinary co-residencies. I’m also a Reiser Artists Lab artist at the Alliance Theater where I’m co-directing an experimental performance project in 2023 with two other GCA teaching artist registry teaching artists.
Social Media: Instagram, Facebook
Arts Disciplines: Visual Art, Theatre/Drama, Dance, Media Arts, Creative Writing, Storytelling, Puppetry, Digital Storytelling & Multi-disciplinary Performative STEAM
Core Content Curriculum Areas: Visual Art, Music, Theatre/Drama, Dance, Media Arts, English/Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies/History, Physical Education, Technology, All of the above! Seasoned STEAM TA here.
Specialized Content Areas: Arts Integration, STEAM, Literacy, History, Math, World Cultures, Character Education, Social Justice Education, Mindfulness Strategies, Classroom Management Strategies
Grade Levels: Pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, Multi-generational
Special Populations: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Students, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students, LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex) students, Exceptional Learners (students with disabilities as ell as those who are gifted and talented
Pre-Service Learning and Professional Development: Post-Secondary/Pre-Service Learning, Professional Development for K-12 Teachers, Professional Development for Teaching Artists, Co-mentoring circles with younger teaching artists & also many Arts Education and STEAM conference presentations
Geographic Availability: Metro Atlanta, North Georgia, Middle Georgia, South Georgia
Program Types:
School-based Classroom Workshop(s), School-based Assembly Program, School-based Residency Program, School-based Summer Program
Community-based Workshop(s), Community-based Assembly Program, Community-based Residency Program, Community-based Summer Program
Online Content for School Use, Online Content for Community Use, Online Content for Summer Program Use, Hybrid Online and In-Person Content for Schools, Hybrid Online and In-Person Content for Communities, Hybrid Online and In-Person Content for Summer Programs
Program Fees:
Fee structure may vary based on distance traveled, program length, audience size, grade level, or other factors.
- Meet-the-Artist Assemblies: $200 for a 30 min. to 45 min. assembly. Typically run twice in advance of the start of a residency, or on the first day.
- Workshop Fee: $350 for 3-hour digital storytelling training workshop (teacher PD) with sequence of four sessions minimum. Workshop fees for in-school workshops vary, depending on the workshop and grade level involved, but most are $200 for a half day and $400 for a whole day.
- Residency Fee: $400 per day or $4,000. for a minimum 10-day residency; $8,000 for a 20-day residency + sculpture materials budget of approximately $1,500., plus travel. A typical residency is 15 days long and costs $10,000. including materials, travel, and lodging, if lodging is donated.
- Access to Online Content & Hybrid Online and In-Person Fees: To be negotiated on case by case basis
Artistic Profile:
I’ve worked as a community-based public artist and teaching artist in Georgia (and SC and MA and UT) for over 30 years. I’ve been on the Georgia Council for the Arts roster of visiting artists since 1992. I received a BA degree in Proxemics from Hobart College. I am the board president of the Atlanta Partnership for Arts in Learning, an arts infusion non-profit that I helped to co-found with Dr. Lisa Delpit, Alice Lovelace, and Jane Fonda in 2001. The philosophy of APAL is: to enhance both academic and arts education through a flexible, arts-infused classroom experience, and to nurture a teaching model for profound learning and thought. This is the work that I have done as a teaching artist for 25+ years, conducting site sculpture residencies and directing public art projects. I also toured an arts infusion program for nine years with a choreographer and a storytelling program with master storyteller, Cathy Kaemmerlen. I have directed several experimental theater productions at the Center for Puppetry Arts and served as artist-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum. I am currently the STEAM artist-in-residence at Drew Charter School for 45 days each semester and have presented on my partnership work there at several national conferences. I was invited to be a delegate and presenter at the 1st International Teaching Artist Conference in Oslo, Norway, and also at the 3rd ITAC in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2016.
Teaching Experience:
I have served as artist-in-residence at over 150 schools. I am a trained digital storytelling coach and created digital storytelling programs for the Woodruff Art Center and for APAL (Atlanta Partnership for Arts for Learning) and I’ve conducted many digital storytelling residencies in addition to serving as the digital storytelling coach for nine years at the South Atlanta School of Law & Social Justice. As an APAL teaching artist, I have co-written and co-taught units in World History, Math, Chemistry/Physics, and Special Ed. I am also a facilitator for Alternate ROOTS RSC (Resources for Social Change) and I have designed, anchored, and facilitated PD retreats for teaching artists from all disciplines.
Sample Programs:
- Site Sculpture Residency: Jeff Mather’s Site Sculpture residencies engage students in an investigation of spatial perception and environmental awareness. Jeff presents three-dimensional design as an art form that is involved in many careers, including architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, engineering, and public art. Student teams create a collaborative, community-based work of art that is site responsive.
- Digital Storytelling Workshop/Residency: Jeff has been a digital storytelling coach and trainer in Georgia since 2004. He was also a presenter at the International Digital Storytelling conference in 2015. His DST workshops begin with story circles and the prompt: “Tell a story that only you can tell.” Jeff guides participants though the narrative writing, editing, and recording process and then helps them to create visual layers that are as compelling as their narrative. DST is best suited to 8th grade through adult age groups. It is ideal to have access to Mac Labs or mobile MacBook or iPad labs, but DST can still be done with Windows Movie Maker, if that is what a school has available. Finished projects are typically about 3 minutes long each and are presented in a culminating event screening. Jeff has also created DST training programs for teachers and a modified form of DST, called Digital Image Story, for visual arts curricula, that simplifies the art form to be simply visual without the spoken narrative layer.
Sample Lesson Plans/Study Guides:
- Listing ID: 6019