Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) receives $1.3M grant from the Paul M Angell Family Foundation toward furthering nationwide youth support through the advancement of music educators
Miami, FL – June 5, 2024. Miami Music Project is pleased to announce its Teaching Artists Training Institute (TATI) initiative has been awarded a $1,325,000 grant by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. This funding will provide multiyear support for advancing social impact through music education and the sustained training of Teaching Artists spearheading social change in youth and their communities.
TATI is a transformative program that leverages the advancement of music education by serving Teaching Artists nationwide, offering accessible training and furthering education opportunities through year-round virtual training, customized in-person workshops, and an intensive weeklong learning retreat. To date, TATI has engaged over 350 diverse Teaching Artists nationally, subsequently supporting 30,000 youth from underrepresented communities across the US.
A national program championed by Miami Music Project, TATI proudly enters its fourth year enjoying sustainable growth and scaling operations, upholding its parent organization’s core values. In the words of President Anna Klimala:
“We are honored by the tremendous, continued support the Paul M Angell Family Foundation has provided to launch and grow the Teaching Artists Training Institute. If we wish to change a child’s life, we must address and strengthen all aspects of the learning experience, especially the teachers. TATI ensures that the value and self-realization derived from a music lesson are symbiotic with the gratification and commitment of the Teaching Artists to serve a greater purpose. This ultimately serves our overarching goal to empower youth through music education in the United States.”
TATI looks forward to the next level of transformation of music education practice by sustaining and expanding existing programming and launching new, impactful initiatives. Among these endeavors, TATI will be launching the pilot of its Extended Fellowship Program, designed for Lead Teaching Artists and Program Managers. This new program aims to offer comprehensive training that enables supervisors to more effectively support their Teaching Artists. Furthermore, TATI is exploring the development of a Teaching Artist Certificate Program. This initiative underscores TATI’s dedication to nurturing Teaching Artists at an elevated standard and would offer an accredited pathway for Teaching Artists from a wide variety of backgrounds and educational experiences.
“As TATI continues to deepen programs for Teaching Artists across all facets of their profession, we remain dedicated to equipping them with the tools and confidence needed to excel as educators,” shared TATI’s Managing Director, Anna Barson. “We intimately understand the challenges Teaching Artists face each day in their classrooms and ultimately, through the TATI program, aim to help them forge stronger bonds with their students, organizations, and communities, ensuring they can support their students to the fullest”.
“The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation is delighted to provide continued funding to the Teaching Artist Training Initiative of Miami Music Project,” said Mike Angell, Director of the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Performing Arts Program. “TATI’s distinctive model has proven very effective in providing essential professional development to teaching artists, benefiting their students, families, and neighborhoods. We stand proudly with TATI in support of our nation’s teachers. They are a central, positive part of our children’s lives and deserve our respect, energy, thoughtfulness, and support. Bravi to the teachers! Well done, TATI!”
About Paul M Angell Family Foundation
The Paul M Angell Family Foundation honors the ideals of Paul M. Angell by endowing organizations and activities that are emblematic of his character and sensitive to his concerns in the certain knowledge that change for the better in society is best gained through the constructive involvement of its individual citizens. With a mission to advance society through the performing arts, conservation of the world’s oceans, and alleviation of poverty, the Foundation makes grants in those priority areas while embodying the legacy of Paul M. Angell’s compassion, ingenuity, and industriousness. Since its establishment in 2011, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation has supported the presentation, perpetuation, and propagation of the performing arts, funding professional performers, presenters, and educators. The Foundation supports major organizations and newer initiatives, enabling the development of impactful programs that benefit our communities and serving as an essential partner in national efforts that bring the intensity of arts and culture to life.
About Miami Music Project
Miami Music Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that uses music as an instrument for social transformation, empowering children to acquire values and achieve their full potential, positively affecting their society through the study and performance of music. Miami Music Project’s vision is to create opportunity and access through music for those most in need, improve the quality of life for children today, and ultimately transform their lives, the lives of their families, and their communities. Emerging as a model for music education programs nationally, Miami Music Project offers free-of-charge, after-school programming to all students with no barriers to entry, regardless of race or economic status. As of today, Miami Music Project has reached over 30,000 children and youth across Miami-Dade County, becoming one of the largest socially transformative music initiatives in the US. Miami Music Project’s programming is inspired by the El Sistema phenomenon – a new model for social change and a visionary global movement that transforms the lives of children through music.
