Interpreting the Arts

Interpreting the Arts: A Digital Library for Humanities Teaching in the Performing and Visual Arts is designed specifically for courses in the North Carolina Central University Teaching Artist Certificate program, directed by Lenora Helm Hammonds. This digital library is intended to aide the student, equip the instructor, and provide a substantial collection of resources to the teaching artist field at large. The first of its kind at an HBCU and only the second university in the U.S. to host such a program, the NCCU Teaching Artist Certificate — an online instructional program — welcomed its first students in Fall 2017. The first courses covered pre-requisite material. Subsequent courses in future semesters, Arts Integration and Collaboration and the Capstone Residency for Teaching Artists, will incorporate the contents of the proposed digital library. The digital library will comprise a diverse array of American artists, including a segment of African-American native North Carolinians. The artists chronicled are from all genres in the arts and all arts disciplines. The resulting collection will fill a void in teaching materials on an underrepresented, diverse swath of internationally renowned NC and US performing and visual artists.

Materials from the Library have also been used in other contexts, for example during Prof. Lenora Hammonds' 2018 Javett Jazz artist residency at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.