Integrated Learning, Art and Education Consulting

Charles Chip Mc Neal teaches and develops in-service and pre-service training workshops for artists and educators in the U.S. and around the world. He instructs in multiple arts integration methodologies, including; Teaching for Understanding (TfU) and Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) theory and practice. He advises on critical pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching strategies, multicultural education and curriculum development that implement both the California State and National Standards in Arts Education, as well as the new Core Arts Standards (2014).

Consulting Clients

• Harvard Graduate School of Education (2011-present)
• Stanford University (2010-2014)
• The California Arts Council (2014)
• San Francisco Unified School District (2005-Present)
• New Orleans Ballet Association (2013)
• The Edinburgh International Arts Festival, Scotland (1999, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2012)
• The California State Department of Education
• South Africa Ballet Theatre (2005)
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• San Francisco Arts Commission
• Houston Ballet
• English National Ballet
• San Francisco Aids Foundation

Presenter – Master Artist/Educator

• Instructor –Alameda County Office of Education (2011-present)
• Instructor – San Francisco Ballet School (1985-2014)
• Presenter – National Dance Education Organization Conference (2014)
• Presenter/Master Artist Educator – Dance Integration Professional Development Workshop Series for principals and school leaders – San Francisco Unified School District (2011-2013)
• Artist/Educator – Stern Grove – SF Kid Days Workshop Series
• Director – Cultural Connections Through Dance, de Young Museum, SF, CA (Spring 2010)
• Director & Presenter – Dance-IT, a multi-media technology installation & Workshop Series (SF Public Library,The Children’s Creativity Museum and Segerstrom Center for the Arts) (2008)
• Director – Bay Area National Dance Week Children’s Showcase, Union Square Park, SF, CA (Spring 2006)
• Director – The Performance Project, SF Ballet Children’s Production, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF, CA (Spring 2002-2006)

 

Adjudicator – Panelist

• California Arts Council (2013)
• National Endowment for the Arts (2012)
• National Endowment for the Arts, Learning in the Arts, Dance (2010)
• Master Artist, SF Arts Educators Funding Collaborative (SFUSD) (2002)
• National Endowment for the Arts Re-authorization Committee (1996)
• National Endowment for the Arts Partnership Grants Panel (1991-1994)
• National Endowment for the Arts Challenge III Grants Panel (1989)
• California Dance Educators Assoc. Workshop Presenter (1996 &1997)
• Kennedy Center office of Education Panelist, Washington, D.C. (1995)
• California Arts Council, Site Evaluator and Panelist (1994-1996)

 

Director, Videographer, Multimedia & Technology Artist

Chip Mc Neal has served as featured artist, writer, director and producer of several arts, education, multimedia and technology ventures. He has also produced and directed several video documentaries and demonstration projects.

1. The San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker Storybook App – Creative visionary, developer and project lead (2014)
2. Alameda County Office of Education’s ILSP Online Course Management System, Designer (2014)
3. Dance-IT (Dance and Information Technology): An interactive dance movement and digital media installation, Creator/Producer (2008)

Videos include critically received:

• Monsters and Dinosaurs (2000)
• Dance Children: New Steps for Dance In Schools (2001)
• Dance Children: Big Steps for Little Kids, (CAC) funded (2002)

 

Memberships

• Board of Directors, National DanceEducation Organization (2011-2014)
• Steering Committee, San Francisco Unified School District’s Arts Education Master Plan (2009-present)
• Steering Committee, Alameda County Office of Education’s Alliance for Arts Learning (2011-present)
• Dance Education Initiative Leadership Committee (DEI), Alameda County (2011-present)
• Americans for the Arts
• Teaching for Tolerance
• California Dance Education Association
• California Alliance for Arts Education
• Dance USA
• Create CA

Mr. Mc Neal served as Principal Collaborator and Master Artist on the original City of San Francisco’s Arts Policy Resource Development Committee charged with design and implementation of The San Francisco Arts Policy Plan. He was a curriculum writer for Model Lessons in the first San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Fine Arts Guide, the first document that specified instructional strategies and learning objectives for the public school system . Currently, he still serves on on the Steering Committee for San Francisco Unified School District’s Arts Education Master Plan.

 

Sample Projects

 

 

Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Future of Learning Institute (2014)

Guest Faculty/Charrette Leader

Boston, Massachusetts

 

The Future of Learning: Preparing Professionals in Education for a Changing World

Contemporary societal, scientific, and technological changes are transforming the nature of learning and calling for proactive educational innovation responses. Phenomena ranging from the digital revolution and globalization to emerging knowledge about the mind/brain and new strategies to achieve equity in education call upon educational institutions to re-conceptualize what matters most to learn, by whom, and how, in order to thrive in today’s world.

Responding to this demand, the Future of Learning Institute [FoL] is a Project Zero-led Harvard Graduate School of Education Professional Education program designed to advance new conceptualizations of learning, explore their implications for educational practice, and nurture a generation of informed educational visionaries. A part of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching — a catalyst for transforming students’ educational experiences across Harvard University, in Cambridge and around the world — the FOL team is designing and piloting a novel professional learning environment. This environment capitalizes on digital and social media learning principles to prepare leaders in education for their changing role in the 21st century. At FoL, we build on available research on learning and instruction (specifically studies of teaching and learning in digital and social media environments) and adapt them to meet practical instructional goals for a new age.

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A unique component of FoL is a group that seeks to design and test innovations: a new social media enhanced learning experience, or charrette, and an accompanying interactive digital learning platform to support professional learning. The charrette entails a design challenge in which participants must capitalize on available expertise and social networks to create a novel solution to a real problem represented by actual stakeholders.

Our charrette is a cross-disciplinary collaborative process: Our charrette is developed in dialogue with colleagues whose research on the changing nature of learning embodies perspectives ranging from anthropology, cognitive development, and neuroscience to new media studies and design. As a result we expect the proposed design environment to function as a modest trading zone (Galison 1997) for faculty ideas.

An experimental prototype for later dissemination: The proposed innovations will be tested in the Future of Learning Institute and examined for implementation in other programs in professional development within and beyond HGSE.

A resource on the future of learning and innovation: Because of its very focus on the changing nature of learning, the FOL environment will offer a space populated with information, videos, and documented examples of research-informed and learner-centered instructional innovations. To learn more, visit the Future of Learning website: www.futureoflearningpz.org

Lead Project Staff: Veronica Boix-Mansilla – PI, Howard Gardner – Advisor, David Perkins – Advisor

 

Inventing Our Future: Integrated Learning Summer Institute (ILSI) 2014 

Co-producer, Host and Moderator

Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland, CA

The Third Annual Integrated Learning Summer Institute: Inventing our Future 2014 is at the Chabot Space and Science Center, sponsored by Alameda County Office of Education.

The Integrated Learning Summer Institute: Inventing Our Future brings educators and community leaders together to build collaborative relationships and professional practice. The institute promotes the thoughtful alignment of content standards, assessments and powerful learning across the curriculum through an engaging and cost-effective professional development model.

Inventing Our Future (at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland), is a project of the Alameda County Office of Education in partnership with Contra Costa, San Francisco, Napa, Marin, Solano and San Mateo County Offices of Education in the CCSESA Region 4. This powerful institute is modeled after Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom and features opening plenaries with national leaders and dynamic mini-courses on the intersections between education, arts and science, and environment and social justice issues.

 

 

West Africa Cultural Exchange (2013)

Artographer and Advisor

Conakry, Guinea, West Africa

In January of 2013, Mr. Mc Neal joined Joti Singh and Bongo Sidibe, the Directors of the Duniya Dance Company on the first worldwide invitational Cultural Exchange in Conakry, Guinea (West Africa). The 6-person American contingent was joined by 9 other artists and educators from around the world. We lived, danced, drummed, and ate together for 3-4 weeks becoming embedded in the cultural fabric of the region. Mr. Mc Neal had the opportunity to study customs and culture in the “first-person”. He and his comrades were embraced by the whole community and invited to participate and perform in his fist authentic Dundunba – a community celebration!

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Creative Scotland – ArtWorks Conference 2012

Keynote Presenter

Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

The conference was led by keynote speakers Arlene Goldbard and Charles Chip McNeal, who also delivered workshops in ‘Ethics and Values of Community Arts Practice’ and ‘Creating Capacity while Creating Community’. McNeal is Director of Education at San Francisco Ballet. He is an award winning lecturer, choreographer and teacher working across artforms, with particular interest in social justice, multiculturalism, quality and ethics.

The ArtWorks Scotland 2012 Conference

 

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The Performance Project (2006)

Producer, Director & Host

San Francisco City Hall

The Performance Project introduces students to the art of performing. Through the act of presenting, students learn choreographic principals, develop performing skills, and begin to understand the communicative potential of dance movement. Using the body as an instrument of expression, dance students learn problem solving and group skills necessary to creating dance composition. Participants are nurtured in a safe and supportive environment by professional artist educators from the CDE’s specially trained staff. Following multiple rehearsal sessions, the experience culminates in public performances at participants’ schools and at various venues throughout San Francisco. The Performance Project builds self-esteem in participants providing an opportunity for personal discovery, and allows them to share what they have learned with others. This program is free of charge to all students and audiences.

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South African Ballet Theatre Cultural Exchange Project

Project Director

Johannesburg, South Africa

Project Overview

The South Africa Cultural Exchange Project was an extensive venture that had expected and some unexpected outcomes. It was a (cultural) learning experience for the artists involved as much as it was for the disenfranchised students we engaged. San Francisco Ballet received funding from the Flora Family Foundation to support a two-week exchange program with South African Ballet Theatre. The intention was to develop the latter’s capacity for enhanced education and outreach programming, and facilitate mutual artistic/cultural exchange.

In order to make the most of the expedition, the artists had to learn about Apartheid, then, and now. We learned of the diverse cultural groups that make up South Africa’s native population; Zulu, Ndebele, Swazi, Pedi, Tswana. It became clear that South Africa is a unique and interesting place with many traditions and culture. It is also a place of contradictions.

The South African Ballet Theatre, South Africa’s largest dance company, formed in 2001 following the closure of the State Theatre, Pretoria. Though now ensconced in the their new home at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, the company is still in the process of stabilizing operations, building programming, and setting up nonprofit status in both South Africa and the United States. It has managed to produce a “home season” each year since 2001, and opened a ballet school in 2002. Among the SABT’s pressing needs is counsel to assist in institutional development, particularly in the areas of education and outreach, ballet school curriculum, and training for choreographers. In seeking out best practices to assist with institutional development, SABT has established a relationship with San Francisco Ballet, which has an internationally acclaimed track record in both community service and artistic achievement.
The needs and abilities of the respective organizations were uniquely matched to undertake a cultural exchange program

South Africa Project Summary

This exchange focused on education and outreach programming, development, refinement of a school syllabus, and on other artistic matters. The fourteen-day residency allowed San Francisco Ballet personnel to bring with them specific skills and experience that addressed areas in which SABT seeks to improve and/or expand its work. The Cultural Exchange project had two strands: Bustamante worked with SABT principals and soloists, lending coaching expertise for upcoming performances; simultaneously, Brandenhoff and McNeal taught SABT’s school and community outreach programs, reaching more than 500 children in the process. On average, Brandenhoff and McNeal taught two to four community outreach programs and school classes each day-20 to 30 students in each class, ranging in age from six to seventeen years old. In addition, we held several “teacher consultation” sessions in which local instructors could inquire about SFB’s outreach implementation strategy, pedagogical approaches, and program structures.

A debriefing session was held between company representatives and the exchange artists at the conclusion of the two weeks. Each group believed the project to be tremendously successful, reaching the stated goals and achieving more than anyone expected. The project was well documented, and a thirty minute documentary was produced which fully illuminates this remarkable experience.

Project Statistics

Project Period: June 7, 2004 through June 18, 2004

1. Workshops and Classes: 12
2. Participating Students: 500
3. Rehearsals/Coaching Sessions: 17
4. Artists: 7-24
5. Teacher Discussion/Consultations: 3
6. Participating Teachers: 16
7. Performances Attended: 5
8. Food Eaten:
   • Wart Hog, Ostrich, Springbuck, Wopani Worms, Antelope, Alligator

 

Arts Education Consulting Services
Charles Chip Mc Neal teaches and develops in-service and pre-service training workshops for artists and educators. He instructs in multiple arts integration methodologies, including; Teaching for Understanding , Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) theory and practice. He advises on critical pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching strategies, multicultural education and curriculum development that carry out both the California State and National Standards in Arts Education.

For consulting services, questions or for more information, please use the Contact Page.

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