ACE Testimonials

From ACE teacher candidates

"ACE helped me to discover how to be an advocate for the arts in education. It is about the artistic thinking as an important part of creative process, the value of quality arts education, the role of the arts in education. It is about learning from one another, reflecting, sharing, reading, writing, and creating. It has helped me to think in more clinical ways about art, my role as an artist teacher, and about my own work as well."

- Ju-Hye Ahn

"It is easy to find people who understand that value of arts education but it is hard to find educators who are artists at heart. ACE allows artists to become qualified teachers while surrounded by like minded people and pursuing creative endeavors."

- Allison Daley

"Artists who teach do not pay lip service to buzz words like creative and divergent thinking... we live it. It is a part of our way of seeing the world. Since graduating ACE I have pursued many avenues of teaching... part time at the college/university level in theatre and music programs, full time at an Ottawa area high school. When the students you interact with really don't have a sense of what is possible as creative thinkers, you quickly realize how valuable your art form is to opening up their minds to the possibility or contributing to society in alternate way. This is especially true of students who perhaps are being pushed toward 'safe' career paths."

- Eliza Jane Scott

"Our small, select group was a refuge - a place to gather and talk about big ideas in art, education, and the world out there. A diverse group where our incredible range of experiences and skills made for the most exciting collaborative learning opportunities… it was personalized, rich, stimulating, and totally unforgettable."

- Paul Vernon

"The ACE program was a family for me within the BEd year. Being a part of a small group of dedicated artists with the focus of becoming artist-educators made a huge difference. The instructors offered a safe creative space for each candidate to develop an approach to teaching as an artist."

- Dan Dumsha

"Our ACE class quickly became a community, where we all learned not only from our incredible professors and program directors, but also from each other. The program offers a unique syllabus by changing the typical classroom environment to provide aspiring teachers with opportunities to learn through arts workshops, professional artist guest lecturers, trips, and class projects."

- Jocelyn Urguhart