Rolanda Brigham is a professional teaching artist who has been teaching arts integration and empowering the public and students for over 35 years in Chicago and the DFW area. She brings an energized no nonsense approach to arts integration via playwriting, mime, acting, movement, etiquette, voice and diction, storytelling, arts and crafts and music.

 

Rolanda Brigham a native Texan has worked extensively with arts education for the last 40 years in Chicago and Dallas. She is a retired actress who has performed in national commercials, voice overs, industrials, regional theatre as well as on Broadway. A graduate of The College of Santa Fe with Masters work at The University of Kansas.  Rolanda is the product of an innovative arts-based curriculum from Arts Magnet High School at Booker T Washington in Dallas Texas. Rolanda has worked developing and implementing arts based curriculum in Chicago with Gallery 37, Truman Middle College Alternative High School, The Chicago Theatre Company, Pegasus Players, Cornell Interventions, Beacon Street Gallery/Youthnet and Master Artist Program, Urban Gateways, Catholic Charities, Sullivan House Group Home, Chicago's Juvenile Justice Systems' Healy and Smart Programs, LEAP (Lakeview Educational Arts Program) and with numerous high schools and elementary schools through the Chicago area.

 

In Dallas, as a Master Teaching Artist, she has worked extensively with Empowering Through The Arts, Dawn’s Early Light, The NHP Foundation, Services of Hope, The Dallas Urban League, Pinnacle, Big Thought, AT & T Performing Arts Center and Junior Players teaching creative writing, acting, improvisation, ballet, jazz and cultural enrichment programs.  Rolanda has also worked with Big Thought creating study guides, parent guides and activity guides for their reading programs as well as teaching new artists how to engage and teach kids through the arts. She is a founding member of Young Audiences of North Texas’ Wolftrap Program which was specifically designed to target teaching pre-k kids via the arts. The Wolftrap artist develops curriculum through the arts that adheres to state goals and teaches the curriculum to the student and the teacher.  Ms. Brigham is also an active arts educator in the city-wide initiative of Library Live, 'Every Child Ready To Read' that targets early childhood development reading skills in the public library system.

 

 “I want families, surrounding communities and organizations to be enthusiastic about the arts, as well as engaging young people in the educational process at an early age. It is my goal to give the child a strong foundation on which to develop and build their learning engagement in a fun and exciting environment. Once the child has a solid foundation, then the learning process will be much easier and less stressful. This in turn, results in happier kids with focused attention spans, more engaged parents and a community with a renewed sense of value and self-worth!!

 

Education builds communities!!! The Arts saves Lives!!!!“