Release: Shereen Choudhury as Arts Learning Specialist

Overview

The Nevada Arts Council has hired Las Vegas-native Shereen Choudhury as the council’s arts learning specialist. In this position, Choudhury will support, increase and expand arts learning across the state of Nevada to ensure that all residents have access to quality arts education experiences.

Choudhury is a resource for teaching artists and artists who want to add teaching to their creative practice. They are also available to support any Nevada organization that wants to bring arts education programming to its community spaces. Choudhury also is the statewide coordinator for Poetry Out Loud, a national contest for high school students to master public speaking skills, build confidence and learn about literary history and contemporary life.

The Arts Learning program area also includes grants, specifically to teaching artists creating more access to arts education in Nevada schools and communities, and bringing Creative Aging programs to adults 50 or older. Choudhury is based in the council’s southern Nevada office in Las Vegas.

“As a teaching artist, I’ve been able to bring creative and arts education experiences to many different communities, in particular to underserved communities and people who don’t always have access to the arts,” Choudhury said. “I’ve seen firsthand the power of arts education and how beneficial and even therapeutic it can be. For me, arts education is about personal empowerment and community building.”

Shereen Choudhury

They earned their Bachelor of Arts in art history with a museum education concentration from Smith College followed by a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Southern California. They have spent close to two decades in arts education, first as an elementary school art teacher and then as an educational consultant, helping teaching artists increase their community-based programming.

Choudhury also has a background in bringing collaborative placemaking projects that build the link between arts education and community.

“I think that arts are an amazing way to get to know ourselves and one another so that we can come together to create positive change in the world. The arts help us to create spaces that include everyone,” they said.

As a Las Vegas-born and
-raised artist, Choudhury has seen how arts education can help unlock students’ drive and success. As a struggling high school student, discovering the arts helped them find purpose and direction in life. These experiences in education are what inspired them to become an art teacher and lifelong advocate for arts education.

Research has shown that exposure to the arts and arts education helps students across the board with higher attendance rates and grades in every subject area, they said.

“Shereen brings vast experience as both an arts educator and a creative herself,” said Tony Manfredi, Nevada Arts Council executive director. “Her dedication to lifelong learning in the arts will help promote and expand quality arts education opportunities for all Nevada citizens. They are an asset to our team.”

I hope to support talented creatives to teach, share their creative process, and inspire our communities through the arts.

I’m passionate about the arts because I was a creative student who fell through the cracks of the education system as a high school student. I struggled in school, and it wasn’t until I discovered the arts that I became a high achiever and started to see what I was capable of. Exposure to the arts has been what’s moved me forward in life, and I want to make sure that everyone who needs it has access to creative experiences and all of the wonderful benefits that come from arts education.

My experiences in education are what pushed me to become a licensed art educator. I earned my Master in Teaching to teach elementary school and, following that, pursued additional specializations to teach K-12 visual arts. I wanted to be the art teacher that I always needed and help other students who, like myself, needed to find their place in school and in the…