BIG NEWS! The Press Corps is coming back and we’re HIRING!

UPDATE: Applications will be accepted for The Press Corps Manager through Dec 31, 2017.

The Press Corps promotes critical thinking, communication, and information literacy through criticism and journalism practice for teens. Since 2006, some of the city’s most talented professional arts critics from The Seattle Times, The Stranger, Seattle Globalist, Seattle Dances and more, have taught over 550 teens through workshops and intensives focused on arts criticism training, resulting in over 450 reviews of arts and culture events that live on the TeenTix Blog. In 2015, we put the Press Corps on hiatus and worked with task force of community members to address some of the program’s ongoing challenges, including lack of significant racial and socio-economic diversity amongst program participants, and staffing challenges.

The Press Corps is set to re-launch in 2018. Our updated program is designed to include racial equity and social justice priorities, and has an explicit goal of disrupting systems of oppression within arts media that have kept marginalized voices out of arts journalism. New program strategies will center around accessibility - including tailoring class location, time of day, and cost to a particular teen population, and working closely with schools and TeenTix Arts Partners and Community Partners.

The updated Press Corps Program has three tracks for participation, which will be taught by professional journalists working in our community. 2018 will re-launch with one (1) of each of the following tracks:

• TRACK 1: Basic Arts Criticism will focus on the basics of arts criticism, exploring topics such as: What is Criticism; Why Your Voice Matters; History and Ethics; Why Arts Writing Matters; What is Arts Coverage; and more.

• TRACK 2: 5-Week Arts-Going and Criticism Practice will train teens in arts-viewing and critique. Teens will attend 5 shows of various genres and publish 5 pieces of responsive criticism (writing, video, or audio). Themes will be curated based on art being presented in Seattle during that time (social justice, feminism, etc.).

• TRACK 3: Year-Round Journalism: Training and Practice in Editing Reviews for Publication will train teens in the practice of arts editing. Five teen-editors will be selected for a yearlong commitment and a 20-hour editing-intensive. The teen editors will work over the next year, responsible for assigning and editing reviews to graduates from TRACK 1 and 2 with the Press Corps Manager.

Stay-tuned as we fine-tune this program a bit more and check back with us in January for some details on how to be involved as a participant, teaching artist, school, or community youth-serving organization!

Meanwhile - if you think you are the right person to LEAD THIS PROGRAM - check out the job description here!

UPDATE: Applications will be accepted for The Press Corps Manager through Dec 31, 2017.