Dr. Laurel Butler

ARTS x EDUCATION x SOCIAL JUSTICE

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I'm an educator, facilitator, organizer, performing artist, and arts education & social justice consultant based in the Tongva/Kizh/Chumash/Tataviam lands known as Los Angeles, CA. I love developing and facilitating creative educational programs that engage people of all positionalities at the intersection of the arts, social justice, and social-emotional wellbeing, with culturally responsive and trauma-informed/healing-centered practices as the frame and the center. 

I have a Doctoral degree in Social Justice Leadership for Educational and Professional Practice from Antioch University, a Master of Arts in Theater Education from the University of New Mexico, and have been honored to present my award-winning work via many publications, conferences and stages nationwide. My most recent consulting project, a partnership with Create CA in response to the Prop 28 arts educator workforce shortage in California, can be found at artsedpathways.org

Currently, I’m the senior manager of arts education partnerships at GPSN, leading the strategic arts expansion plan at the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts. I also frequently serve as a senior lecturer on the faculty of the Arts Education program at Loyola Marymount University, director of youth programming for Everyday Arts, and artistic director and producer of the Magic Power Family Hour at the Elysian Theater.

For an archive of past projects, click here; to learn about my consulting services and offerings, see below. I would love to work with you!

CV

OFFERINGS

Creative Program Design & Implementation

  • guest lectures / presentations / group facilitation / workshops for all ages

  • classroom residencies / afterschool programs / teen internships / summer camps

  • preK-12 curricula / lesson plans / college syllabi / teacher trainings

  • community-based performance devising and production

Organizational & Professional Support

  • strategic planning and mission/vision/values alignment

  • pedagogical and artistic project advisement

  • community/group and/or Google Drive organizing

  • writing and editing for projects of all kinds

Professional Development for Educators & Teaching Artists

  • integrate the arts into your teaching practice! 

  • integrate teaching into your arts practice! 

  • individual coaching, cohort learning, and organization-wide programs

CLIENTS

TESTIMONIALS

  • Laurel Butler is a brilliant, passionate, and influential arts educator. She brings an asset-based approach to education, uplifting community voices and ensuring that the work is always centered around our youth's development. Laurel is the rare genius who excels at communicating to a wide range of audiences, with a remarkable ability to break down complex academic concepts into clear, tangible objectives. Her talent as a performing artist is both wide-ranging and genuine, and she is adept at synthesizing her love for the arts with her commitment to education and social justice. A natural leader, Laurel inspires those around her to improve their craft, step just outside their comfort zone, and be the best version of themselves possible.

    Matt Bogdanow
    Director of Education & Grants, Everyday Arts

  • With over 20 years of experience as an Arts Educator, my experience working with Laurel is unmatched. Her knowledge of research and hands-on pedagogy in arts education and working with youth is the perfect recipe in supporting administrators and educators. She holds a safe space for participants to share, build community and walk away with tangible resources to inform and implement in their classrooms. Laurel inspires everyone to be reminded of the true transformative power of the arts in the lives of young people. She is a gift to any individual, school or organization that has the opportunity to work with her!

    Marissa Herrera
    Executive/Artistic Director, 4C Lab

  • Laurel came into our school like a graceful yet powerful force of knowledge and truth. She is a teacher, a guide, and a witness. The intellectual depth and study of social justice she has engaged in feeds her personal and intuitive approach to teaching and connecting with others. She can move seamlessly between cultures and environments, reading the needs of others and thoughtfully approaching who she is interacting with and what they might need from her, in that moment. When I think of the power of modeling to influence young people and adults, Laurel was modeling the social and culturally responsive behaviors for all of us.

    Jennie Willens
    Director of Academic, Student and Community Affairs PK-3
    Echo Horizon School

  • In my work at the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture I have had the good fortune to collaborate with Laurel Butler on a variety of projects and to see her work first hand as a teaching artist and expert facilitator. Laurel’s gifts as a dancer and choreographer are matched by the creativity, emotional power and the intellectual stimulation that she brings to every convening. It is rare that an artist is talented as well in communicating with clarity and connecting with classroom teachers in ways that fire their imaginations and inspire new ways of engaging youth in the arts. Any room in which Laurel is guiding the practice is transformed with sparkling enthusiasm, laughter and the joy of discovery.

    Gregg Johnson
    Program Manager, Arts Education
    Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture

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