Workshop: Implementing Best Practices in Accessible Arts Education
Learn about Accessible Arts Education by exploring strategies and analyzing music classroom activities. This session will explore some foundations of working with students with disabilities, and then turn to how to engage Accessible Arts Education strategies with students. Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on activities, you will learn how to make your teaching more accessible by anticipating barriers to student engagement, participation, and learning, and by striving to reduce and remove them.
Dr. Rhoda Bernard is the Founding Managing Director of the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education and the Assistant Chair of the Music Education Department at Berklee College of Music. She holds a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in government from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Music with academic honors in jazz voice from New England Conservatory. She earned both her Master of Education and Doctor of Education degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Bernard regularly presents keynote presentations and research at conferences throughout the U.S. and abroad, and she provides professional development workshops for educators in local, national, and international forums. Her book, Accessible Arts Education: Principles, Habits, and Strategies to Unleash Every Student’s Creativity and Learning was published in September 2025. Her work has been published in several book chapters and in numerous journals. Bernard has been honored with the Irene Buck Service to Arts Education Award from Arts|Learning (2023), the Berklee Urban Service Award (2017), the Boston Conservatory Community Service Award (2011), the Boston Conservatory Faculty/Staff Spirit Award (2007), and the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention (Second Place) from the Arts and Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. An active arts education advocate, she is the immediate past chair of the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts, and she serves on its speakers bureau. A vocalist and pianist who specializes in jazz music and Jewish music in Yiddish and Hebrew, she performs regularly with a number of klezmer bands and has recorded two CDs with the band Klezamir.
This event is free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored with the Maine Music Educators Association
Event Details
Parking
Due to limited resources, parking is not free on our Portland and Gorham campuses. You must purchase a parking permit or paid parking session to park on campus. We recommend reserving your parking in advance at https://events.parkengage.com/usm.
For easy access to the Crewe Center for the Arts, choose either Parking Garage 1 (attached to the Abromson Community Education Center), Lot P1 (off of Bedford St. by Luther Bonney) or Lot P6 (off of Exeter St. or Deering Ave by the former Maine Law building).
Disability Access and Accommodations
If you have questions about disability access or need to request disability accommodations (e.g. sign language interpreters, materials in electronic format, etc.), please contact Hanna Flewelling at (207) 780-5256 or hanna.flewelling@maine.edu. Requests should be made as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for the accommodation process.
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