Candace Mazur-Darman

“You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul.”
George Bernard Shaw

For more than 35 years, Candace Mazur Darman (MEd, Univ. of Northern Colorado) has been a successful teaching artist in central Ohio. She is the founder of Dramatic Impact, a nationally acclaimed children’s theatre company. As a teaching artist for VSA Ohio, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, and for education programs supported by the Ohio Arts Council, Darman works in inclusive classrooms to enhance teaching and learning through arts-integrated residencies and differentiated curriculum. She was recognized by the Greater Columbus Arts Council as the 2015 Outstanding Arts Educator.

Throughout her long and active career, Darman has vigorously advocated for the promise of arts education and the lifelong learning it inspires, for the importance of honoring and celebrating play, natural creativity, imagination, and improvisation. Her work recognizes what children are capable of achieving if given the chance to apply their individual and unique strengths to their learning process.

For Candace, teaching artistry is a collaboration with educators to help them achieve their curricular needs and meet learning standards via the dramatic arts. Teachers are an important component of Candace’s work as a teaching artist. Her artist involvement grows and develops: as a teaching artist, she first becomes the lead teacher. As projects or programs develop, Candace then becomes more of a support teacher, allowing more space for the classroom teacher to take charge. Finally, she as teaching artist becomes a backseat driver. As teachers get stronger, Candace sees her roll as a teaching artist becoming less active but more influential in educator decision-making.

Availability

Upon request