The global art teachers exchange is a 3-day weekend of teacher-led workshops, studio sessions and art excursions for visual arts educators from around the world to inspire, collaborate and share ideas. Our professional development events are independently organized, self-funded and hosted by a new school in a different country each year.

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Our ethos is all about sharing best visual arts education practices through collaboration using a grassroots approach rather than a traditional conference model. There are no keynote speakers, no paid presenters and no overarching themes. Workshops are led by art teachers for art teachers, designed to be practical, hands-on and directly applicable to your classroom, PreK through High School. Our goal is to enrich our practice with the ultimate aim of improving student learning.

 

The success of a GATE workshop weekend depends on 100% participation of the attendees--so all art teachers are asked to bring art samples, lesson plans, resources and creative ideas to share with other art teachers. We encourage attendees to also consider leading a workshop session or facilitating a job-alike forum. 

 

We have been fortunate to host our exchanges in the heart of some of the most creative and historical art cities in the world. GATE was launched in 2019 at The American School in London, UK. In 2021, we were hosted by the International School of Florence, Italy. The American International School of Budapest, Hungary hosted GATE in 2022, and this year we celebrated our fourth GATE at the American School of Barcelona, welcoming 74 art teachers from 24 countries! If you and your visual arts team are interested in hosting a future GATE PD weekend, let us know!​