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Sustainability in Crisis
Sustainability in Crisis:
Using Equity-Centered Practices to Reduce Burnout in Arts Classrooms
Friday, April 10, from 10 AM to 5 PM at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Registration Required | Free to attend | Lunch stipend provided
Join us for an in-person professional development session on strategies to reduce burnout. This session will equip arts educators and teaching artists with equity-centered tools and practice routines that reduce burnout by addressing systemic stressors, strengthening community, and streamlining planning and decision-making through culturally responsive approaches.
More about this session:
This full-day, in-person professional learning intensive is designed to help arts educators and teaching artists move beyond survival mode and toward sustainable practice. Rather than focusing on personal resilience or “self-care,” this session reframes burnout as a systems issue and introduces practical, equity-centered strategies that reduce strain, clarify expectations, and support long-term sustainability. Throughout the day, participants will engage in hands-on learning, collaborative analysis, and real-time practice grounded in authentic arts education and teaching artist contexts.
Participants will:
- Identify the systemic conditions that contribute to burnout in arts classrooms and programs
- Learn how misalignment, not lack of care, often drives stress and exhaustion
- Practice using equity-centered tools that support clearer communication and decision-making
- Apply strategies to real challenges they are currently navigating in their work
- Create a Personal Sustainability Plan with realistic next steps they can immediately use and revisit.
This session is highly interactive, with a strong emphasis on discussion, reflection, and practice. Participants will spend more time working with peers than listening to a lecture and will leave with concrete tools, shared language, and renewed clarity about how to sustain themselves and their practice.
Whether you work in a classroom, community-based program, or across multiple sites, this intensive is designed to meet you where you are and help you move forward in ways that feel aligned, humane, and possible.
About the facilitator:
Ashley Cuthbertson, M.Ed, NBCT (she/her), is a nationally recognized speaker, arts consultant, and the author of Music As a Vehicle: A Practical Guide to Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching in Today’s Music Classrooms. Her work explores how the arts are a vehicle for building the skills needed for success in school, career, and life—skills like collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, leadership, and perseverance.
As the founder and principal consultant of A. Cuthbertson Consulting, Ashley partners with schools, districts, and organizations to reimagine the arts through a culturally relevant lens to build critical skills for success. She helps K-12 schools and districts develop equitable program policies, cultivate affirming learning environments, and design culturally responsive curriculum and instruction that provide pathways to success for all learners. She also works with organizations beyond education, helping them apply arts-based strategies to strengthen team culture, enhance leadership, and foster collaboration.
Ashley is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and holds a Master of Education degree from Loyola University Maryland and a Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University. She also holds certifications in Arts Integration and the Kodály approach.
Accessibility
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is committed to ensuring that the museum’s facilities, services, exhibitions, and programs comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. The museum’s New York Avenue entrance has a ramp to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers. The address for accessible drop-off is 1250 New York Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005. Find more accessibility information here. If you have any questions or would like to request accommodations, please email Shelby Hubbard, Engagement Manager, at shelby@dccollaborative.org.
DC Collaborative revised its memberships to provide a better experience for our community.
We encourage members of diverse backgrounds, professions, and interests, including (but not limited to) teaching artists, arts and humanities organizations, non-profits, for-profits, parents, educators, and government representatives to join.
