Laurel Butler
Lecturer of Studio Arts | Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Lecturer of Studio Arts
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Biography
Dr. Laurel Butler (she/her) is an educator, facilitator, organizer, and performing artist based in Los Angeles, CA on ancestral Tonva/Kizh/Chumash/Tataviam land. She is the Arts Education Specialist for the Entertainment Community Fund, the Director of Youth Programming at Everyday Arts, and the founder of Laurel Butler Consulting, LLC. As an independent arts education and social justice consultant, Laurel develops and facilitates educational experiences that engage people of all positionalities at the intersection of the arts, social justice, and social-emotional wellbeing, specializing in creative experiential program design and implementation
Laurel received her M.A. in Theater Education and Community Outreach from the University of New Mexico in 2010, and her Doctorate in Social Justice Leadership for Educational and Professional Practice from Antioch University in 2023. Since moving to California in 2011, she has served as Associate Director of UCLA’s Visual and Performing Arts Education program, Performing Arts Education & Social Emotional Learning Specialist for the LA County Office of Education, Youth Development & Leadership Specialist for the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network, Program Manager of the Young Artivists Lab at Inner-City Arts, Faculty Lecturer in the UCLA World Arts and Cultures/Dance Department, Youth Arts Manager and Education/Engagement Specialist at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Adjunct Professor in the Performing Arts and Social Justice Department at the University of San Francisco, and an educational consultant for numerous organizations including the Getty Museum, Artworx LA, the Feminist Center for Creative Work, the CalArts Community Arts Partnership and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture.
Laurel is a recipient of the 21st Century Fox Social Impact award, a Creative Capacity Fund Next Gen Award, an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Fellowship, and multiple grants from the California Arts Council. She has presented her work at the Allied Media Conference, the Create Justice Conference, the Arts in Corrections Conference, the Teaching Beyond the Curriculum Conference, Beyond the Bars LA, and the National Convening for Teens in the Arts. Her scholarly work has been published in academic journals and online publications including Theater Topics, the Journal of Museum Education, Antioch Voices, and the National Teens-in-the-Arts Report.
Education (3)
Hampshire College: Bachelor of Arts, Performing Arts Pedagogy and Community Cultural Development 2006
University of New Mexico: Master of Arts, Theater Education and Community Outreach 2010
Antioch University: Doctor of Education, Social Justice Leadership for Educational and Professional Practice 2023
Areas of Expertise (3)
Creative Youth Development
Arts Education
Social Justice
Industry Expertise (3)
Professional Training and Coaching
Education/Learning
Performing Arts
Affiliations (3)
- Director of Youth Programming - Everyday Arts
- Arts Education Specialist - The Entertainment Community Fund
- Owner / Principal - Laurel Butler Consulting, LLC
Links (3)
Languages (2)
- English
- Spanish
Articles (2)
Something Larger than Ourselves: Redefining the Young Artists at Work Program as an Art-as-Activism Residency for Teens
Journal of Museum EducationLaurel Butler
2015-11-02
The Young Artists at Work Program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) recently shifted its model from an afterschool arts program to a young artists' residency. This decision arose from a desire to reposition the youth program as a priority within the larger organization, coupled with a commitment to deepening the pedagogical values of community engagement, positive youth development, and project-based learning. The EMC Arts Innovation Lab for Museums helped pilot the prototyping of a YBCA staff participation model, using an individualized curricular approach to activate new networks of internal and external support. This article details the ways in which an initially semantic shift led to significant changes in program scope, visibility, integration, and outcomes.
“Everything seemed new”: Clown as Embodied Critical Pedagogy
Johns Hopkins University PressLaurel Butler
2012-03-01
What do we teach when we teach clown? Over the past several years, I have investigated this question by collaborating with a number of different student communities to develop a basic pedagogy of clown: a set of exercises, along with guiding philosophical principles, offering the novice performer an introduction to theatrical clown-performance technique. My pedagogy is, of course, only one approach to teaching clowning; the fundamental principles are particular to a European model of clown, based on the teachings of French clown masters Jacques Lecoq and Phillipe Gaulier. However, in contrast to Lecoq (for whom clown practice is limited to “talented” or formally trained performers), I am of the opinion that anyone, regardless of age or experience, is quite capable of participating in the practice of clown.
