DR. KYNA ELLIOTT

Teaching Artist

Teaching artists are practicing, professional artists who integrate art forms, perspectives, and a range of settings from community arts, and museums, to healthcare settings and prisons.

Academic classrooms: Integration of arts to deepen understanding, application, and cognitive growth in traditional academic classrooms.

Arts education organizations and classrooms: Dr. Elliott uses her skills as a professional artist to consult on educational practices, delivery of curriculum which aligns with national standards which include intercultural competence, and differentiated instructional strategies to ensure all members are actively engaged and supported.

Trauma-Informed Leadership

Dr. Elliott specializes in integrating trauma-informed principles and practices within communities and organizations to enable leaders, educators, and artists to nurture mental health well-being resulting in increased productivity, creative problem solving, and thriving environments.

Trauma-informed professional development is ideal for organizations that see how external stressors such as the global pandemic or refugee migration crisis impact individuals’ quality of life and ability to thrive personally and professionally. The professional development sessions are designed to meet the specific needs of communities to ensure practices are inclusive, non-trauma inducing, or triggering, and provide strategies to mitigate the impact of trauma in organizations, classrooms, communities, and arts environments.

Cellist and Educator

As a cellist, Dr. Elliott has performed with orchestras under conductors from The Metropolitan Opera and La Scala and given recitals across the United States and Europe. She has participated in masterclasses with Janos Starker, Glen Dicterow, Gary Hoffman, and chamber music coaching with the Tokyo String Quartet. She continues to perform with orchestras and chamber music ensembles in the United States and Europe.

As an educator, Dr. Elliott has designed and served as head of fine arts programs for middle, high, charter, and private schools in the United States. She has taught cello and music in colleges and universities in the United States, as well as served as head of music of colleges in the United Kingdom. Kyna has a private studio where she teaches cellists of all ages and abilities and currently serves as the orchestra director at a private school in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, she holds the position of Orchestra Chair for independent schools in the state of Georgia governed by the Georgia Independent Schools Association (GISA).

CONTACT ME

Located in Atlanta, GA

kynaelliott@gmail.com

2022 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention

After a review process involving feedback from over 1,000 members of the arts field and review from staff experts at Americans for the Arts, Dr. Elliott has been selected to speak at the national convention in Washington, D.C. May 18-20th, 2022.

The presentation/workshop is entitled "Principle and Purpose of Trauma-Informed Arts and Organizations".

Description of the presentation/workshop:

The global refugee crisis and COVID-19 are leaving an indelible mark on the 21st Century. Leaders tasked with nurturing the well-being and equitable empowerment of communities are increasingly highlighting the impact trauma-causing events such as the global pandemic, refugee crisis, and systemic oppression has had on communities, artists, and organizations. Events such as the pandemic have changed the purpose, design, and delivery of the arts. Arts, arts education practices, and organizations are positioned to address social and cultural challenges communities and individuals face.

Learn more at: https://convention.artsusa.org/