Ruth Mankin

I'm an arts education consultant who has been working in the field of arts education for around 20 years, though my background also includes extensive experience in early childhood education. I hold a master's degree in education from Sonoma State University with a specialist in child development and a multiple subject teaching credential, which I completed around 1986. My career began in on-site childcare, working at Paramount Studios and university childcare centers. At Paramount, I helped develop the first on-site childcare center model with an organization - no movie studios had done on-site childcare before. The producer of Family Ties told me, 'we were so lucky when we found Ruth Mankin to be the director of our child care center,' which I felt was a real honor. I decided to move into arts education because I love the arts and come from a family of artists and scientists. Growing up in New York, the arts were always central to my life - we went to see plays, Broadway shows, museums, heard music, and saw ballets regularly. My father was a physicist, and we were very physical and active. My family has an unusual and deep connection to circus arts: my sister was the first woman in the Pickle Family Circus and was a brilliant actress, my brother was a vaudevillian and juggler, and my nephew is a circus artist in France. I worked at the circus center, and this background in circus, laughter, and performance is a really important part of my life and work. As a consultant, there's no typical day because I work with individual schools and school districts who have funding to bring artists into their schools. I find out what they're interested in, what kinds of artists they want, what grade levels they serve, and what format they prefer - whether residencies where artists come in to teach on a weekly basis, assemblies where multicultural artists perform for the school, or workshops. I bring artists in to teach music, dance, theater, visual arts, circus arts, and poetry. People in my community sometimes call me 'the human rolodex' - though this generation doesn't know what a Rolodex is - because one of my strengths is connecting people, artists, and schools.