Professional Development at Edmonds Center for the Arts
In 2026, Edmonds Center for the Arts is proud to offer a professional development series rooted in Indigenous knowledge: Walking in Two Worlds, Indigenous ways of knowing arts, community and education.
How to Register
Teachers in Edmonds School District should register for PDs through their PD Portal with ID #6049.
Teachers from other districts should email diana@ec4arts.org to sign up.
Not a teacher but interested in this professional development experience? You’re welcome to reach out as well. Space is limited, but if availability allows, we are happy to accommodate additional participants
Clock Hours Available
Washington State clock hours will be offered for participating educators.
2026 Workshop Series: Walking in Two Worlds
Indigenous Culinary Arts
With Chef Jason Vickers
Friday, February 20, 2026
3:00-4:00 PM
North Room, Edmonds Center for the Arts
In this hands-on professional development session, educators will learn alongside Chef Jason A. Vickers (Ohomous Nut Annokinam – Painting Owl) of the Hassanamisco Band, Nipmuc Nation, as he shares how food can be a powerful entry point for connection, storytelling, and learning in the classroom.
Chef Vickers will introduce teachers to the foundations of the culinary arts through the lens of food sovereignty, discussing how Indigenous foods, practices, and values can support culturally responsive teaching, and help educators build stronger, more meaningful relationships with students and families. He will model how educators can thoughtfully honor students’ home experiences, food traditions, and ways of knowing without appropriating or oversimplifying culture.
More Info
Through demonstration and conversation, Chef Vickers will share examples of foods students may eat at home and discuss how these everyday foods can be respectfully acknowledged and integrated into classroom learning. Teachers will then participate in a guided, hands-on cooking experience, working with ingredients, assembling a simple dish, and engaging in experiential learning that mirrors what students often experience outside of school.
Educators will walk away with:
- A deeper understanding of food sovereignty and its relevance to education
- Practical strategies for using food as a culturally responsive teaching tool
- Increased confidence in engaging students and families through shared, respectful conversations about food classroom ready ideas, recipes, and
- Reflection prompts that center student identity and lived experience
The Heartbeat of the Home
Visual Arts in Our Community with Andrew Morrison
Friday, February 27, 2026
3:00-4:00PM – PD workshop
4:30-6:30PM – Community Art Show (Open to the Public)
Edmonds Center for the Arts Gymnasium
Join us for an immersive professional development experience led by Andrew Morrison, an Edmonds native and highly respected Indigenous artist, muralist, and educator. This workshop centers on community, murals, and visual storytelling, with a focus on Indigenous perspectives in the visual arts and art as a tool for access, expression, expressionism, and community building.
More Info
The session will open with a 30-minute lecture, during which Andrew will address:
- The role of art in Indigenous communities
- His personal artistic trajectory and cultural lineage
- Arts access, expressionism, and the role of visual art in community building
Teachers will then engage in guided artmaking using oil pastels on paper. Art facilitation will be led through Native perspectives, offering educators concrete ways to build culturally responsive classrooms with Indigenous art and culture in mind. Participants will have the opportunity to display their own work for one another in a museum-style walk, supporting reflection and dialogue.
Educators will walk away with:
- Deeper understanding of Indigenous art through Native perspectives
- Practical strategies for culturally responsive teaching
- Hands-on art-making experience
- Insight into murals, visual storytelling, and community-centered art
This workshop represents both a professional development opportunity for educators and a powerful act of community inclusion, elevating local Indigenous artistry, lived experience, and intergenerational learning.
About Andrew Morrison
Andrew Morrison grew up in the Edmonds School District Indian Education program, attended Edmonds Woodway High School, and began his career in 1996 as the Edmonds Arts Festival Junior Poster Winner. He has since partnered with major construction and architecture firms to integrate his artwork into prominent regional buildings, most recently completing a mural at Westgate Elementary in May 2025.
Born in Seattle into a traditional Haida carving family from Hydaburg, Alaska, and an Apache language-speaking family from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Bylas, Arizona, his multigenerational artistic lineage informs a practice rooted in Indigenous traditions, cultural knowledge, and community engagement. Formally trained at Rhode Island School of Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University (BFA), and the University of California, Santa Barbara (MFA), his work bridges Indigenous traditions, contemporary visual practice, and community-centered engagement
Flute & Story
Led by Indrayani Shaaayí Ananda
Friday, March 20, 2026
3:00-4:00PM
North Room, Edmonds Center for the Arts
This professional development workshop is centered on Indigenous cultural expression, exploring how music, oral tradition, and storytelling illuminate family, kinship, and community relationship. Participants will engage with approaches that respectfully connect classroom learning to students lived experiences and family structures.
Shaayí Indrayani is a local Coastal Indigenous member of the Tlingit, Haida, and Aishihik nations. While her academic, ancestral, and personal experiences are varied, her primary heart vision is to help our human and non-human kin through collective cultivation of meditative spiritual and liberative ecology. She finds great joy in sharing in the simple, yet profound, awareness of Being with others.
Safety & Awareness
Fashion & Creative Therapies to Amplify the Voices of Women, Girls, and Two Spirited Individuals
Friday, March 27, 2026
3:00-4:00PM
North Room, Edmonds Center for the Arts
This professional development workshop exploring how fashion and the creative therapies can support self-expression, visibility, and dialogue around the safety of women, girls and two spirited individuals.
Participants will examine how artistic process can foster reflection, empathy and conversation connected to MMIP. Educators will design and create their own shirts or garments as guided activity using paint, cutting and accessible fabrics. This session centers awareness, respect, and trauma-informed practices within the facilitation.