Atelierista - Art and Project Focused Teacher in a Nature-Based Setting

Job Description

Job Description

About This Role

At A New Leaf, we believe children are competent, curious, and full of potential. Rooted in the Reggio Emilia approach and deeply tied to nature-based pedagogy, our community views the environment as the "third teacher." We honor childhood as a distinct time of discovery, where play, relationships, and place-based ecological learning form the cornerstone of education. Our outdoor spaces, gardens, and indoor labs serve as vibrant contexts for collaborative inquiry, expression, and meaning-making.

We are seeking an inspired and reflective Atelierista to strengthen our school’s capacity to “think with materials.”

Working with children across our toddler and preschool programs (ages 18 months to 5 years), the Atelierista cultivates both the outdoor art studio, indoor labs, and our outdoor landscape/gardens  as dynamic spaces for artistic exploration, scientific investigation, and project fortification.



This role bridges pedagogical research and daily classroom rhythm: working alongside educators to deepen projects, and engaging directly with groups of children during daily educator break periods—turning transition and break times into intentional opportunities for rich material invitations, small-group studio exploration, and warm, attentive care routines.

• Cultivate Studio Environments: Design and maintain aesthetic, accessible, and provocative spaces across the outdoor art studio and indoor labs, rich with natural, recycled, and fine art materials tailored to children ages 18 months to 5 years.
• Direct Child Engagement & Break Coverage: Provide dedicated studio and outdoor time for children while classroom teachers take scheduled breaks, maintaining a safe, nurturing, and engaging environment across toddlerhood and early childhood.
• Holistic Care & Well-Being: Joyfully support the foundational physical and emotional care needs of our youngest learners—embracing routine caregiving moments (such as toileting support, diapering, handwashing, and transition comfort) as meaningful opportunities to build security, trust, and connection.
• Integrate Outdoor Contexts: Treat the gardens, forest, outdoor art studio, and natural school grounds as primary contexts for artistic inquiry and ecological study.
• Propose Provocations: Introduce thoughtful materials, tools, and media in both the outdoor art studio and indoor labs that spark curiosity, foster multi-sensory experimentation, and challenge children’s thinking at developmentally meaningful levels.

• Co-Construct Learning Journeys: Collaborate closely with classroom teachers to observe children’s play and translate their questions and theories into rich, long-term project work.
• Fortify the "Hundred Languages": Support young children in expressing ideas through varied media—drawing, clay, wire, light/shadow, natural loose parts, sculpture, performance, and movement.
• Research Alongside Children: Value the process of inquiry over finished products, supporting children as active researchers and co-creators of knowledge.

• Make Learning Visible: Capture children's voices, actions, and artistic processes using photos, video, audio transcripts, and work samples.
• Co-Research with Faculty: Meet regularly with teaching teams to analyze documentation, decipher children’s underlying theories, and plan future invitations.
• Professional Mentorship: Help build school-wide capacity for deep listening, artistic expression, and reflective documentation.

• Early Childhood & Toddler Expertise: Demonstrated ease and warmth in working with toddlers and young children (ages 18 months to 5 years), with a balanced appreciation for toddler sensory-motor exploration, hands-on care routines, and preschool project work.
• Educational Background: A degree in Fine Arts, Art Education, Early Childhood Education, Environmental Arts, or a related field.
• Reggio Emilia Expertise: Understanding of Reggio Emilia principles, social-constructivist theory, and pedagogical documentation.
• Nature-Based Commitment: Passion for outdoor education, ecological stewardship, and working in all weather conditions.
• Artistic Versatility: Comfort with a wide array of fine arts media, raw natural elements, and hand tools across both outdoor art studio and indoor lab spaces.
• Collaborative & Flexible Mindset: Ability to balance deep pedagogical research with practical classroom coverage, nurturing daily care routines, and seamless teamwork.

• Daily movement between outdoor art studio spaces, gardens, trails, and indoor labs across varied weather conditions.
• Ability to lift, transport, and arrange art and natural materials safely, as well as actively support toddlers and preschoolers during physical play, outdoor exploration, and routine caregiving tasks.

• Paid Leave
• Professional Development

• QSEHRA Healthcare Reimbursement Plan - $200/month

A New Leaf's mission is to bring education back to Earth. Here you are part of something greater than yourself. We playfully and seriously learn, together as a community, about things that are real, meaningful, at times enigmatic, and always powerful! We are licensed by DHS and work in the Reggio way. Together we question and improve the means and goals of education for our youngest learners.