Kimberly Olsen is a teaching artist, arts administrator, director, arts-integration consultant, and certified special education teacher interested in sparking lifelong learning and growth through the arts.
Currently, she is the Executive Director of NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. As leader of the organization, Kim works with a large network of NYC-based arts educators and cultural organizations to share resources, provide professional development, and advocates for arts education with local and state policymakers. In this role, she also produces the annual Face to Face Conference, the largest, most comprehensive arts in education conference in New York State.
In the classroom, Kim loves using theatre as a tool to enhance student imagination, confidence, and sense of identity. She has worked with students aged Pre-K through 12th Grade across the tri-state area and specializes in arts integration, playmaking, creative drama, process drama, acting technique, and page to stage adaptations. Kim currently teaches with the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York and at ArtsConnection. She has taught in more than 60 schools across all five boroughs.
As an artist, she strives to engage, entertain, and educate audiences with specific interest in the arts’ potential to reverse stereotypes and raise ceiling of expectation for people with disabilities. Recent artistic projects include NY City Center Jamboree (with Jeanine Tesori, Jonathan Groff, and Sutton Foster), The Reluctant Dragon (Harlem Children’s Theatre Festival), Saturday at McManus (Winterfest Theater Festival), The Twelve Dates of Christmas (Shetler Studios), Roughly Speaking (The Platform Group), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (The Gallery Players), Tommy Can’t Stop (Harlem Children’s Theatre Festival), The Hummingbird’s Tour (Theatre at St. Clement’s), The Lost Women of Troy (SUNY Geneseo, US Premiere), and Eye of the Coconut (GENseng, University Premiere).
Kim has a Bachelors degree in Education and Theatre from SUNY Geneseo and an M.S.ED degree in Educational Theatre at City College of New York.