Rachel Shapiro

Rachel  Shapiro is a seasoned arts education leader with over two decades of experience in administration, teaching artistry, performance and community engagement. In her position as Manhattan Borough Arts Director for New York City Public Schools, she has played a pivotal role in shaping arts education programming and practice for pre-K through 12th-grade students by providing direct support to District leadership, principals and arts teachers. As the first and only individual to hold this position, she has focused on addressing issues of equity and access in arts education throughout the borough of Manhattan. In this vein, her most recent initiative, the Early Childhood Strings Pathway Pilot, is the first of its kind in NYCPS. This collective impact program draws upon public and private streams of support to provide free, classroom-embedded individual and group violin instruction for three 3k and PreK classrooms. Annually, she produces the Manhattan Borough Arts Festival, showcasing over 1,000 NYC public school students work in visual and performing arts at major venues such as The Shed, Apollo Theater and MoMA.  She has designed and delivered professional development programs focusing on arts integration, classroom management, new teacher support, developing arts rubrics, and best practices for effective arts programming in schools. Her initiatives foster collaboration between public school arts educators and cultural organization teaching artists, enhancing instructional practices across the educational spectrum. Prior to her current role, Rachel served as a Senior Teaching Artist with the New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program, where she solidified her practices of Maxine Greene's approach to Aesthetic Education through direct classroom instruction, as well as development and Teaching Artist training.  An accomplished violist, Rachel was a founding member of Concertante string sextet, and for fifteen years led their educational outreach initiatives across the U.S. and internationally. Rachel holds a Master of Arts in Administration, Leadership and Technology from New York University, along with a BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School. She is certified as a New York State School Building Leader.  She lives with her two amazing boys, Saul and Lenny and her husband, Chris, in NYC.
 
 

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