The partnership created a launching pad for the TAB grassroots movement — by and for teachers — to design their own professional development. Conference presentations about TAB increased visibility in the art education profession. As a grassroots movement, teachers communicated through list-serv forums to share instructional strategies and techniques while building a community of like-minded educators. In 2008, Teaching for Artistic Behavior incorporated as a nonprofit organization focused on honoring children as artists. The first publication of Engaging Learners Through Artmaking: Choice-Based Art Education in the Classroom (Douglas & Jaquith, Teachers College Press, 2009), an academic look at both theory and practice, brought legitimacy to learner-directed practices in the art curriculum.

Entering our third decade, TAB has become a transformative model with a focus on creative process over product, supported by the belief that the child is the artist to maintain artistic integrity in visual art education. TAB practice has grown with contemporary perspectives by international PreK-12 teachers working in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Teachers continue to adapt and expand TAB practice to meet the unique and changing needs of students in the 21st century, resulting in a broad collection of instructional resources shared freely on the Internet.

In order to meet growing demands for professional development, Teaching for Artistic Behavior, Inc. reorganized in 2019 with an expanded Board of Directors, and organizational mission,vision, and belief statements. Our organization continues to support TAB teachers by nurturing professional learning communities and networks, and advocating for student equity through choice and student agency.