Bio - Tara McGowan

Tara McGowan

Tara McGowan is a professional storyteller, teacher, and visual artist, who incorporates story, song, and art to create multicultural programs for children of all ages. Her artwork and the artifacts she brings to these performances help the students to visualize the objects and landscapes of different cultures and bring to life the cultural values embedded in these stories from other times and places. Tara also involves the students in the creative process by extending the stories into student art projects.

As an affiliated artist with Storytelling Arts, Inc., Tara has done extensive residency work at Harrison Elementary School in Roselle and at Schoenly School in Spotswood. She has also conducted workshops for teachers at Cotsen Children’s Library and the Storytelling Arts Summer Institute for Teachers, both at Princeton University. She has taught the art of storytelling to fifth and sixth graders in Montgomery Township and Morristown.

Tara earned a BA from Princeton University in Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies. She spent a year at Kyoto University in Japan, studying folklore on an Ito Foundation Fellowship, and later returned to Princeton to receive her teaching credential.