Arts Integration Episodes Will Air Weekly Through Partnership with
Baltimore City Public Schools

BALTIMORE – Young Audiences of Maryland, the Baltimore-based nonprofit delivering arts-integrated learning to Maryland students, is partnering with Baltimore City Public Schools to produce Arts & Learning Kids, a weekly series of TV broadcasts bringing engaging, arts-integrated classroom lessons directly into the homes of students and families while schools are closed.

The Arts & Learning Kids series launches Saturday, April 11 at 10:15am on the City Schools’ Channel 77 and will air every weekend. Multiple curriculum-aligned episodes will be tailored to three grade bands: pre-k/kindergarten, 1st-2nd grade, and 3rd-5th grade. Baltimore City Public Schools is using Channel 77 to deliver educational content to support students and families during school closures. Click here to view the full schedule of programming.

Young Audiences will create new 30-minute episodes every week for all grade bands, starting with four Arts & Learning Kids programs that support Baltimore City Public Schools’ Wit & Wisdom literacy curriculum and Eureka Math curriculum. Each episode will feature a Young Audiences teaching artist and an educator. For example, one episode shows songwriter Mary Fields working with teacher Kevin Older to write song lyrics that help them solve a word problem. In another episode, dancer Valerie Branch partners with educator Kristina Berdan to create choreography connected to the character traits of important civil rights leaders like Ruby Bridges. 

The Arts & Learning Kids videos will offer modified versions of the teaching artists’ classroom activities, tailored for students learning at home and incorporating activities that could include their families. Episodes will encourage students to share their creation or performance with Young Audiences, which will make them available on social media and possibly include them in future episodes of Arts & Learning Kids. 

Check out one of the first episodes, focused on math:

Teaching artists are professional artists who work with classroom teachers and deliver hands-on, arts-infused learning experiences that support traditional academic content. 

Young Audiences suggested the Arts & Learning Kids programs to Baltimore City Public Schools, and is the only provider of education content for City Schools’ Channel 77 programming beyond programming from Great Minds, the DC-based organization which created the Wit & Wisdom and Eureka Math curricula.

“Young Audiences has been a consistent and positive influence in our community and we look forward to continuing our partnership in creative, new ways as we implement the district’s Continuity of Learning plan in response to school closures,” said Janise Lane, Baltimore City Public Schools Executive Director of Teaching and Learning. “The Continuity of Learning plan is designed to continue learning while being as flexible as possible for our families; to continue the connections that matter – between teacher and student, family, and school; and to create a safe and nurturing virtual classroom community where everyone supports each other. To achieve these goals it is vital to provide alternate avenues for learning and connection and The Arts & Learning Kids show is a key component of that effort.”

“Ensuring that students are engaged, learning and connected during this period of school closures is critical,” said Stacie Sanders Evans, President and CEO of Young Audiences of Maryland. “Arts & Learning Kids will provide a consistent place for young people to visit — particularly those that do not have access to the internet for online learning — and to connect with dynamic artists and teachers. There they can explore literacy and math through a variety of art forms and be challenged to share their new knowledge with caregivers and parents who also need an opportunity to express and create.”

About Young Audiences/Arts for Learning:
Started in Baltimore in 1950, Young Audiences is the nation’s largest arts-in-education provider. As the Maryland affiliate, Young Audiences/Arts for Learning (YA) is devoted to enriching the lives and education of Maryland’s youth through educational and culturally diverse arts programs. Through Young Audiences, professional artists from all disciplines partner with leaders and schools for nearly 10,000 hands-on arts learning experiences that reach more than 190,000 Maryland students. Young Audiences envisions a Maryland where the arts are valued for their capacity to transform lives, and where every student is immersed in opportunities to imagine, to create, and to realize their full potential.