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Donor Spotlight: Wright Family Foundation
Since 2000, the Wright Family Foundation has supported diverse educational initiatives that provide intervention, support, and enrichment programs for at-risk children to realize their full potential. Young Audiences/Arts for Learning is extremely grateful for the partnership of the Wright Family Foundation and its support of our early learning initiative, Maryland Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts 16-session residency program.
Young children have a natural curiosity and a unique love of learning. Young Audiences’ Wolf Trap residencies cultivate and encourage this love of learning in our youngest students by providing joyful, arts-integrated early learning programs in low-income schools throughout Baltimore. In addition to providing exceptional arts programming, Wolf Trap residencies are proven to increase student academic outcomes and improve teacher instructional practice. With the generous support of the Wright Family Foundation, Young Audiences has quadrupled the number of Wolf Trap residencies and increased the number of students served from 276 to over 1,100 – all in just three years.
According to the Wright Family Foundation, its support of Young Audiences grew out of its desire to provide children with opportunities to have arts-rich experiences. “One of our focus areas is Early Childhood Education,” writes Mari Beth Moulton, Executive Director. “When Young Audiences partnered with Wolf Trap to bring quality arts programs to early learning classrooms, we were eager to support this partnership. This is an opportunity for the Foundation and Young Audiences to have far-reaching impact for many of Baltimore’s children.”
The Wright Family Foundation is passionate about providing educational opportunities for our most at-risk youth in Baltimore. Young Audiences shares this passion, and is proud to partner with the Wright Family Foundation to provide our youngest students, in some of Baltimore’s most impoverished schools, with the opportunity to learn in and through the arts. With the support of generous donors like the Wright Family Foundation, we can offer a better and brighter future to our youngest students.
NRG Creatively Green festival coming to local schools
Young Audiences has announced two winning schools in the NRG Energy Creatively Green Award competition, sponsored by NRG Energy, Inc.: Chesapeake Public Charter School and Port Towns Elementary School!
Each winning school will host its own NRG Creatively Green Family Arts Festival for its school and community members with services worth up to $7,000. The two-and-a-half hour family arts festivals will consist of a performance by Young Audiences Blues musician Curtis Blues focusing on the importance of protecting the environment; hands‐on art making workshops led by a variety of Young Audiences teaching artists that promote environmental sustainability, from creating plastic monster puppets with old milk jugs to learning about kinetic energy through movement; and a community art‐making project to be played, displayed, or shared during the event. Each school has also garnered the support of a number of community organizations that will also be participating in the festivals.
The festivals will be held in May 2015 but Young Audiences artists are already hard at work creating family fun performances and workshops for the events. Artists recently gathered at the Young Audiences offices to participate in the Irvine Nature Center’s “Artistry of Nature” professional development workshop. Artists learned how to engage children in their environment, and even braved January’s snow and ice to explore the natural world right outside the office.
Congratulations to the winning schools!
Meet Our Artists: NRITYA
Young Audiences’ roster of artists continues to grow to encompass new artists, ensembles, and art forms, from slam poets to improvisers to Capoeira masters.
We’ll be regularly posting interviews with our artists, giving them a chance to share more about themselves and their experiences bringing their Young Audiences programs to schools. We recently sat down with Lakshmi Swaminathan of NRITYA.
How did you first hear about Young Audiences? What made you decide to become a roster artist?
During the 1990s, I lived in New York City where I was working as a dance teacher for Young Indian Culture Group. During that time, I connected with another New York City dance organization called Battery Dance Company when I was introduced to the executive director Jonathan Hollander. He invited me to his studio to attend a workshop where I met another classical Indian dancer, Janaki Patrik, who was a roster artist with the New York chapter of Young Audiences.
Janaki asked if I would be interested in becoming a Young Audiences artist and of course I said absolutely! So I joined her group, Caravan, an Indian dance ensemble. Later on in life, I moved to Maryland and took a few years to be a stay-at-home mom with my daughter. When I decided to get back into dance, I checked to see if the Maryland chapter of Young Audiences had showcased any Indian dancers or artists before. I shot an email to the former executive director asking if Young Audiences would be interested in having me as a new roster artist. Immediately following a positive response from the executive director, I completed a 45-minute assembly audition and that was it! I have been a member of Young Audiences/Arts for Learning Maryland since 2002.
What has been the most memorable part of the programs you have brought to students with Young Audiences? Do you have a favorite memory from a program?
So many! What NRITYA does is so different that I have seen evidence of it affecting children in so many positive ways. We have gone to many different parts of Maryland, including some very rural towns where experiences have stood out to me.
In these specific instances, I realized that some of the children seemed to be confused by the idea of what an “Indian” person is. I have received questions like: “Do you wear feathers in your hat?” or “Are you a queen?” It has been those types of questions that made me realize that these children have no clue what my heritage is. Upon first impression, they often identify me as a Native American rather than Indian. Through our programs, I have to first introduce them to the country of India and explain the difference. By allowing them to see an authentic Indian dance performance, we are giving them a glimpse into a different world and culture. They begin to experience something that is outside of their own comfort zone. It truly broadens their perspective.
How does your art form help connect students to what they are learning in school?
From the curriculum perspective, it helps students develop in social sciences. They spend time investigating the living history behind the cultures that they are learning about. Dance opens them up to the idea of freedom of expression. My dances tell stories. I usually do fables which have a very Western background. The fact that I am using the Indian dance form to tell a Western story forces children to realize that the medium of dance is not limiting. If you are able to successfully tell a Western English story through Indian dance moves, you can do almost anything! You can be creative and explore that creativity while having fun.
Through one of my dance residencies, “Indian Immersion,” the children actually get to wear authentically-made Indian clothes and immerse themselves further into the Indian culture. The kids love it! After one residency a teacher came up to me to say: “There is a boy in my class who would usually never participate or want to be involved in classroom activities. I was amazed to walk in and see him there dancing with you!” To watch kids just get up, start moving, and enjoy it is touching.
How do the lessons and skills you teach students about or through your art form apply to their everyday life outside of the classroom?
I think it broadens their perspective to a greater world outside of their own. I tell the children that India is a place very much like America. I have had kids ask if my studio would allow dancers to come in who are not of Indian descent. I tell them that you don’t have to be Indian to perform Indian dance!
After my program, children become culturally aware. They begin to notice differences between themselves and other people. They notice differences between the food we eat, our outfits, communication, and how we express stories and emotions through dance. Yet at the same time, they realize that dance is dance. It’s a medium of expressing oneself. It is a medium of using your body to tell a story no matter what culture you come from.
When we bring Indian dance to students, we give them an opportunity to step outside of their schools, and see beyond their immediate neighborhoods. This is a way of letting them know that it is all right to be different. It’s all right to be creative. It’s all right to embrace art. There is a world outside of academics that allows children to grow.
Learn more about NRITYA’s offerings through Young Audiences.
Teach fractions with beatboxing in February’s smART Tip
In February’s smART Tip, Young Audiences beatboxer Max Bent shares the basics of vocal percussion and how it can connect to other subjects, such as fraction units in math. Press play below!
[youtube http://youtu.be/5WEcbnQWcAM]
smART Tips is a monthly video series sharing tips for educators who are interested in new, creative ways to use the arts in their classroom with students. See all smART Tips to date here. Interested in a specific topic? Let us know!
A Piece of the Bay
By Lori Mellendick, fifth-grade art teacher at Ducketts Lane Elementary
This December, my fifth-grade students gathered around a table functioning as young archaeologists, researchers, and artists. Their collaborative clay mural sat before them covered in grout waiting to be exposed. As my students began to buff the dried grout away, the ceramic animals they sculpted and arranged in the mural earlier in the fall began to pop through. My class had been working toward this moment since Young Audiences visual artist Amanda Pellerin first arrived as our artist-in-residence in October.
The massive four-by-eight-foot panels of the mural took up the entire floor. I didn’t realize how busy my classroom could be as we built something so large. Slowly, a vast food web stretched across the mural revealing the entire habitat network of the Chesapeake Bay.
On this final culminating day, my students experienced what we like to call their “Aha!” moment. They took a step back and discovered harmony behind their mural as a collaboration. The looks on their faces expressed the “now we get it” type of feeling. They ended by celebrating each other by giving and receiving compliments of their work. The positive energy in the room was out of control!
In October, my students had spent five days conducting research of Maryland animals surrounding the Chesapeake Bay as a theme. They built an understanding of how these animals survive depending on their diets. The students also investigated the Chesapeake’s surrounding habitat by studying the water cycles, plants, and local natural resources. In order to display these facts on a visual web, the students had to be imaginative. This is where Amanda’s expertise came in. Amanda guided students through the necessary steps to creatively assemble this piece of work.
There were times when kids pondered whether or not they should take an artistic risk by making verbal decisions in front of a group. When energy subsided, some surprising moments occurred when a few particularly shy students stepped up to the plate and made executive decisions for the group. It was a wonderful chance for students to express creativity in ways that they didn’t expect to, especially within the subject of science.
I wanted to find a meaningful residency that would integrate the arts into the subject of science. I knew that this was the perfect opportunity to find a project that could cover environmental research in a creative way. Knowing Amanda’s experience as a Young Audiences roster artist, I knew that the kids would get a lot out of the program.
It was important to bring in an outside artist because it gave some of our teachers an understanding of how the artistic process works. Teaching children artistic behaviors is important because it demonstrates tasks such as researching, modifying, and executing that energy into a product. It doesn’t work like a magic trick where *poof*, a beautiful piece of artwork suddenly appears. It takes work. It’s similar to the scientific process. You formulate a hypothesis, test your theories, and then provide a conclusion statement in the end. In this case, our conclusion was a mural that demonstrated a deeper understanding of the Chesapeake Bay.
Using a tactile form such as clay, gave students a substantial gift in the end. Since these fifth graders will be going onto middle school very soon, I wanted to give them an opportunity to leave their mark upon the school. In April, there will be an unveiling of the mural in a reserved space across from a beautiful fountain. Strong light filters into this area which will give the mural the perfect spotlight that it deserves. We can’t wait to put it up!
When you are studying something across the board of a curriculum, it resonates with children. It hits on so many different content levels. These experiences give so much more meaning to the students than you would expect. I immediately go back to my own experiences and remember the impact that resident artists had upon me in school. I wanted to give my students that same opportunity.
Learn more about Amanda and her programs for schools at yamd.org.
YA launches new five-year strategic plan
In July 2014, Young Audiences adopted its new five-year strategic plan, “Transforming the Lives and Education of Our Youth.” In the coming weeks, we will profile our four strategic directions and our exciting plans related to each. To kick off this series, Stacie Sanders Evans, Young Audiences executive director, wrote about how the plan was created and the exciting work that is to come.
More than 300 volunteers contributed to Young Audiences’ strategic planning process, spanning May 2013 to July 2014, to build an ambitious new strategic plan that sets the organization’s course for the next five years to significantly grow its reach–ultimately impacting the education of 50,000 more young people across this state every year.
During the development of the plan, Young Audiences worked with two consultants to conduct an external and internal review of the organization; more than 50 board members, staff members, artists, teachers, organizational funders, and school administrators gathered for a day-long strategic planning retreat; and smaller working groups composed of artists and educators spent two months exploring six strategic areas that came out of the retreat’s discussions and developed goals for the plan. It was an honor to co-lead this work with Bill Buckner, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee and Young Audiences’ immediate past board president. Our new plan was adopted by our board in July 2014 and since then our staff and board have been laying the foundation necessary to take on the challenges laid out in our plan.
Some of you may not be aware that Young Audiences is the nation’s largest arts education network and it began in Baltimore in 1950. During our 64-year history, the Maryland affiliate of Young Audiences has continually expanded its services to Maryland students, teachers, and artists to give more students the opportunity to experience and learn through the arts. We are proud of our rich history and roots as an organization focused on exposing young people to the arts. Yet, we are increasingly excited by our evolving role as an education organization that is transforming the lives and education of young people by building communities of educators, professional artists, and parents and enabling them to help our children realize their full potential through the arts.
The Next Five Years
Our vision remains the same as it did five years ago: “One day, every student in Maryland will have the opportunity to imagine, to create, and to realize their full potential through the arts.” Our mission also remains unchanged: “To transform the lives and education of youth through the arts by connecting educators, professional artists, and communities.”
What has changed is that now, more than any other time in our history, Young Audiences is poised to realize this vision and achieve this mission for all Maryland children.
During the next five years we plan to significantly increase Young Audiences’ transformative impact on students and on education, and to accomplish this by:
- Expanding our school district arts integration partnerships
- Investing in and growing our teaching artist community
- Building and sharing evidence of our impact
- Strengthening and expanding our programs
Through a series of blog posts, I will dive deeper into each aspect of this plan and share updates on our progress. I welcome your feedback and participation in our work.
We are excited about the power of the arts to improve educational and life outcomes for students, and we are proud of our plans and the community we are building to leverage the arts to have the greatest impact possible on our students. We hope you will join us in this work!
– Stacie Sanders Evans, Young Audiences Executive Director
You can read the full plan at yamd.org.
To learn more Young Audiences’ mission and our work, we invite you to join us at one of our upcoming On the Bright Side Tours. Learn more and sign up online.
Make your own drums with January’s smART Tip
In our January smART Tip, Young Audiences musician and percussionist Steve Cyphers shows how you can easily and inexpensively create bucket drums for your students with materials found at your local hardware store. Get started by pressing play below.
[youtube http://youtu.be/rWIGPp_NTOs?list=PLUssR-3GtBZfiKXpU72zQAkgXh3wBcBzQ]
smART Tips is a monthly video series sharing tips for educators who are interested in new, creative ways to use the arts in their classroom with students. See all smART Tips to date here. Interested in a specific topic? Let us know!
Meet our artists: Ballet Theatre of Maryland
Young Audiences’ roster of artists continues to grow to encompass new artists, ensembles, and art forms, from slam poets to improvisers to Capoeira masters.
We’ll be regularly posting interviews with our artists, giving them a chance to share more about themselves and their experiences bringing their Young Audiences programs to schools. We recently sat down with Dianna Cuatto of Ballet Theatre of Maryland.
How did you first hear about Young Audiences?
My predecessor joined Young Audiences before I came to Ballet Theatre of Maryland 12 years ago, and it was my first experience with the organization. Other dance companies that I worked with hadn’t done anything like it, so I did my research and found that I really liked Young Audiences’ mission statement and philosophy. When I completed my first Teaching Artist Institute (TAI) seminar, I found it very helpful for connecting education with art to help students better their lives.
What has been the most memorable part of the programs you’ve brought to students with Young Audiences?
Seeing the impact the arts can have on so many lives is the most memorable part. When we go out to schools, we see how it touches the lives of the students we are able to either perform for or work with during an arts-integrated artist-in-residence program. We have learned so much from Young Audiences and have gained tools that we use in our other educational program offerings, too.
There are a lot of students who have never had exposure to ballet. Do you find that bringing classical ballet to schools can be a unique opportunity for students?
Absolutely. Whenever I ask a school what they hope the students will get out of a program, they want their students to have that exposure to a real ballet. One thing that Ballet Theatre of Maryland does that’s different from other ballet companies I’ve been a part of is that we actually bring a real ballet to the students so they can have that experience. It’s very rewarding and our dancers enjoy doing it. The students express how much they love it. Some students may never have known that they enjoy ballet if they hadn’t been exposed to it during one of our programs at their school.
How does your art form connect students to what they are learning in school?
We do a lot of literary and historical pieces. For example, our assembly “Pirates of the Chesapeake” is based on pirate history. We also have an assembly, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and other programs that may relate to what they are studying in school. There is also the production of excerpts from “Excalibur” which we call the “Medieval Festival.” We mirrored it after a mini-Renaissance festival so students get experience with coats of arms and other material they learn about from that time period through dance.
How do the lessons and skills you teach students through your art form apply to their everyday lives outside of the classroom?
It seems that everything we do relates to their everyday lives. Our most popular assembly, “An American Journey through Dance,” teaches students about the many different cultures in our country. They are able to experience aspects of those different cultures through dance. There is something about the emotions and passions through the expression of dance that provides tools to understand each other, which is a very powerful thing for all of us. There is a culture embedded in all of the art that we do, and it is our place to pass it on.
What is the most rewarding aspect of being a Young Audiences roster artist?
One aspect would be the opportunity to see what other colleagues are doing, and how they are using the arts to impact children. Just being a part of the roster and being involved with different schools to see what children are able to gain through our programs is so rewarding. When you put all of the roster artists together, it creates a great tapestry of wonderful things students are able to experience in all of our different areas.
Why do you believe dance specifically–or the arts in general–is important for every student to have access to?
Our motto is: “Dance is a language more powerful than words.” No matter what language children speak, they can understand what you’re saying through dance. This is true for many art forms. We can communicate and break down barriers through that powerful language. It’s not just that studies show how art impacts students and helps them learn, it’s that we know the arts engage students in all of the senses, allowing them to experience it first-hand so they learn more intensely. When something engages all of your senses, it is easier to remember and apply it to other areas or circumstances. Art provides all of the learning tools that different children need because they learn in different ways.
Learn more about Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s offerings through Young Audiences.
Keep an eye out for more artist interviews! See all artist interviews to-date here.
Celebrating 2014 at Young Audiences
We’ve been counting down to 2015 by reflecting on the highlights of the past year on our Facebook page. From another successful Taste the Arts gala to our move into a new home to celebrating Maryland Young Audiences Arts for Learning Week, it has been quite a year. Head on over to Facebook to see other highlights and add some of your own by using the hashtag #LookBack2014.
Thank you for your continued support of Young Audiences as we work to transform lives and education through the arts in Maryland. Here’s to 2015!
Communicating through Hip Hop
By Bomani, Young Audiences teaching artist and Hip Hop poet
Before my recent residency with fourth-graders at Scholars K-8 in Baltimore County began, the teachers I worked with–Mrs. Brumbalow, Ms. Barnes, and Ms. Hicks–had prepared the students for my arrival. When I walked through the door on the first day, the students recognized me and treated me like a rock star, so I knew I had to make a meaningful impact.
At the beginning of a residency, there are three writing rules I give students:
- Artists don’t make mistakes, they make discoveries.
- Do not edit in your head.
- The only wrong answer is a blank answer.
Students are oftentimes drilled to memorize answers in order to score highly on assignments. Sometimes they become paralyzed with fear when asked their opinion, so I try to loosen them up to think creatively. Young people need to have freedom to develop an idea out loud without self-doubt and to not fear right or wrong answers.
I worked with the Scholars K-8 teachers to create a series of Hip Hop writing workshops to strengthen students’ comprehension skills. In the two weeks I was at the school, students wrote songs about the writing process, how to count money and use decimals, as well as climate and how humans affect the environment.
The initial challenge was getting students excited about writing. They were energized by Hip Hop poetry writing because it’s a style of music they admire beyond the school setting.
Once they got used to the idea that we weren’t looking for one correct answer, they felt free to say what they were thinking. There was one student in particular whose reading and comprehension skills were not where they should have been for his grade level. One of his teachers revealed that this residency was one of the few opportunities where he felt confident enough to answer questions because he could take his time and work through his ideas out loud. Each day he was fighting through the door for the front seat, and his self-esteem was boosted each time he answered a question.
During an exercise, we discussed the music video “Me, Myself, and I” by De La Soul which includes symbolism about self-acceptance. The light bulb went off for many students, who immediately related to trying to fit in or be cool. They realized that at some point, you have to validate yourself without caring about the opinion of others. To see them react to that song, and have students come in the next day writing lines I didn’t assign, was a very powerful feeling. They were using art to reflect their realities and project their hopes for the future.
There was one point during the residency that I had to put my “teacher” foot down when a student became disruptive while we were writing the chorus of a song. Students that age can struggle with differentiating positive and negative attention, but when we got down to the last line, that student raised his hand and offered a new idea to our brainstorming session. The line was exactly what we needed and the whole class recognized him for it. To be validated like that after being reprimanded showed him that we wanted him to participate and be a part of the team, but in a constructive way.
This residency strengthened their class bonds by allowing students to collaborate and recognize each other’s talent. Even students who often had problems dealing with their classmates or paying attention were invested. They appreciated each other’s creativity and when they were put into groups to write on their own, they just took off.
One of the main complaints I get from young people is that they aren’t understood. My response is always that they need to improve their communication. The ability to speak, write, and create art in a way that others can comprehend is something students latch onto, and they internalized the techniques I gave them. We would brainstorm an idea, flesh out a paragraph on this idea, and then break the paragraph into a rhyme. While writing the song, they formulated introductory and supporting paragraphs. Before they knew it, they had completed an essay. The process made them realize how much they want this skill. One student gave me a poster she made outside of class time with an anagram for my name. Her classmates loved it so much they all signed it and gave it to me. I still don’t think I’ve come down from that high.
Learn more about Bomani and his programs for schools at yamd.org.
December smART Tip from Christina Delgado
In our December smART Tip, Young Audiences visual artist Christina Delgado shares how to organize a photo scavenger hunt for students that can easily be tailored to connect with any subject or unit. Learn how to get started with this fun activity in the short video below.
[youtube http://youtu.be/rWIGPp_NTOs?list=PLUssR-3GtBZfiKXpU72zQAkgXh3wBcBzQ]
smART Tips is a monthly video series sharing tips for educators who are interested in new, creative ways to use the arts in their classroom with students. See all smART Tips to date here. Interested in a specific topic? Let us know!
Exploring Earth’s treasures
Photos and content were originally posted on Daneytt Tucker’s blog “Daj’zha Vu” here and here.
This fall, Young Audiences visual artist Danyett Tucker worked with John Hanson Montessori middle school students to create a mural that now brightens their school hallway.
The theme for the eight, two- by four-foot wood panels is “Earth’s Treasures.” Danyett explains how the project began:
“I Googled “earth’s treasures” and found [the poem] ‘A Lunar Lament’ by Ann Pedtke. After I read the poem to the class for inspiration, I asked them to imagine that they were the moon looking down upon the earth, marveling at its treasures. What treasures would make you a jealous moon? They came up with some great sketches, which I pieced together into our mural composition, all from the moon’s perspective.”
The four week-long residency was a powerful experience for all involved. Danyett writes, “I am so proud of the students at John Hanson Montessori. They are creative, focused, and fun! They made me feel like a part of their family.”
Read more about this residency (and see photos from all stages of the project!) on Daneytt’s blog “Daj’zha Vu” here and here.