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When I grow up I want to be a… Teaching Artist!

July 29, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

When you think of career paths for artists, you may think of an actor or dancer who performs on the stage, or a visual artist who sells artwork at a gallery. At Arts for Learning, we’re helping create new opportunities in the workforce by highlighting a different career path that’s not as well known—working as a teaching artist.

Just this month we launched a new program where we’re partnering with Hampton Roads’ colleges to recruit, train, and mentor students in the arts. The Emerging Artist program creates a pipeline of new opportunities for student artists who may be unaware of the potential career path of becoming a teaching artist for an arts-in-education organization.

Two Norfolk State students are the first to be selected for the program, which features paid opportunities for emerging artists to work one-on-one with students in various settings. Anjenette Britton and Asiko-oluwa Aderin joined A4L teaching artist Cindy Aitken last Saturday in the first of four workshops at the Norfolk Botanical Garden, helping children make nature-inspired picture frames. Asiko-oluwa is also leading a graphic novel workshop for teens Monday, August 1 at the Portsmouth Public Library.

The emerging artists will be mentored by Cindy Aitken and Katherine Willet as teaching artists themselves and by members of the A4L Education and Program Team. Molly Stanley, a former teacher who serves as Learning and Community Engagement Manager, will work with the emerging artists on classroom management and how to develop arts-integrated curriculum for students. Chief Operations Officer Anna Green will guide the pair on some of the essential business aspects of being independent teaching artists, such as knowing how to read a contract.

You can meet Anjenette and Asiko-oluwa at our final Saturday workshops at the Norfolk Botanical Garden: September 10 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

 

The Emerging Artists Program wouldn’t be possible without the sponsorship of #BankofAmerica. Thank you for underwriting this program that will help create new opportunities in the workforce!

#BofAGrants

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, Arts Integration, News, Program Spotlight Tagged With: Bank of America, BofA grants, emerging artists, teaching artists

Arts for Learning Awarded Major Grant To Use Art to Build Community Among Students Affected by the Pandemic

July 11, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

Arts for Learning (A4L) is pleased to announce it has received the largest grant in its organization’s 68-year history. Over the next three years, the $97,500 Cultural Vitality grant from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation will fund a series of arts-integrated afterschool programs at high-need schools in south Hampton Roads, guided by Arts for Learning’s professional teaching artists.

The project is named IDEAL, Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages, and will target fifth-grade students in the critical year before they transition to middle school. During the course of each ten-week residency, students will create multiple mixed media works of art as they explore various aspects of self-identity through dance, written and spoken poetry, and visual art. Approximately 270 students from nine different elementary schools are expected to participate, drawn from the Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk Public School divisions, with one school per division taking part each year. Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with students from outside of their own schools and see how they and others impact and fit into the wider Hampton Roads’ community.

Meeting twice a week in 90-minute sessions, the students in each school’s residency will be led by Arts for Learning’s teaching artists who are experts in their particular art forms. A4L’s education and program team developed the curriculum, which is tied to various Virginia Standards of Learning, including visual arts, dance, English, and social-emotional learning. The program’s highlight each year will be a collaborative art exhibit of student work from all three schools, hosted by the Chrysler Museum. 

“To bring students to the museum and show them it’s their place to have a voice is just an amazing opportunity,” said Anna Green, chief operations officer for Arts for Learning. “It may inspire them to go on and create art or find their voice in writing or in other ways, and they’ll also learn how to build pieces of community within where they live, outside of where they live, and then bring it all together into one. There will be 270 students that will see their work professionally hung in a professional museum. I can’t even bring words to how important that is, to make the museum accessible and for students to feel like they’re a part of a larger community.”

In addition to helping students develop creative and artistic talents, the IDEAL project is designed to increase students’ self-worth, while improving their academic performance and decreasing absenteeism and problem behaviors. For students entering adolescence, the year before middle school is a crossroads, as they are faced with choices that impact their future selves academically, socially, and physically. Decades of research connects positive self-worth with a reduction in risky behaviors. With studies showing the pandemic’s devastating toll on students—along with a disturbing rise in crime—the need is great to provide effective interventions that boost the self-worth of at-risk students at a critical life stage.

“We’re looking to reach the students who are struggling, to give them that hands-on opportunity to discover their voice through the arts and to broaden their view of community,” Green said. She pointed out that the fifth-graders who will participate in the first year of the project entered the pandemic as second-graders, missing out on the key socialization and building of community that typically happens during third and fourth grades.

Collaboration is a central feature of the IDEAL project: among student peers within the same school and other schools, and among Arts for Learning and its community partners—the Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk school divisions, the Chrysler Museum, and the Richmond Ballet. Partnering with the Richmond Ballet and the Chrysler will deepen each student’s artistic experience.

The Richmond Ballet will present a series of in-school performances for third to fifth graders enrolled at each school, reaching a larger community of students beyond those participating in the residencies.

The Chrysler will present a virtual gallery talk on art works that exemplify human expression, examining elements such as color, line, shape, and composition that students can use to inspire their own sketches. In addition, by hosting exhibits each year of student artwork created during the project, the Chrysler will bring together students from all of the schools, along with their families. Students will be transported to and from the event by bus at no cost, so that each has the opportunity to attend.

The IDEAL project is the largest and most ambitious in Arts for Learning’s history,” said Christine Everly, A4L’s chief executive officer. “We’re excited to partner with two other respected arts organizations and three of our school divisions in Hampton Roads.  And we’re proud and humbled that the Hampton Roads Community Foundation has placed its trust in us by funding this project.”

No student will be charged a fee to participate in the IDEAL program. The first three residencies are expected to launch in the spring of 2023.

Filed Under: COVID-19, Grants, News, Press Releases, Program Spotlight, Uncategorized Tagged With: afterschool programs, Arts Ed, arts education, dance, grant, pandemic

Arts for Learning Delivers Creative Summer Camps at the Suffolk Center

May 12, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

We’re busy planning three exceptional summer camps in Musical Theater, Visual Art, and S.T.E.A.M. in partnership for the ninth year with the Suffolk Center For Cultural Arts. Campers in third to fifth grades will immerse themselves in each theme as they work with professional teaching artists Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

HURRY: EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION FOR EACH CAMP ENDS FRIDAY, MAY 13

NEW MUSICAL THEATER Camp ~ Lights, Camera, Action: June 20-July 1

Campers will have the chance to do it all as they explore the performing arts in a two-week Musical Theater camp—write scripts, design costumes, sing and make music, act, and dance. Campers will learn what it takes to create and participate in an original production from start to finish—and then dazzle family and friends with their unique, one-of-a-kind show.

VISUAL ART Camp ~ Arts from Around Your World!:  August 1-5

Campers will experience the cultures of other parts of the world – Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean – as they create multiple visual arts projects. While discovering ties between cultures and art forms and having lots of hands-on fun, they’ll also investigate their own heritage. Projects will include making a colorful patterned textile called a mola and creating clay coil pots. The week’s highlight will be an art showcase for family and friends.

S.T.E.A.M. Camp ~ Thinking Outside the Box: August 8-12

Campers will think creatively through all aspects of S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) as they experience hands-on learning. Projects will include designing using 3D printers, experimenting with dyeing textiles, drawing and assembling tessellations, and so much more! This camp will help kids learn to think on their feet, problem solve, work collaboratively–and have lots of summer fun with their peers–while showing off their projects to family and friends in a special program on the last day.

“Our teaching artists have loved mentoring students at Suffolk Center’s summer camps for the past nine years,” says Anna Heywood Green, chief operations officer for Arts for Learning. “Our artists are inspired by the campers as they watch their creativity and talents flourish throughout the week—they can’t wait to see what campers will come up with this year!”

Summer camp registration is $475 for the new two-week Musical Theater camp and $275 for the one-week Visual Art and S.T.E.A.M. camps. Both full and partial camp scholarships are available. For more information and a registration link, click here: https://arts4learningva.org/summer-camps/

Filed Under: Summer camps Tagged With: musical theater, STEAM camp, Summer camps, visual arts

A Program that Makes a Real Impact

March 18, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

A Churchland student named Legend gets fitted for a violin during his first lesson.

After two years of being shut down because of the pandemic, Strings Impact is up and running again in Portsmouth Public Schools!

We’re celebrating a successful kickoff of this long-running residency that introduces fourth, fifth, and sixth graders to playing the violin, with instruments provided by the schools.

The program is taking place after-school at Churchland, Lakeview, and Simonsdale Elementary Schools, with students taking one 90-minute lesson a week for twelve weeks. At the end of the residency, each set of students will show off what they’ve learned in a special concert for family and friends.

Tina Culver, a fulltime music teacher at Churchland Elementary School, is the A4L teaching artist for the Churchland Strings Impact residency. Although she didn’t grow up in Portsmouth, she says the opportunity to learn the violin changed the course of her life.

“I had such a wonderful experience from the moment I started playing the violin in the fifth grade—I just hit the ground running, and I was involved in all different kinds of music programs within my community, orchestras, went on to the governor’s school, then went on to college and eventually took that up as a major.

If there hadn’t had been programs like this available for me,  my childhood would have been so much different.”

That’s why Tina feels so strongly about programs like this that expose underserved students to quality arts education. “For Portsmouth, I feel it’s important to be a part of the program because a lot of those kids are not normally getting access to classical music or to string instruments,” she says. And by having her as a teacher, students “see someone who looks like themselves, someone who’s young, someone who’s positive and energetic, and someone who tries to make it fun and interesting.”

John Jenkins is the teaching artist for the Lakeview and Simonsdale Elementary residencies. He works as a band teacher at Manor High School in Portsmouth. Altogether, 52 students are participating in the three residencies, with a waiting list of 14 students at Churchland. The enthusiasm is high among all the students—one girl writes that she may want to be a professional violinist when she grows up!

Strings Impact began about 17 years ago after starting at Westhaven Elementary School in Portsmouth. It has rotated among different schools since then.

We want to thank the E.C. Wareheim Foundation and Portsmouth Public Schools for underwriting the Strings Impact program!

Simonsdale Elementary School principal Tammy King attends the first session of the residency.

Do you want to support arts education for students who may not otherwise experience it? You can make your tax-deductible gift by clicking here.

Filed Under: News, Program Spotlight Tagged With: arts education, music education, Portsmouth Public Schools, Strings Impact

Chatting with A4L’s Aisha Noel

January 30, 2022 By Cindy Sherwood

We’re celebrating the work anniversary of Aisha Noel, our School and Community Relationships Coordinator who started at Arts for Learning three years ago. With the pandemic creating major changes over the past two years, her job has evolved and expanded with new duties, but she still has the same positive energy and enthusiasm as when she started.

When Aisha was first hired, she primarily coordinated after-school programs while a different staff member handled bookings and programs that took place during school hours. Now Aisha schedules programs of all types, while keeping in close touch with our community partners—schools, libraries, and community centers—something that plays to her strength of being able to relate to all sorts of different people.

“My job has evolved from what I originally did, and it’s always changing. It keeps me ‘unbored,’ because I like change, but I also feel more sure of myself now,” she says, noting that she’s been able to act as a resource for newer members of the A4L program team.

When schools shut down in March 2020, it allowed Arts for Learning to diversify its program offerings by developing multimedia options, something Aisha says she’s glad we’ve been able to incorporate.

Aisha helps set up lights during the early days of A4L’s recording of artists’ programs. She’s seen here with Aaron Kirkpatrick, former artistic and education manager.

“Even though COVID has been rough with trying to reschedule programs and all of the mitigation strategies we’ve come up with, I think we’ve done a great job.”

We did it with a smile and pride. And at the end of the day, this is for the kids.”

She says there’s been another positive change from the last couple of years.

“One good thing about the pandemic—you got time to slow down and think about what you want to do. Going back to school was one of them.” In September, Aisha started remote learning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to earn three certifications in arts management: Core, Professional, and Leadership. She hopes to finish within two years.

Aisha and her mother, Angela Noel.

Giving back to her community is extremely important to Aisha. “I want to show people that you don’t have to be a statistic. I grew up with a single African American mother in downtown Newport News, and I’ve been able to travel and do different things because art has opened so many doors, and I want students to have the same doors open to them.”

I want them to be able to see themselves in the Picassos of the world. I also want them to know that the world is much bigger than 757. It’s much bigger than the 23607 zip code, and they can do anything. They say music is the universal language. I would say art in general is the universal language.”

Aisha is from a musical family where everyone sings, but she’s the only one involved in theater. When she was in middle school, she wrote and directed a play for her church, which was presented as an evening of dinner theater.

“For them to support me and cultivate my vision… I think every kid needs that support from an adult, to cultivate their love for something, to really sow a seed for a person’s future.”

Aisha is a proud alumna of Heritage High School.

 

A mentor for Aisha was Laura Gilbreath Lloyd, her drama teacher at Heritage High School in Newport News who now teaches at Christopher Newport University. Calling her a “second mom,” Aisha says Mrs. Lloyd advocated for respect for all the jobs in theater, not just for performers on stage. That approach helped spark Aisha’s interest in arts administration, which included an internship at the Signature Theatre in Arlington. She wrote the following in tribute to Mrs. Lloyd last May for Teacher Appreciation Week:

“I am forever grateful to Mrs. Laura Gilbreath Lloyd, my high school drama teacher. She nurtured my passion for performing arts and cultivated a respect for art administration. Mrs. Lloyd created a haven for her students that allowed us to express ourselves, learn valuable life lessons, and mature into healthy young adults. It was truly a pleasure to be your student then, but I count it an honor to be your friend now. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, Mrs. Lloyd!”

Performing in “It’s a Wonderful Life” with the Williamsburg Players.

Among other credits, Aisha has performed with the Williamsburg Players and in a production at the historic Attucks Theatre in Norfolk. She also completed a two-year acting program at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Washington, D.C.

Aisha and fellow acting students at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. 

Aisha says that theater is her “happy place” and that being involved in drama at school helped her overcome a disability she was ashamed of as a child–she’s completely deaf in her right ear.

“Being in theater allowed me to not be ashamed of it,” she says. “But it also helped me pronounce words better. I can’t hear words phonetically like everybody else does because of my deafness so being in theater made me practice, practice, practice those scripts so that my speech was better.”

Here at Arts for Learning, working with Aisha is a joy, something that our community partners who interact with her have discovered for themselves.

We wish Aisha a very happy third work anniversary and a fulfilling and productive year ahead in both her career at A4L and her higher education!

Always in search of adventure!

Fun facts about Aisha:

  • Favorite types of theater: Greek and commedia dell’arte.
  • Favorite role played: L’il Bit in How I Learned to Drive.
  • Favorite TV show: Criminal Minds.
  • She loves reading and just finished Michelle Obama’s Becoming, calling it “phenomenal.” “I really like seeing what inspires people to do what they do.”
  • She loves travel and adventure!
  • She and her mother are very close. Aisha calls her “my heart.”

 

Filed Under: Staff Spotlight

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Main Office
Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502

Phone: 757-466-7555

Main Office

Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Phone:
757-466-7555

Arts for Learning Virginia Names New CEO to Lead Arts-in-Education Nonprofit

The Board of Directors of Arts for Learning, the Virginia Affiliate of Young Audiences, voted at its annual meeting to name Anna Heywood Green as CEO of the organization. Heywood Green has served as Interim CEO since January 1, following the retirement of former CEO Christine Everly. Prior to January, Heywood Green worked as the organization’s […]

Join the A4L Mailing List!

Sign up to receive the latest news on arts integration from Arts for Learning! Thank you for supporting arts-in-education.

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Arts for Learning Virginia. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
At Arts for Learning Virginia, we’re proud to be part of the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ Passport Program. While Passport holders typically receive free admission and 50% off classes at participating organizations, all our programming is always free—no discount needed. To learn more about our public events, check out our calendar of events page here.

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