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Thank You, Hampton Roads Community Foundation

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Some organizations do so much for the community that it’s hard to overstate their impact. The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is one such organization. Through its COVID-19 relief grants, the foundation has extended a lifeline to many area nonprofits that are struggling financially because of effects from the pandemic.

We are delighted to report that the Foundation has awarded us $15,000 under its special grant to provide COVID-related relief to arts organizations. We pledge to use the money wisely, as we build our programming of virtual arts experiences to meet students wherever and however they’re being schooled. Thank you to the Foundation for its support.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is southeastern Virginia’s largest grant and scholarship provider. Since its founding in 1950, the regional community foundation has provided more than $301 million in grants and scholarships to improve life in southeastern Virginia.

A Contest to Say ‘Thank You’

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Isn’t this great? It’s one of the entries we’ve received for our “Artful Thanks” contest. Lucy, a first-grader from King George County, shared this wonderful artwork with us.

We love drawings and would like to see many more pictures, but that’s not all! Kids may choose the art form of their choice to express their thanks to Virginia’s essential workers. A story or poem… a collage or sculpture… a video or photo… there are so many ways kids can show their gratitude.

Entries aren’t due until June 30, so kids have lots of time to work on their creations. We’ll continue sharing entries, and later in the summer our judges will award two $25 Amazon gift cards in each of two categories: kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth grade.

Please share with anyone you know who has creative (and grateful) children.  Click here for more details on how to submit.

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Behind-the-Scenes of Take 10

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Storyteller Sheila Arnold tests drives A4L's new lights and microphoneAt the beginning of 2020, none of us could have predicted what life would look like now in the spring. And certainly none of us at Arts for Learning could have known our Norfolk office would be turned into a makeshift video production studio.

Less than two months ago, our program team, joined by sixteen artists on the Arts for Learning roster, rallied to start creating ten-minute video segments for students learning at home, so the arts could remain part of their daily curriculum.

But there was a steep learning curve for artists and staff alike.

“It’s been a matter of working through the kinks,” as Noel puts it. From the beginning, she’s worked directly with our artists to talk through the process of creating the Take 10 videos, conversations that have taken up to two hours long and have included detailed instructions of social distancing protocols and safety measures taken before, during, and after recording. Only one of A4L’s artists had any experience producing live or recorded videos of their art. And Kirkpatrick and Noel also quickly realized they needed new equipment for better audio and video quality. The latest additions are a new directional microphone and LED lighting, made possible in part by a grant from the Community Knights Foundation.

“The quality has really expanded since the beginning of the process until now. Just watching the edited videos, it’s like, wow! Look how far we’ve come,” Kirkpatrick says. “Every session has brought with it a new lesson for me about how to approach the work.” One of Kirkpatrick’s latest projects certainly wasn’t included in his job description when he was started at A4L in January—it involved a trip to Lowe’s to buy PVC pipe and vellum paper to build a homemade light diffuser.

A4L staff members Aisha Noel and Aaron Kirkpatrick set up new equipment to prepare for videotaping.Noel is especially grateful to the artists who have participated in Take 10. “The fact that they have trusted us as an organization with their health is very important to me.”

“I’m just thankful for our artists’ willingness to be creative and share their art. Take 10 happened because artists said yes to trying something different.”

Kirkpatrick agrees. “We all have pent-up creativity right now. So to see an outlet be created and have artists come in and do their own thing, it’s really good vibes.”

So what’s next for our digital programming? Stay tuned, as they say in the news business. We’re working on the next phase and look forward to sharing details soon.

You can watch our Take 10 videos anytime on our YouTube channel, with music, dance, storytelling, crafts, and more to choose from.

Like what you see? We’re paying our artists to create Take 10 videos, but we don’t receive any money to produce them. Can you give $10 to Take 10? Donate here!

Take 10 to the Rescue

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For parents of the million-plus Virginia students who are now learning from home, it’s been a challenge—juggling working with childcare duties with trying to help kids with schoolwork. We all have newfound appreciation for our teachers!

 

Most of Arts for Learning’s staff members understand because they’re in the same boat. Chief Operations Officer Anna Heywood Green has an extra busy job managing our A4L program team, while supervising remote-learning for her fourth-grade daughter Mara who attends a Norfolk public elementary school.

Recently, Mara was having a hard day—overwhelmed by class work and a deadline to get it done. Anna heard her crying in her room so called for her to come out and chat. Anna had a suggestion for a quick mood booster—watching a Take 10 video together on Facebook.

“She stops crying instantly and says, ‘Can I’? So I get everything set up and we watched Cindy and Shelly’s Earth Day video together. We sang, she told me about the rain forest, she ‘corrected’ their program, and she did all the hand motions.”

Anna then let Mara design her Facebook “comment,” with emojis that showed an appropriate flair for the artistic.

After posting the comment, Anna asked if Mara felt better. She did—and got back to work in her room.

Do you and your kids need a break from a long monotonous day at home? You can watch our Take 10 videos anytime on our YouTube channel, with music, dance, storytelling, crafts, and more to choose from.

Like what you see? We’re paying our artists to create Take 10 videos, but we don’t receive any money to produce them. Can you give $10 to Take 10? Donate here!

From Crisis to Opportunity: New Digital Programming for Arts for Learning

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When Virginia schools were shut down in March for the rest of the school year, Arts for Learning had a dilemma—as a nonprofit that delivers its services to hundreds of schools in Virginia, how do we fulfill our mission to engage students IN and THROUGH the arts? And how do we pay artists on our roster who suddenly have no income, when we as an organization are ourselves facing a profound financial crisis?

The answer didn’t come immediately. Our program team deliberated and debated, reached out to artists and educators, and consulted with other Young Audience, Arts for Learning affiliates around the country. But amid all the uncertainty, Chief Operations Officer Anna Green says the A4L staff was certain of two things:

“The power of arts to enrich the lives of children in good times and in bad and the importance of compensating the artists who do so,” Green says. “So that’s what Take 10 became—a way to reach the students and a way to compensate the artists that enrich their lives.”

Launched on March 24, Take 10 is Arts for Learning’s new digital programming, making arts learning accessible to children and families virtually through live and recorded performances.

“I think that what excites me the most is that we have such a variety of talent,” says Aaron Kirkpatrick, A4L’s Artistic and Education Manager. “Take 10 is not a program of music. It’s not about storytelling. It’s not about visual art. It’s all of those things. So if you were to go to our on-demand list, which is growing every day, there’s a little of something for everybody, and it really speaks to the diversity of talent of everybody on the roster.”

Getting Take 10 up and running had its challenges. Although all of our artists are accustomed to performing live in front of audiences, few had experience recording on video or in teaching compact ten-minute learning segments. It was new territory, too, for Arts for Learning. Through some trial and error and a determination to figure it out, the program team dove in. Kirkpatrick made his Canon T3i videocamera available, and he and Program Relationship Coordinator Aisha Noel worked together to develop new methods for formalizing production techniques, establishing quality control and devising camera ready lesson plans, all while following social distancing protocols.

Participating artists are paid fees for time spent recording their Take 10 segments. Since A4L doesn’t have a production studio, artists record their segments at our office space in Norfolk, performing in front of a mural painted by artist Charles Williams in 1986.

Musician Tina Culver, the lead artist of the Strings Impact program and a public school teacher in Portsmouth, had to figure out how to teach the violin on video. With some help from the Pink Panther theme, she produced a Facebook Live segment that was fun to watch whether you had a violin handy or not.

“I think it’s really cool to be a part of it,” Culver says. “We’re impacting kids from a different perspective now, social media. Now we’re getting more people that are looking at it, you never know where it’s going, who it’s reaching. So I’m just glad to be a part of that. It’s just another way to reach everyone.”

The Take 10 programming is being shared widely, including by the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia Partnership for Out-of-School Time. We’ve also received requests for original digital programming from library systems and school districts in Virginia. Green sees this difficult time as an opportunity. “There’s the excitement of the possibility of being able to reach students better statewide through digital means. There’s a unique opportunity for people to see a nonprofit taking a step into a place that they’ve never been before.”

“I’m loving the #Take10 initiative and we’ll definitely be directing folks to those videos!” Christine Hurlock, Youth Services Librarian for Williamsburg Regional Library

You can watch Take 10 on Facebook Live at 2 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Or you can watch recorded videos anytime on our YouTube channel.

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