Portsmouth Public Schools Archives - Page 2 of 3

In Their Own Words: IDEAL Residency Students

June 6, 2023 By Cindy Sherwood

Sometimes we can learn the most about the impact of a program that we offer directly from the students we serve.

So we wanted to share comments from some of the students who participated in our IDEAL (Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages) residency this spring. Remarks from students at Virginia Beach’s College Park Elementary and Portsmouth’s Westhaven Elementary are divided into the categories that we measure before, during, and after the residency to determine gains: self-worth, community connectedness, and creative expression.

SELF-WORTH

Emma, College Park, 5^th grade: “It showed me I could really be anything I want to be.”

Sadé, College Park, 5^th grade: “I want to teach others how to do art. It’s very inspiring. It makes you feel like you can do other things that you thought that you couldn’t do in art. And that’s why I love Arts for Learning.”

Deniya, Westhaven, 5^th grade: “I learned you can do what you want to do. You just have to keep practicing. Don’t let anybody make you come down, just keep trying and trying… And you might end up being an artist if you keep trying.”

Harmony, Westhaven, 5^th grade: “I got a lot more friends in my life. They made us sit at different tables so we could get to know each other, and it really helped a lot. I’m very shy. I got put into a room full of new people I didn’t know, at least most of them. I guess I had to branch out… I feel like Arts for Learning made me into a better person.”

COMMUNITY CONNECTIVENESS

Samantha, Westhaven, 6^th grade: “Arts for Learning was important because it helped you connect with who you are and your identity.” (Samantha had noted that she was Filipino on her mother’s side and used to visit cousins in the Philippines prior to Covid. She said she had done research about the Philippines as part of IDEAL.)

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Sadé, College Park, 5^th grade: “I’m more excited when I do art. It makes my heart burst.”

Mark, Westhaven, 6^th grade: “I created a phoenix, and it was really inspiring because it shows my personality, like the power of the phoenix. It’s a sock puppet so it’s silly and goofy but on the inside it’s powerful and meaningful. The project changed how I saw myself because I expressed my inner personality.”

Kerrington, College Park, 5^th grade: “Before I joined [the IDEAL residency], I wasn’t really artistic because I didn’t think I could do the things I wanted to do. When I joined Arts for Learning, it was really fun because I got to paint, do watercolors, and sculptures…. Anytime I go home, I have paint and canvases in my room, and I just paint nonstop. And my mom tells me to go to bed and I’m like, ‘No, I’ve got to paint.’”

Mary, Westhaven, 5^th grade: “I realized that I could express myself in different ways instead of just talking about it. I can express myself through singing or dancing or painting or drawing. Arts for Learning has helped me a lot because I learned I can express myself in different ways.”

Raenah, Westhaven, 5^th grade: “I’ve changed the way I express myself going to [the IDEAL residency] because I learned that I don’t have to just speak the way I feel, I can draw it out, dance it out, sing it out, or do it all types of ways. My favorite way of showing my feelings is painting. I can show it if I’m mad, happy, sad, or any other emotion. The painting I did for the Chrysler Museum I basically just put lots of fun and colorful things because I feel like it describes how I am most of the time because I’m mostly happy.”

Many thanks to Hannah Sobol and Jackie Glass of Heard Productions for conducting interviews with students at the Chrysler Museum.

The IDEAL student art exhibit is still on display and available for the public to view through Sunday, June 11. Admission to the Chrysler Museum is free. The artwork can be viewed at the Margaret Shepherd Ray Family and Student Gallery.

IDEAL Evening at the Chrysler Art Museum

May 12, 2023 By Cindy Sherwood

Pictures are worth a…. you know the rest. Enjoy these wonderful photos of the student art exhibit, performances, and reception at the Chrysler Museum of Art as the IDEAL (Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages) residency wrapped up for upper elementary students at Norfolk’s Lindenwood, Portsmouth’s Westhaven, and Virginia Beach’s College Park schools.

It truly was an IDEAL evening as students shared their art for family, friends, educators, and community leaders. Throughout the residency, students created art that explored and expressed their unique identities. The public can view the beautiful artwork through June 11.

We thank all of our partners who made the first year of this residency possible: the funders–with special thanks to our major funder the Hampton Roads Community Foundation–teaching artists; residency stewards; Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach public school divisions; Chrysler Museum of Art; Richmond Ballet; staff and board of Arts for Learning; families; and most of all, the students. We hope they’ll remember this special night forever.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Arts for Learning Style)

March 15, 2023 By Cindy Sherwood

No, we’re not talking about this year’s Best Picture winner (although we DID love it!) We’re talking about springtime at Arts for Learning where we have so much going on—new residencies, workshops, public performances, and more for students from Pre-K to 12^th grade!

Residencies

Strings Impact kicks off at Lakeview Elementary in Portsmouth.

John Jenkins leads Strings Impact students at Lakeview Elementary.

Strings Impact: Fourth through sixth graders at three elementary schools in Portsmouth have the opportunity to learn the basics of playing the violin—without having to pay or rent an instrument. Strings Impact is one of our longstanding residencies, and we’re so happy students at Churchland, Lakeview, and Simonsdale are participating in this after-school opportunity. Students from each school will perform concerts for family and friends in May.

Strings Impact at Churchland Elementary, led by teaching artist Tina Culver.

IDEAL, Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages: Older elementary students from three school divisions—Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach—are also busy after school in a new residency.

Teaching artist Jennifer Graham with students at Norfolk’s Lindenwood Elementary.

Lindenwood Elementary students getting started in their IDEAL residency.

Students are participating in year one of IDEAL where they’re exploring identity and community through poetry, movement, and visual art. Students are being led by A4L teaching artists Cindy Aitken, Gary Garlic, and Jennifer Graham at Lindenwood Elementary in Norfolk, Asiko-oluwa Aderin and Nathan Richardson at Westhaven Elementary in Portsmouth, and Jackie Adonis and Valerie Davis at College Park Elementary.

In May, students will showcase performances and artwork at the Chrysler Museum, with their art pieces to be professionally hung in a gallery for a month for the public to view!

The Chrysler Museum’s Emily Cayton talks with students visiting from Virginia Beach’s College Park Elementary.

To bring students in the museum and show them it’s their place to have a voice is just an amazing opportunity,” says Anna Green, COO for Arts for Learning. “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.”

Students at Westhaven Elementary in Portsmouth work on an art project with Emily Cayton of the Chrysler Museum.

Arts + Learning Snacks: Tessellations

Third graders at Rosemont Elementary in Virginia Beach.

Third grade students at Virginia Beach’s Bayside Elementary say thanks for their new take-home arts kits.

Third-graders at seven elementary schools in Virginia Beach have a new (and so-not-boring) way to study for their math SOL testing in May. Thanks to free bilingual art kits, they’ll get a refresher on measuring perimeter and area by following instructions to design their own tessellations. (A “tessellation” is an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together using a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping.) Thanks to support from the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission and the Helen G. Gifford Foundation, we distributed 500 take-home kits to students in Title I schools in Virginia Beach.

And how nice to see these smiling faces!

Third grade students at Birdneck Elementary in Virginia Beach receive art kits from A4L Operations Coordinator Stephanie Jackson.

Public Performances and Workshops

Dino O’Dell gets kids hopping at Williamsburg Library.

Valerie Davis portrays Martha Ann Fields at the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center as part of our free performance series underwritten by the Virginia African American Cultural Arts Center.

There’s no excuse to be bored at home anymore—not when we’re offering so many different performances and workshops, certified family friendly, fun, and fabulous. offered throughout greater Hampton Roads.

With programs offered throughout greater Hampton Roads, there’s something for all ages. Click for the latest on our Events Calendar and make sure to check back often because we keep adding more programs. We’ve had some wonderful ones lately—from the “master of tricking kids into learning,” Dino O’Dell, on tour from Kansas City to Valerie Davis’s inspiring portrayals of courageous women in history.

We thank all of those who care about arts education and financially support these programs and more—we couldn’t do it without you! Check out the list of our supporters here.

PLUS THERE’S MORE! Our teaching artists love sharing the joy of the arts with children. Here’s James Cooper leading a Geometric MOSAIC workshop in Norfolk, Stephanie Lask teaching the graphic novel in Virginia Beach, and Amy Harbin guiding Rhythm and Me students in Portsmouth!

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.

Arts + Learning Snacks: Meals for the Mind

May 6, 2021 By Cindy Sherwood

Take art supplies, mix them with heaping portions of creativity, and serve them to elementary-aged kids hungry for a break from screen time—that’s our winning recipe for Arts + Learning Snacks, which are now being delivered to area elementary schools. These art activity kits have the right ingredients for kids to use their hands and minds to make an art project by themselves or with their caregivers.

Five Norfolk public elementary schools have received the first batch of Learning Snacks, which feature instructions in English and Spanish on how to create a mini-comic. A4L’s comic artist Matt Harrison designed the curriculum, which includes supplies and calls for students to invent characters, plots, and settings as they write and draw their own comic adventures.

A number of artists and board members have stepped up to help assemble the snacks, following all COVID-19 safety precautions.

A4L board member La-Neka Brown helped assemble the snacks at our Norfolk office.

Rainbow Puppets’ Wesley Huff and David Messick were hard at work putting together the snack bags.

Storyteller Via Goode and board member Diane Gibson had the honor of delivering the first snacks to five Norfolk elementary schools: Jacox, James Monroe, Lindenwood, Tidewater Park, and Richard Bowling.

Another Learning Snack, the “Zen of ‘Za,” will be distributed soon. The snack is custom designed for students with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), tying movement of the body with lines in art; activities include students stretching to “make a pizza” and creating a decorative “pizza” out of the art materials supplied. A4L dancer Jae P Renee is creating supplemental videos with visual instructions for students. Two hundred of these snacks are headed to the Portsmouth Autism Resource Team (PART) for distribution. The Zen of ‘Za will also be provided to a number of schools for use by kids in kindergarten through third grade who don’t have an ASD diagnosis.

The two current Learning Snacks—with a new one now being developed—will be distributed for free to more students via additional elementary schools in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia Beach Public Libraries, the Newport News FACE office, and community sites in Portsmouth.

There’s a little added bonus for Norfolk’s PB Young Elementary School from the Snacks’ initiative. Thanks to Office Depot’s “Give Back to Schools” program, the school has received $115 in rewards from the money we’ve spent to purchase supplies for the kits.

The snack kits give under-resourced students a break from screen time and the challenge of a hands-on arts project that aligns with Virginia’s fine arts and literacy Standards of Learning. Would you like to help bring more Learning Snacks to children in economically disadvantaged areas of Hampton Roads? Click here to donate.

Do you want to learn how you can bring Learning Snacks to your school, library, or community center? Start by clicking here for more info!

We’re grateful to our partners who are underwriting the cost of these “meals for the mind”—thanks to Aldi Smart Kids, the E.C. Wareheim Foundation, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, the Portsmouth Service League, and the Virginia Beach Arts and Humanities Commission for their major support of this new initiative.

In Their Own Words: IDEAL Residency Students

IDEAL Evening at the Chrysler Art Museum

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Arts for Learning Style)

A Program that Makes a Real Impact

Arts + Learning Snacks: Meals for the Mind

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