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Dominion Energy Honors Arts for Learning with ArtStars Award!

January 27, 2021 By Cindy Sherwood

Woo-hoo! It’s a happy day here at Arts for Learning, as we were thrilled to receive the Dominion Energy ArtStars Award for Eastern Virginia last night at the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ live virtual conference. Dominion Energy presented the award, which comes with a $10,000 prize, for A4L’s “Take 10” digital programming, recognizing the project’s innovation, enterprise, and artistic quality.

When Virginia’s schools shut down last March, more than 350 hours of our programming was canceled, threatening our mission to connect students with the power of the arts. But our mission was not interrupted. Within days, the Arts for Learning office in Norfolk was transformed into a makeshift recording studio, artists took a leap of faith and tried something new, and our program team figured it out on the fly, including how to shoot and edit video while following strict safety protocols required by the global pandemic. The result: 118 ten-minute video segments that served as engaging and educational art breaks for students and families who were suddenly thrust into remote learning.

Take 10 was a major team effort,” says Christine Everly, CEO of Arts for Learning. “We had no budget, no prior expertise, and no production studio—but we knew we had to find a way around those obstacles. Especially during the COVID crisis with students learning at home, we needed to reach them through the power of the arts. And we also wanted to provide some income for our artists who suddenly found themselves unemployed.”

Participating artists received stipends for their work on Take 10. The program ended in June, but Arts for Learning’s commitment to quality virtual arts programming did not. Thanks to an investment in new video technology and additional training for staff and artists, Arts for Learning now offers dozens of virtual arts experiences to schools, libraries, and community centers. The $10,000 ArtStars’ prize money will support Arts for Learning’s efforts to continue to build a digital library of engaging and innovative new programming to connect students with the arts, wherever and however they are being schooled.

Filed Under: Arts Integration, ArtsEd, COVID-19, News, Press Releases, Virtual Learning, Virtual programming Tagged With: 757 arts, 757 nonprofit, arts education, ArtStars Award, coronavirus, digital programming, Dominion Energy, Take 10, virtual learning, virtual programming

New Partnership with Newport News Public Schools

May 21, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

Dancer Joppa Whitehead tapes a Take 10 segment demonstrating the basics of balletFor more than two months now, our program team and participating artists have joined together to create unique and engaging Take 10 videos for families to use while distance learning at home. We’re happy to announce we’re now partnering with Newport News Public Schools’ Family and Community Engagement Specialists (FACE). NNPS will play our Take 10 videos on their website and TV channel—that means students who don’t have reliable access to the internet will be able to enjoy our free programming.

Logo of NNPS Family and Community Engagement Specialists (FACE)

We want to ensure all members of the community are informed about the availability of Take 10, so NNPS will be contacting families by phone and email. Newport News libraries are also offering WiFi at select meal sites, which offers another way for families to access our Take 10 virtual learning.

NNPS Family Engagement believes our programs provide a service that promotes togetherness in this time of home learning, as we all work together to create a digital social network that celebrates the power of the arts.

Click here for more information about FACE and its programs.

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

Filed Under: ArtsEd, News Tagged With: Arts Ed, arts integration, digital learning, Family and Community Engagement Specialists, Newport News Public Schools, NNPS, Partnership, Take 10, virtual programming

Behind-the-Scenes of Take 10

May 19, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

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!

Filed Under: ArtsEd Tagged With: 757 arts, 757 nonprofit, arts education, Arts for Learning, arts integration, arts programs, arts-in-education, Covid-19, creative learning, digital programming, distance learning, Hampton City Schools, home-schooling, Newport News Public Schools, nonprofit, Norfolk Public Schools, pandemic, Portsmouth Public Schools, remote learning, Take 10, teaching artists, VDOE, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Virginia stay-at-home order, virtual learning, VPOST

Take 10 to the Rescue

May 5, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

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!

Filed Under: ArtsEd Tagged With: 757 arts, 757 nonprofit, Arts for Learning Virginia, arts integration, arts learning, arts-in-education, coronavirus, Covid-19, creative learning, digital learning, Earth Day, education, home-schooling, nonprofit, Norfolk Public Schools, Take 10, virtual learning, Young Audiences, YouTube videos

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

April 29, 2020 By Cindy Sherwood

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.

Sign up for our newsletter so you can stay up-to-date on everything that’s happening at A4L as we work to bring new programming to your family!

Filed Under: ArtsEd Tagged With: 757 arts, 757 nonprofit, arts education, Arts for Learning, arts integration, arts programs, arts-in-education, Covid-19, creative learning, digital arts, digital programming, Hampton City Schools, home-schooling, Newport News Public Schools, nonprofit, Norfolk Public Schools, pandemic, Portsmouth Public Schools, Strings Impact, Take 10, Take Ten, teaching artists, VDOE, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Virginia stay-at-home order, virtual learning, VPOST, Williamsburg Regional Library

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

Arts for Learning
420 North Center Drive
Suite 239
Norfolk, Virginia 23502
Phone: 757-466-7555
Fax: 757-455-9859

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Arts for Learning Style)

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 12th grade! Residencies Strings Impact: Fourth through sixth graders at three elementary schools in […]

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, http://www.arts4learningva.org. 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

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