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Enriching after school hours with visual and performing arts

 

Playwriting at the Novato Youth Center

Thursday, December 1st, 2011

On November 21 friends and families gathered to hear a reading of two plays written by students at the Novato Youth Center!  First through fifth grade playwrights collaborated to write Sucked In and Sparkles and Sugar. Playwrights sat onstage in front of a packed house and watched surprise celebrity guest actors (their teachers from the center!) read their work.  It was thrilling to watch the young playwrights’ faces as they experienced their own words brought to life.

Crazy creative at the Novato Youth Center!

This exciting evening was the culmination of a ten-week Youth in Arts residency at the Center.  Mentor Artist Melissa Briggs led the young theatre artists as they learned the elements of theatre and playwriting through improvisation, drama games and imaginative writing.   Melissa’s program (inspired by the Playmaking curriculum at the 52nd Street Project in New York City) is designed to publicly validate the children’s creativity, maximize awareness of their bodies, voices, senses and feelings, and ensure a positive experience expressing their own authentic voice.

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Lynwood Printmakers Celebrate their Art with Cookies and Cider

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Twelve weeks of printmaking with Mentor Artist Suzanne Joyal culminated  with cookies, cider, and sharing of projects. The second- through fifth- graders in Lynwood’s after-school LEAP program began the residency by learning the fundamentals of printmaking:

Our line search turned into a MONOPRINT. Students inked their plates, then gently placed paper on top, and drew their designs onto the back of the paper.

Colographs are made up of layers of stiff paper cut or torn, and then glued into interesting patterns and shapes. Our choices of ink and paper color made the possibilities endless. Click to continue »

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Skeletons and Printmaking at Lynwood School

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Students in the after school LEAP program at Lynwood School are getting a taste for printmaking with Mentor Artist Suzanne Joyal. So far, the second through fifth graders have experimented with building their own unique chop signature marks, monoprinting in black on white paper, and creating colotypes with colorful inks and papers.


Cutting oaktag for colograph prints

More pieces make a more interesting finished print

Layering oaktag to add depth and texture

In preparation for this week’s project of printing on black paper with white ink, students practiced drawing skeletons with oil pastels and chalk pastel pencils. They experimented with lights and darks, contrast and composition. They looked at the works of Jose Posada (Mexico 1851-1913)

The students were so inspired by their drawings that many of them created accordion books and shared their stories with the entire class.

Just in time for Dia de los Muertos: students recreated their skeletons in line drawings which were then turned into etchings in foam and printed two different ways: White paper with black ink, and black paper with white ink.

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Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

Friday, October 7th, 2011

October is a great time to select a program for your school celebrating the unique artistic traditions of Mexico, Central and South America and the Carribean. National Hispanic Heritage Month runs through October 15, celebrating the cultures and contributions of American citizens with roots in these regions, and the important Meso-American holiday of Dia de los Muertos follows right behind on November 1-2.

Youth in Arts is proud to offer your students a wide range of unique arts learning experiences with roots in these diverse parts of the world. Bring one of our artists to your school now, or throughout the year.

Click below to find out more about some of the 45-minute performances available through our School Assemblies Program:

Our Artists in Schools program can also provide residencies of any duration in the above music and dance, or visual arts residencies in forms like Cartonería (creation of painted sculptures from recycled paper or cardboard), Huichol yarn painting or the making of traditional Meso-American musical instruments.

National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the cultures and contributions of American citizens with roots in Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The federal observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week and was expanded in 1988 to cover a 30-day period that includes the September 15 independence celebrations for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as Mexican and Chilean independence days on September 16 and September 18 and Día de la Raza (Columbus Day) on October 12. Many communities continue celebrations through October to include Dia de los Muertos on November 1-2.

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Lines, shapes, colors, texture, and angles!

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Mentor Artists Michelle Gutierrez worked with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at Lynwood Elementary school, in their aftershool time to create beautiful images learning the basics of photography. They learned the five basic techniques of composition which are: lines, shapes, colors, texture, and angles. Sixty students divided into two classes of one hour each to learn how to use digital cameras, upload their images, manipulate and archive them in Iphoto, and later-create a slide show presenting their work. They also learned how to create powerpoint presentations, using words to accompany their images on the Mac program Keynote.

The photos taken by the students will be used on the school’s website as a way to promote their school in addition to highlighting the hard work of the youth. Great job Lynwood students!

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Cool the Earth Mural at Lynwood Elementary

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

Mentor artist Angela Baker worked with  2nd through 5th graders from Lynwood Elementary’s after school program to create a 6’X8’ mural on plywood on the theme of cooling the earth. Through discussion the students brainstormed ideas of things they could do to cool the earth. They then did small pencil sketches to bring their ideas to life. Next students created larger pictures with sharpie and watercolor to further solidify their ideas. In an effort to include the artwork of as many students as possible in the mural, Angela traced parts of these paintings and adjusted the size to create a collage that was used as the final composition. Click to continue »

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Community Arts Partners – Training Parents to utilize arts in the classroom

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Developing a parent volunteer art program takes time and dedication from a school community, and the Venetia Valley Elementary School in San Rafael has decided to take that plunge.

Youth in Arts staff met with the Venetia Valley Arts Committee (which includes the new principal Cindy Jaconette, as well as teachers and PTA members) to brainstorm on possibilities for designing a parent-led art docent program for their school.

Questions included:

Do teachers want art projects to connect to classroom work?

Do teachers want students to focus on art fundamentals?

Does the school want the arts program to tie into school community events?

The Arts Committee decided to focus parent training on the fundamentals of Visual Arts. To begin the program, a Youth in Arts Mentor Artist will lead workshops for parents and interested teachers in the areas of Drawing, Watercolor Painting, Sculpture, Print Making and more.

The Mentor Artist will then model the lesson from the workshop in a classroom of the school’s choosing, with Art Parents observing and assisting. This will help to reinforce the workshop projects. The final step in the parent training program will be for the Mentor Artist to coach Art Parents as they teach the lessons in their “own” classrooms.

The school will get lesson plans, extensions for teaching the lessons in each grade level, and also enough art supplies to teach the class in at least five classrooms.

We are so excited to help Venetia Valley undertake this step toward developing a vibrant Arts Learning Community.

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Twilight celebrates the end of the school year!

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Second Grade Girls Having Fun!

On Thursday, June 3rd , The Twilight After School community came together to celebrate all the visual art created during year and to enjoy presentations by our many  performing arts classes. The after school  office became a beautiful gallery filled with high quality work. In the MPR we had theater pieces, dances, choirs and a special showing of the middle school kids video project from the MYC. Following the performance there was a pizza party. It was a happy event to mark the end of the year! Youth in Arts had an amazing year running the Twilight After School Program and we hope everyone has a fantastic and creative summer!

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What’s happening in Twilight AfterSchool?……

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

The young artists in the Twilight After School program continue to explore materials as they ask themselves big questions.

They have embarked on a “flag” project, and are thinking about “Our Community. Our World.”

What in the world inspires you?

If you could design a flag, what symbols would be present?

What do you want to share about your community with others?

We began by talking about the world and about our community and made lists to record our ideas.

The young artists are now working with oil pastels and tempera paints aka “wake up paints” on white fabric.

They are discovering that the oil pastels can be blended and rubbed into the fabric. It is a physical material.

“I like standing to paint. I can use my whole body.”

“The paint goes over the oil pastel. When it dries I like how it looks.”

The flags are starting to take on different identities and the students are excited about the combination of materials.

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Netza and Company perform at the Twilight

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

On Friday, May 7th, the kids of the Twilight After School Program were treated to an excellent display of Mexican Folkloric Dance. The company of young women danced with passion, precision and grace. It was great for our kids to see what can be accomplished with hard work and dedication!

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