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Tailored programs for individuals with physical, developmental, cognitive and emotional disabilities

 

Seeking Young Artists with Disabilities

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Youth in Arts is offering three professional-level apprenticeships for young artists who would like to gain experience as a teaching artist and work as an apprentice.  Apprentices must be enrolled in college or an equivalent educational program, have a documented disability and be of ages 18-25.
Apprentices will assist Mentor Artists (some of whom are also individuals with disabilities) in teaching dance, theater or visual art through “Arts Unite Us,” an innovative project at Harding Elementary in El Cerrito, California,  that brings K-5 students with and without disabilities together to create original art side-by-side.

“Arts Unite Us” Apprentices will have a unique opportunity to acquire direct experience teaching the arts, while also serving as role models for children participating in the Harding project.  Apprentices will also attend workshops in classroom management, arts teaching techniques, working with learners of all abilities, documenting student learning in the arts and developing a professional portfolio.

The project will take place from February to June of 2012.

We are offering 3 apprenticeship positions in Dance, Theater and Visual Arts.  These apprenticeships are offered by Youth in Arts through the Rosemary Kennedy Internship Initiative. A stipend will be provided for each apprentice selected for the program.

Application Deadline: February 8th, 2012

Qualifications:

  • Visual or performing artists, active in the arts field.
  • Enrolled in college or an equivalent educational program; or an artistic training program.
  • Have a documented disability.
  • 18-25 years of age.
  • Available to attend professional development workshops and teach during some school days.

If you would like to apply for this apprenticeship, you may do so by filling out our online form.

Contact: Nydia Gonzalez at ngonzalez@youthinarts.org

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Moving into the Third Dimension: Marindalers Begin Building

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Our next project begins to explore the concept of FORM: how do we create art that comes off the page? Beginning in black and white, Marindalers learned about GLUE this week. How do we make things stick to our picture? How does glue feel compared to paint on our hands? (The answer was STICKY!)

Children are learning to make choices: Do I want a Big triangle or Small? Black or White?

In four weeks, children have learned some important rules for artists:

  1. Use one material at a time (so that your neighbor can have a turn),
  2. SHARE with your neighbor,
  3. Keep your hands on your own work, and
  4. TRY not to taste the art supplies!

Children are learning to follow a series of steps to make their art:

  1. Choose a shape,
  2. Wiggle it in the glue,
  3. Place it on the base, and
  4. Pick a new shape.

We are seeing individual artistic expression in their pieces: some are limiting their pallet to one color, some have glued their pieces in a row (making a pattern), some have chosen to draw the same shape on every piece, and some have chosen to smoosh each piece with a painty hand!

“I learned that LETTERS are very attractive to many children! I had cut up foam core signs from an art exhibit, and not only were most students able to grasp the shapes, many made choices based on the letters they found on the shapes.”–Suzanne Joyal, Mentor Artist

It turns out that for many children, no art project is complete until the paint has been applied: to hands as well as artwork.

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Preschoolers Experimenting with Paint: What is Slippery?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Marindale students have been experimenting with SLIPPERY: how does it feel to draw and paint on a slippery surface? How does your crayon move? Your paintbrush? Your hands? What does it sound like when you tap on the foil? On the plastic? How is it different from drawing on paper?

Mentor artist Suzanne Joyal designed several projects to explore this topic. Students were able to experiment with a variety of media on foil, green cellophane, and clear plastic, mounted on foam core scraps. Crayola Window Crayons, Twistables, and Dry Erase Markers allow students with all levels of fine motor development to see success with making marks on the boards.

Our next project was inspired by Amstel when she chose to use our erasers (meant to be pushed through the paint thereby making a new kind of mark) as a building material. She stacked them all into a tower (which unfortunately fell down).

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Integration Inspiration: Performance!

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

We recently filled you in on the playmaking process over at Tamalpais High School.  Students collaborated to write, direct, design, produce and perform their own play for the school’s Winter One Act Play Festival.  The show’s run at the Caldwell Theatre was a huge success!  Youth in Arts Mentor Artist Melissa Briggs led a joint effort between students from Mr. Lovejoy’s Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) Special Ed class and the school’s excellent Conservatory Theatre Ensemble (CTE).  YIA Mentor Artist Donna Ozawa worked with a group of Mr. Lovejoy’s students to create all of the props and stagecraft used in the play.  This replicable arts integration program was designed to bridge gaps between students of differing abilities.

We’re going to let the students toot their own horn here and tell you about their success!

Students acknowledge their cheering (standing!) audience

“I was so happy at the end.  We crafted that play out of nothing.  I’m just so proud of everything we’ve done.  Not just the performance, the whole process.  So many people have come up to me… the audience was shocked.  I mean, we got a standing ovation!”  - Glyn

Students rehearse the blocking for a lift at the end of the play

“I feel proud… I know what to do!”  -Jake

Students perform the lift onstage in "Her Face to the Sky"

“It was really good [to be onstage.] The lift was hard.  I felt kinda nervous, and proud.  Proud of myself.” -Maribel

Performing together onstage at Tamalpais High School

“It’s not about just me.  I have to pay attention and observe.  I have to work together as a group.” – Monica

Waiting to greet family & friends in the Theatre lobby

“My whole family was so impressed with what we did.  It was special because of the collaboration.” -Allison

Students celebrate with friends, family & teachers

“I have to say, I felt famous!” -Tevin

Among the reasons Tevin felt famous was an article in their local paper about their work.  He also may have been responding to an enhanced profile on this sprawling campus.  Over the weeks of rehearsal and performance more and more of their student peers, unrelated to the project, reached out to them.  Stopping Tevin in the hall to ask when the show was, dropping by Mr. Lovejoy’s class on the way to lunch to say hi to Jake, or asking Maribel how rehearsal were going.  And campus feedback following the performance only fueled further integration and dialogue.  Monica’s response to congratulations from her peers on the performance was to remind them of their playmaking process:

“I always tell people,‘Thanks, we WROTE it!’ and they are just like:  ‘HOW?!’  It’s such a hard thing to do but we wrote a great play!”

A board in the Theatre lobby depicts the playmaking process

Feedback from students, teachers, administrators, and department/ district heads was glowing.  We hope to be able to expand this opportunity for collaboration in communities throughout the Bay Area.  Theatre integrates our inherent creativity and need to connect with the continued development of communication and life skills. It bridges seemingly vast gaps in our abilities and income levels – helping students see the we in a world full of me.  Plus, its “crazy fun”!  Reactions, like Glyn’s below, to the rigorous curriculum, rehearsals and high artistic standards of this arts integration project epitomize our goal:

“It was so rewarding at the end.  I was so happy and proud of everyone!”

So were we.

Youth in Arts is dedicated to serving youth of all abilities with high quality arts programming.  We created the Arts Unite Us program with seed funds from the Special Hope Foundation, and this project at Tam High has been supported by grants from the Green Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. We are grateful for their generous support.  For more information on how you can support this type of programming, visit our support page, or visit our store at 917  C St. in downtown San Rafael.

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Marindale: How do We use our SENSES when we Create?

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Mentor Artist Suzanne Joyal is working with four classrooms at Marindale in San Rafael, and students of all abilities are exploring the same Essential Question. In week one, we started with Texture: how can we FEEL things when we create?

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Prop Building and Stagecraft @ Tam High

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

An earlier post describes the theater production of the original one-act play lead by YIA Mentor Artist Melissa Briggs in collaboration with students from Mr. Michael Lovejoy’s Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) Special Ed class.

Mentor Artist Donna Keiko Ozawa joined the production in December to work with the students on stage props and sets. Here are some photos of the process.

Some of the students’ characters required props they could carry on stage. These were fabricated from simple materials: cardboard, wood, craft foam, metal hinges, and stickers. Students learned how to drill, and colored the wood with permanent markers.

Tevin and Donna construct a cellphone.

Mentor Artist Donna Keiko Ozawa assists Tevin with marking holes for the hinge on the cellphone prop.

Tevin loves woodworking.

Maribel enjoys working with tools.

Jake drilling

Jake learns to drill holes for a hinge.

Various cellphones, PDAs and camera props for the show that students made.

Students also used rubber stamps on foam core to create a miniature cityscape to represent San Francisco on one side of  our large prop of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This process also took into account students’ physical and cognitive abilities to create an aesthetic that worked well with theme of the show.  (Spoiler: There is an earthquake involved…)

The cityscape assembled and will be seen off the Bridge (a larger prop not pictured here).

Maggie working on the fascade of a building in the cityscape prop.

Buildings students stamped for the cityscape.

The cityscape prop is light and portable for quick placement on stage.

Can you imagine this cargo ship off the Bay in the distance? (Foamcore, paint, cardboard, hot glue).

Show time is January 12 and 17. Please join us on Thursday January 12th or 19th at 7PM, Tam High’s Caldwell Theatre, 700 Miller Avenue (near the back parking lot) Mill Valley, CA.  Box office opens at 6:30PM and advance tickets are available online as well.

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Tam Students WRITE, DIRECT & PERFORM

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Something exciting is happening in Mill Valley! Students at Tamalpais High School are collaborating to write, direct, produce and perform their own play for the school’s Winter One Act Play Festival in January 2012.

Youth in Arts Mentor Artist Melissa Briggs is leading this joint effort between students from Mr. Lovejoy’s Marin County Office of Education (MCOE) Special Ed class and the school’s excellent Conservatory Theatre Ensemble (CTE). This arts integration program is the first of its kind in the district, created as part of YIA’s Arts Unite Us program, which aims to bridge gaps between students of differing abilities. Click to continue »

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Making Music at Marindale

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Dancing to the Music!

YIA Mentor Artist Hannah Dworkin spent 10 weeks working with students of differed abilities at Marindale School, a campus that serves pre-school age students with Special Needs, providing them with necessary services including physical and occupational therapy.

Hannah worked for 10 weeks multiple teachers: Laura Becker, Susan Wilkinson, Collette Macowan and Carla Echevarria.

An example of Hannah’s work is how she worked in Collette Macgowen’s speech-delayed class, teaching language development through music. The classes followed a distinct agenda with visuals to accompany a variety of activities:

The “Goodmorning” song in which each student was greeted by the class, emphasizing good eye contact, interpersonal skills and welcoming facial expressions. The chorus was danced and the movements were selected through the use of a “choice board.

Students also learned multi-syllabic food-related words that were associated with musical notation. For example, group of four sixteenth notes were chanted as “pepperoni” and two eighth notes were chanted as “pizza.” This activity helped students to pronounce difficult sounds, increased musicianship levels and helped to coordinate sounds and body movements.

Chilren enjoyed singing songs and moving throughout the classroom, often learning traditional folk songs from various cultures such as “Fly Little Bluebird” and “Martarile.” Students used a variety of manipulatives and musical instruments for these songs such as scarves, drums and shakers.

The classes were concluded with a sung penny game that developed visual tracking and predictions skills and a goodbye song helping to transition students back to their other activities.

During culminating events teachers invited peers from other classrooms to share an afternoon of music, dance and playing with scarves. The celebrations began with singing “Hello” to each student which was followed by interactive songs designed to develop social skills as well as hand eye coordination.  The students’ favorite part of the afternoon was playing and dancing with scarves.

Hannah and the teachers she worked with found the residencies to be very successful in that each student participated to the extent  that his/her abilities allowed. The biggest challenge was adapting music/movement classes to the varying abilities of the students.   Some students were verbal and mobile, others were mobile and non verbal and others were limited in their movement and language.

We met this challenge by partnering students able to perform tasks well with those who were more challenged as well as strategic help from the class’ amazing educators.  Hannah and Youth in Arts look forward to serving these amazing teachers and students again next year!

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How do we “See” visual arts?

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Mentor Artist Suzanne Joyal worked with children in Jay’s and Laura’s pre-k classes at Marindale this Spring. Following are her perspectives on the many ways the students experienced the visual arts:

Clara: "Can I make a rubber stamp "squeak" and also bang it like a drum?"

Clara loved to do all kinds of art: drawing painting, stamping, gluing, and squeezing clay. But her greatest joy was discovering the many different ways her materials could make noise! Each time I visited I would bring foil, or bubble wrap, or “crunchy” paper so that Clara could experience paint and color and sound in her art-making process.

Christopher contributing to the Class Project

Christopher was tentative with new experiences, but with a gentle touch and lots of encouragement, he was able to hold a paintbrush and draw with special soft crayons. With his new glasses on, he was able to see his plain white canvas come to life.

Marquise squeezing and rolling clay

Marquise has limited sight and could only see light and shadow from one corner of one eye, and loved working with Model Magic. When it was placed in front of him on a black board, he was able to find it no matter where it was placed, and loved to squeeze and pull and roll the soft, pliable clay. He also loved the “crunchy” shiny wrapper that the clay came in.

Paula drawing circles in yellow

The energy level was alive and exciting in Jay’s classroom, and I was able to work with the students in pairs. We learned to take one pastel at a time, to share with our friends, to wait for our turn, to be careful and respectful of our art materials, and to use these valuable skills to explore art-making in myriad ways.

Lindsey choosing one color at a time

Again, the students were open to any new experience, and were able to paint on mat board, foil, and plastic, to draw circles and lines with crayons, pastels, and even window-painting crayons. We explored textures with collages full of shiny bits, sand paper, soft fur, and much more.

Mixed Media: Model Magic on board with markers, paint, and glue

With Model Magic, we squeezed and pulled and rolled, and even poked it with markers to turn it new colors. The students taught me a whole new use for Model Magic when they squashed it onto their mat boards (it stuck there), and then proceeded to draw and paint and glue right on top of it. It was a truly multi-media process with beautiful results.

The classroom teacher, Laura Becker, had this to say about their time with Suzanne:

We are so excited to have Suzanne with us. We have students who are at times difficult to read, but Suzanne has gotten to know each child individually and has brought material that will excite and motivate each one of my students. I am so grateful that she has taken the time to know each one. Her projects allow each of them to express themselves and their abilities. It has been a real joy. She is very gifted.

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Dancing to the Monkeys

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Students from Barbara  Royanne‘s Special Day Class at San Jose Middle Mchool  presented a very successful talent show as the culmination of their 20 weeks working with Mentor Artist Hannah Dworkin.  The day began with a demonstration of reading rhymes to the upbeat , silly song Big, Pig, Fig.   Then the students demonstrated the amazing progress they made  over the year in their physical education classes through pushups and jumping jacks.

Finally, it was Youth in Arts’ turn.  The students choreographed two dances.  They began with a dance performed to the Monkey’s I’m a Believer, and once all students were in place all students regardless of ability level participated in a dance choreographed to Kool n’ the Gang’s Celebration.

YIA Mentor Artist Hannah Dworkin chose music that the students were familiar with and enthusiastic about.  Students manipulated engaging and colorful props including beatiful scarves that danced around the room.

Thank you to all of the Para Educators and teachers who took an active roll and helped by following up with activities during the week!  All involved in this project felt it was a huge success.   Thank you to Youth in Arts for providing the funding and opportunities for these children and teachers!

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