Recently, families from Harding Elementary School in El Cerrito joined Youth in Arts Mentor Artists in a Passport Art Event. Participants received a paper “passport” and traveled to various countries and exploring their art forms during this evening event.
Outside the Multipurpose room we danced to the beats of Brazilian Samba Reggae with YIA Mentor Artist Stephanie Bastos. Stephanie has been teaching dance in the K-3 classrooms throughout the school year and during this event students, parents and siblings got the opportunity to dance together with her.
Persian Classical Dance
There were many moments of dance solos that were not to be missed! Inside, we swayed to the melodies and rhythms of Persian Classical Dance with YIA Mentor Artist Shahrzad Khorsandi. Dancers got to use beautifully decorated scarves to highlight the dance movements. We also learned about the instrumentation with live music provided by Pourya Khademi.
Chinese Brush Painting with Julia and Miko
Utilizing special rice paper and bamboo brushes, YIA Mentor Artists Julia James and Miko Lee led participants in Chinese Brush Painting techniques to create beautiful paintings of bamboo. Artists also learned how to make their special “chop” or, signature in the corner of their painting.
We also created tin medallions representing our Mayan Nahual or, birth sign. Using the Mayan Calendar, each person calculates their Nahual, which indicates the “essence” of their spirit according to Mayan beliefs. We used wooden stylus to etch in the outline of our Nahual and colored them with markers.
Youth in Arts is thankful to all of the families staff and friends who showed up
Making Nahuales with Angela and Sophie
and traveled the world with us! We look forward to continuing our day-time programs in K-6th grades which will culminate in sharing events later this month. YIA Mentor Artist Thomas Arndt is teaching theater classes during school as well as in a special after school group dedicated to writing, producing and performing an original theater piece that addresses issues of acceptance, friendship, appreciating differences and being true to yourself. Stay tuned for a performance date!
Thank you to the Thomas J. Long Foundation for making this program possible! With their support, we are able to provide financial aid for year-long arts programming at Harding Elementary and celebrate our diversity and expression in many forms!
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