Category: Arts Corps Updates

Arts Corps’ New Program at the Youth Detention Center

Posted on Friday, November 1st, 2024 at 5:45 pm
Written by Arts Corps

 

                A black-and-white picture of Maria, a Latina woman with long curly hair, in front of a bookshelf with lamp     

For the last few years, Arts Corps has brought arts education into the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center to engage the students at Alder Academy, located inside. Alder is one of five sites that Arts Corps serves in our collaboration with Interagency, a network of alternative high schools that are part of the Seattle Public Schools District and that supports students who have not found success at traditional schools due to a wide range of factors related to systemic oppression. The students at interagency are farthest from educational justice, and at Alder our youth are facing the justice system. Arts Corps classes help provide these students with safe, consistent space for creative expression, social-emotional development, and arts-based strategies for engagement in school.

Through our time at Alder, we see the meaningful and transformative impact that arts have on these students’ lives. We wanted this impact to go even further and to reach more of the youth who need art as a right to healing and self-expression. So we decided that our classes within the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center needed to serve not just Interagency students, but incarcerated youth as well. After months of working with the Department of Adults and Juvenile Detention, we are now starting a new program to bring visual arts, movement, and spoken word to youth in detention.

Two of the programs’ teaching artists, Heather Harris and Maria Guillen Valdovinos, shared with us a little more about this new initiative.

What is each of you teaching in this new program?
 
H: I am excited to begin teaching the art of movement at the youth detention center.
 
M: I will be teaching visual arts, graphic design, illustration and collective muralism. 
 
What is the importance of having art within spaces like the Youth Detention Center and of offering these different mediums? 
 
H: The dance class will give the participants an opportunity to create movement, share stories and expression, as well as working on strength building, stretching and learning a variety of lyrical and jazz-based dance steps.
 
M: As a creative abolitionist I believe the arts, movement and expression should be accessible to everyone, especially youth incarcerated. There are so many ways to process lived experiences and at any stage in life anyone can be an artist. The arts ignite creative thought process, challenge dominant narratives, how we communicate and help us build collective ideas. These spaces are needed for youth to express themselves and be able to develop creative skills with community teaching artists. 
 
What are some challenges of the program? What are some areas of opportunities? 
 
H: Some of the challenges have been just getting clearance of paperwork before entering the facility, but we are making our way through the process and will be starting soon.
 
M: Some of the challenges are materials & tools becoming a liability, which is also a great opportunity to learn about different mediums & methods. Developing skills with technology and learning the process of both hand-drawn & digital drawing is something I always appreciate teaching youth. There are so many ways to be a creative person, and I think it is great as an arts community we can provide these resources to people experiencing incarceration. 
                                                                                            
You were approached for the program due to your experience as teaching artists. What is one lesson you’ve learned through time that you are bringing into the program?
 
M: Over the years I’ve learned as an artist & educator invested in community to be flexible and respect others autonomy. 
 
What is the role of art in social justice and in conversations of social issues such as youth incarceration?
 
H: I believe that Art is a wonderful tool to release emotions, tap into creativity and to meet each person exactly where they are at in their journey. 
 
M: The arts are inherently political and necessary for social revolutions; helping us shift our knowledge and find new ways to exist. Youth who experience incarceration deserve to be treated with dignity and have access to arts education. The arts create opportunities for understanding, knowledge, solidarity, and plays a vital role in shaping all aspects of societies.

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Faculty Spotlight: Yaz Williams

Posted on Saturday, September 28th, 2024 at 12:31 am
Written by Arts Corps

A selfie of Yaz, a black person in their 20s on a sidewalk, wearing white sunglasses and their shaped in 5 points

Yaz joined Arts Corps last winter as a Classroom Assistant and this year they are stepping up as a Teaching Artist. Recently, they were kind enough to share some of their thoughts, experiences, and practices of being a teaching artist.

“Being a teaching artist to me is being able to have influence and be influenced by the youth without being necessarily in a traditional educational setting”.

Yaz had always wanted to be a professional creative but they never expected to be an educator. To them, traditional educational settings place teachers in a loop, bound by a list of requisites they need to teach in a set amount of time. In their mind, this seemed taxing and problematic, because it often leads to difficult conversation being dismissed in the classroom due to a lack of time.

However, Yaz realized there are alternative routes to be an educator, giving them the opportunity to be someone who can have these difficult conversations, “We all come from different backgrounds. I’m not going to shy away from the experience of your background in comparison to mine. We come from different backgrounds, and sometimes we have stigmas against people with certain backgrounds. We’re gonna talk about that.”

Yaz’s practice centers the power of voice, the power of choice, and teaching responsibility through action. When they set rules, they explain the reasons behind the rule by discussing how each action is a choice and how each choice has consequences for ourselves and others. “I’m not gonna be like, oh, you did this wrong. I’m gonna say we don’t do these things because of this. We should not do that because these are the consequences of that action.”

This also leads to teaching youth how to advocate for themselves and respect others’ boundaries, “I want [them] to be learning how to ask for help. I want [them] to learn to say ‘I’m not okay with that, I’m not comfortable with that, you made me feel this way’”.

Yaz uses art as a way for students to practice their power. When Yaz presents an activity they say, “I’m gonna show you how I do it. I’m gonna give you the tools for that. But then it’s up to you how you wanna achieve that goal. And you might not even want to achieve the same physical goal that I would.”

The most challenging thing about using art as a medium is that a lot of people, regardless of age, view art as a skill or as a privilege.

“Art is a right”, Yaz says, “Everybody has the right to create…[But] a lot of times kids will not pick up a paintbrush, pick up an activity because of that inherent, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna be good at it’. I’m not asking to be good. I’m asking you to try.”

So the focus of their art lessons is not just about improving certain skills, but also about pushing through the fear of failure, the fear of success, the “taking yourself too seriously”.

“In my space I want you to participate, and participation is success. Working through your frustrations is success. I like anything you give me. But I’m gonna defy some things because I want you to see your own progress.”

Challenging what art or success might look like allows Yaz to approach learning as a process rather than a product, recognizing students as individuals with their own needs and skills. For example, Yaz might say, “I wanted you to try tracing it, because this is teaching you how to hold a pencil. I’m looking at how you’re holding your pencil, so I can see if I can correct the way that you do it. Even still, if you hold your paintbrush up here, that doesn’t mean you’re better than someone that holds your paintbrush down here. It’s that you have different versions of control, of how you use your paintbrush.”

For this upcoming year, Yaz wants to lean into the sense of limitlessness that art as a whole has to offer and so for their for first curriculum as a teaching artist they choose the topic of world-building.

“I’m really, really excited to see what comes out of this entire course because I might have painters, I might have story writers, I might have people that build a little tribe of dolls because they have that skill set. I’m just excited to see a new generation of artists that have the freedom of being whoever they want to be, because they were taught the techniques of something, the definitions of something, rather than how you should create with it.”

Something else they’re excited about being a new Arts Corps Teaching Artist?

“At the excuse being a sap, I’ve literally waited my entire life to be this person. It was never a dream that I thought was accomplishable. So like, I’m giddy just imagining being in a space as this version of myself and being ready to be with kids. And I’m just really, really excited to see how my students receive me, and my excitement. I’m excited for it all”. 

Yaz Williams is a multi-disciplinary artist from Raleigh, North Carolina who is Black, AFAB, and queer and as such, their work is centered in Black and Afro-centric standpoints. Some of their practices are graphic novels, storytelling, prints, and stickers. Yaz moved to Seattle in 2022 as a Montessori school teacher and has since worked with South End Stories and LAUNCH. They got a BA in Child Adolescent Psychology from the HBCU, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in order to learn what techniques were historically created as marginalization tools, how to move away from them, and how to better serve BIPOC students. As an artist and a person, they are interested in sustainability, third spaces such as libraries and tool workshops, learning different communication styles, and cultural education. They want to increase their own cultural knowledge and that of others in order to help build a better sense of community. They enjoy visiting new places and sitting in parks.

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A Message from Arts Corps’ Co-Executive Directors: Embracing Transition and Looking Ahead

Posted on Thursday, June 20th, 2024 at 11:00 am
Written by Arts Corps

 

Dear Arts Corps Community,

It is the celebratory season of graduations! Witnessing our students embarking on their next journeys fills us with immense pride and hope. Just like our students, Arts Corps is also going through our own season of transition.

As we reflect on the past year, we are inspired by the resilience and solidarity within our own Arts Corps family and our community. The co-leadership model that started at the beginning of 2023 guided us through turbulent waters, fostering support and unity among staff, board members, and our broader community. Together, we navigated challenges, emerging stronger and more determined.

As we gaze towards the upcoming school year of 2024-2025, we are filled with optimism and renewed purpose. Taking a moment to pause and envision the future, we aspire not only to sustain but to thrive. In this spirit, after careful consideration, we have decided to transition back to the sole executive director model, supported by a dedicated leadership team.

With a deep commitment to pay equity and organizational sustainability, this decision was made collaboratively by both Shawn and Naho. In reaffirming our commitment to pay equity and organizational vitality, restructuring becomes imperative. We assure you that Arts Corps remains steadfast and poised for success.

Following this transition, Naho Shioya, our devoted and committed Co-Executive Director, will be embarking on a new chapter, and will continue to serve Seattle with her dedication to the intersection of arts, education, youth development, and social justice. Shawn Roberts will continue to serve as our Executive Director, leading us with hard and smart work focus, vision and dedication, and will be joined by an accomplished   leadership team, , to foster collaboration and innovation.

Naho’s last day at Arts Corps will be July 5th

Let’s take this moment to celebrate and embrace the boundless possibilities ahead!

We look forward to the 2024-2025 school year filled with new possibilities.

In solidarity and anticipation,

 

Naho Shioya & Shawn Roberts

Arts Corps



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Arts Corps a Yield Giving Awardee

Posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 at 10:00 am
Written by Arts Corps

"Yield Giving Open Call Awardee" in blue and green over light background with green lines

Today we have big news to share with our community.

Arts Corps has been selected to receive a $2 million gift as an awardee of the Yield Giving Open Call!

Last spring, Yield Giving launched an open call for community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive improvement in their well-being through foundational resources. We applied, along with 6,353 other applicants from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. After a process of multiple levels of review, feedback, and diligence involving peer applicants and an external Evaluation Panel recruited for relevant experience, we are so proud to say we are one of the awardees. 

As you can imagine, we are beyond excited and incredibly grateful for this transformative gift! At Arts Corps, we work towards a world where barriers to arts education no longer exist and all young people can creatively lead the transformation of schools, neighborhoods, and beyond. We do so by creating opportunities through the arts which address racial and socioeconomic inequities, igniting the creative power of our young people. 

This gift will enable us to deepen and expand our programming, to create new partnerships in new sites, and to support us as we grow in our own space. It brings critical stability after years of challenges, and we will leverage it in order to contribute to the cultural economy in King County. First and foremost, this gift will allow us to invest even more in our youth, furthering the ways we can support them not only as students in our classes but as growing artists in their own personal journey. 

We thank Yield Giving and their managing partner, Lever for Change, for their belief in our work and in our vision. We thank our incredible staff, faculty, and board for their unrelenting heart and drive. We thank you, *|FNAME|*, for supporting us through our journey.

Let’s get to work.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Naho Shioya & Shawn Roberts
Co-Executive Directors

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Arts Corps Announces its Co-Executive Directors

Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2023 at 6:32 pm
Written by Arts Corps

We are beyond enthusiastic to welcome Naho Shioya and Shawn Roberts as Arts Corps’ Co-Executive Directors, both of whom started in January 2023. This exciting new leadership follows the organization’s decision to create an executive staff structure that better represents our practice and values of shared leadership and collaboration. 

Shawn Roberts will be our Co ED of Education and Advocacy. Shawn has been serving the Seattle community through dance, arts, writing, and personal development programs for the past 25 years. In that time, she has built and directed exceptional programs including the School of Spectrum Dance Theater and STG’s AileyCamp and Dance for Parkinson’s. We are impressed by Shawn’s passion, experience, and knowledge. We have heard from teaching artists and parents of youth that she is a steadfast and inspiring leader. Shawn’s work in the community demonstrates both commitment and love for arts education that has a lasting impact on the lives of participants.
 
Naho Shioya was our Interim ED starting in September 2022 and will now be our Co-ED of Development and Operations. Naho is a theatre artist, educator, and racial equity consultant, who brings a wealth of experience in teaching artistry, strategic planning, and equity work in Seattle, including Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, YWCA, and Associated Recreation Council. In her interim, Naho was already asking important questions that demonstrate true care and concern for our work at Arts Corps. We are moved by Naho’s work on the Ethnic Studies/Theater of the Oppressed program and the ROOTS Culturally Relevant Antiracist Arts Education Framework with Seattle Public Schools as they are close to the heartwork of Arts Corps. 
 
Naho and Shawn come to us with incredible programmatic and development experience. They have both spent their careers cultivating arts education environments that expand access to the arts. We know they will collaborate with one another, our teams, and our partners to further Arts Corps’ mission. We know they will take on challenges with enthusiasm, grace, and determination. We know they will inspire us with brilliance and creativity. 

What is something you are looking forward to about joining Arts Corps?
 
Shawn: I’m excited to be working with Naho and spending time with and getting to know the Arts Corps staff. I look forward to experiencing the beautiful work being done with our partnering schools and students. 
 
Naho: I am looking forward to working with Shawn and continuing to get to know the amazing Arts Corps staff and their work in schools and our communities.
 
What are you reading, listening to, watching right now that is bringing you joy?
 
Shawn: Now that I’ve completed my Master’s, I’m enjoying reading books that are not part of a syllabus, but of my choosing. With this, right now I’m reading “My Grandmother’s Hands,” by Resmaa Menakem. In terms of what I’m watching, I love watching movies, the latest being “Ticket to Paradise” and “Wakanda Forever.” Music has always been a big part of my life. India Arie, Nas, Miles Davis, Raphael Saadiq, Jill Scott and many other artist’s work fills our home.
 
Naho: I’m not much of a TV person but am patiently waiting for Season 3 of “Reservation Dogs.” I’m also binge-watching Marvel movies with my 12-year-old. (It’s actually part of my assignment for the doctorate program I am currently in.) Since we have a musician/percussionist in our family, we listen to a variety of world music and are surrounded by musical instruments (that means anything that will make sounds from a percussionist’s viewpoint) 😊
 
Thank you to the Executive Search Committee — a team of teaching artists, board members, and office staff — for their hard work in hiring Naho and Shawn. 

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And so another school year begins…

Posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022 at 10:18 pm
Written by Arts Corps

For 22 years, Arts Corps has been immersed in the rhythms of the school year. The excitement and nervous energy of students and educators in the fall, the much-needed breaks peppered throughout winter and spring, and the limp to the finish line when teaching artists use every ounce of their creative energy and brilliance to keep students focused as summer approaches. These are the cadences that serve as our backdrop when engaging young people in programs that ignite imagination, joy, and well-being through art.

Thanks to ongoing support from our incredible partners and donors, we are embarking on another successful school year. From fall through summer, we’ll bring free arts programming to 2,500 youth across the region with the least access to arts education opportunities. We’ll deliver arts enrichment classes to 17 schools, parks and recreation, and low-income housing sites, collaborating with over 30 classroom teachers to integrate the arts into the school day and connecting 100+ teens to digital media arts and creative career opportunities. 

With all that lies ahead, let’s pause and reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. Arts Corps has evolved significantly over the last few years in the face of myriad challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, a historic recession, organizational tension, and leadership transition. There is much to celebrate and work yet to be done.  

The theme of our 2021 Annual Report was “Becoming Together,” which highlights our ongoing commitment to learning and growing together as an organization. In the face of uncertainty and change, we doubled down on our “staff care,” took time to slow down, reflect on our values, and learn from the past. We implemented practices designed to cultivate a community grounded in trust, equity, and a shared commitment to Arts Corps’ mission.

Our intentional work to cultivate an anti-racist organization grounded in trust and equity resulted in significant changes to our organizational policies and practices. Over the past two years we have:

  • Remained creative and resilient, providing free arts programming uninterrupted to over 2,400 students annually and have kept all staff and teaching artists employed. 
  • Collectively collaborated to discuss, write, and ratify a culture of equity and inclusion statement.  
  • Developed a transparent, tiered pay structure for all levels of Arts Corps staff.  
  • Explored compensation models to ensure we are leaders in teaching artist pay.  
  • Established a compensation policy that guarantees each employee earns a salary that meets or exceeds median salary for comparable positions in King County, and our highest paid staff member makes no more than 2x our lowest staff paid member.  
  • Added 2 board positions reserved for Arts Corps teaching artists. 
  • Decided to pursue a Co-Executive Director structure that more fully embraces our values of shared leadership and collaboration, aiming to reduce burnout in a single ED model.

In November 2020, Arts Corps’ Director of Development & Communications, Carrie Siahpush, stepped up as Arts Corps’ Acting Executive Director, leading our organization through this challenging time of thoughtful analysis, reflection, and change. Carrie’s time as Acting ED wrapped up on August 30 and our entire organization is so grateful for her many invaluable contributions to our community. Carrie carried the weight and stress of Arts Corps’ historic challenges with a strong constitution, humor, humility, strong leadership, and deep love for Arts Corps and especially the youth we engage. The changes Carrie helped usher in, combined with her deep tending to staff care and organizational culture, are truly a profound accomplishment and will leave a lasting impact. 

As Carrie’s tenure as Acting Director ends, we welcome Naho Shioya as Arts Corps’ Interim Executive Director. Naho describes herself as a mission-driven leader and a value focused professional in the field of education, arts and culture, and racial equity. She has immersed herself in identifying, developing, and implementing action plans to create racial equity and dismantle systemic racism in our community, ensuring success for all children and youth, especially in arts education. Naho will work to support the staff and faculty in the interim period while the next phase of the executive search commences. 

The next phase of our executive search will once again be led by a committee consisting of staff, board and teaching artists. This continues the intentional choice we made last fall to veer from the traditional way executive searches are done. Instead of a search led by our board of directors or an external firm, we decided to move forward with a search committee formed with equal representation from the board, staff, and teaching artists. After a season of developing a cohesive co-leadership model and conducting an internal search, the committee is now excited to announce a call for candidates outside of the organization. And we’re starting that call with you; our Arts Corps community.

We are now accepting applications for Co-Executive Directors. Spread the word!

As we start another school year, we at Arts Corps are excited to continue growing together and exploring the untapped possibilities that lie ahead in arts education. We’re committed to the ongoing work of providing equitable experiences in our classrooms and in our workplace, and we look forward to supporting young people in reaching new heights in their artistry, learning, and sense of belonging. 

We know this work does not happen in a vacuum, and we’re so thankful to our ecosystem of partners, donors, and community members who collaborate with us in support of youth creativity and educational equity. Without you, the work to cultivate joy and creativity is simply not possible. And there is so much of each in abundance! As one student said recently about their experience in an Arts Corps class during the school day, “We took time to do work, but that work was more fun than practically anything else in school.”

— CHRISTA MAZZONE PALMBERG, Interim Director of Dev. & Communications
— ARTS CORPS EXECUTIVE SEARCH COMMITTEE

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