Art In Schools
Arts in Service of Community
Arts Integration – Creative Schools
The Creative Schools Programs places teaching artists in schools for in-depth arts integration residencies on a specific unit of study in order to foster deep relationships and student learning. These intensive arts integration residencies are aimed at addressing disparities in access to arts education in schools.
Teaching artists collaborate with classroom teachers to build artistic skills and creativity while making connections to and strengthening academic learning and contributing to a classroom environment that fosters young people’s sense of belonging and learning mindsets. The teaching artist and the classroom teacher work in partnership during school hours to develop and deliver a creative project that can integrate into a subject area’s unit of study.
Program Outcomes
- Increases in student engagement, creative skills, academic performance and mindsets
- Special projects and showcases that contribute to an arts-rich learning environment
- Arts learning opportunities for students who may not have access to arts electives or after school programs
- Teacher development, including arts- based teaching strategies and collaborative facilitation
- Positive impacts on school culture and community, including increases in family engagement
- Higher levels of classroom belonging, and significantly higher ability to persevere with difficult tasks and to delay gratification among Arts Corps students with IEPs.
Cost
Arts Corps classes are always free to youth. We prioritize schools that have 60% or more students receiving free and reduced lunch and are located in South King County. Qualified schools and organizations partnering with Arts Corps to deliver these classes may be eligible to pay a subsidized rate for classes. For more information on rates, please contact programs@artscorps.org or fill out our contact form.
Arts Corps remains the top choice across our schools, with 9 schools requesting to partner. Arts Corps is a testament to the amazing work and reputation your organization holds within our district.
Out of School Time
Arts Corps provides a network of arts learning opportunities throughout the region through long-standing partnerships with elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as community centers and residential sites to deliver out-of-school arts programming. Our out-of-school arts program places teaching artists at partner sites for after-school classes in a specific art form, such as Capoeira, theatre, visual arts, or poetry.
Typically, out-of-school arts classes are offered once or twice a week, for 1-2 hours per class, for eight weeks and are taught by excellent, community-based teaching artists who specialize in many different art forms and cultural expressions.
Cost
Arts Corps classes are always free to youth. We prioritize schools that have 60% or more students receiving free and reduced lunch and are located in South King County. Qualified schools and organizations partnering with Arts Corps to deliver these classes may be eligible to pay a subsidized rate for classes. For more information on rates, please contact programs@artscorps.org or fill out our contact form.
Interagency Arts program
Arts Corps’ Interagency Residencies bring arts classes to students at five Interagency Academy sites. This network of small alternative high schools, which are part of the Seattle Public School (SPS) District, are designed to provide extra support for students who have not found success at traditional schools due to a wide range of factors.
Arts Corps’ teaching artists work with small groups (typically between 2 – 10 students) to provide a safe, consistent space for creative expression, social-emotional development, and arts-based strategies for engagement in school which help SPS reduce achievement gaps tied to race and income.
The partnership between Arts Corps and Interagency is built on a proven track record of teaching artists leveraging the power of the arts as a tool for achieving positive outcomes with students. It’s also rooted in a strength-based view of students, acknowledging the complexity of the issues they face, and efforts to bring arts-based restorative justice to these sites. Interagency staff comment that the arts have a direct impact on student attendance and engagement, and that in some cases it was the only reason a student showed up in the morning or stayed for the entire day.
[My Arts Corps class] encourages me to stay creative and to never settle for second best. It pushes a side of me that I love.