Creative Schools

The Creative Schools Programs places master teaching artists in schools for in-depth arts integration residencies on a specific unit of study for at least 8 contact hours in order to foster deep relationships and student learning. These intensive arts integration residencies are aimed at addressing the racial and economic disparity in access to arts education in schools. 

Teaching artists collaborate with classroom teachers to build artistic skills and creativity while 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. (Highline Creative Schools Initiative Report, https://artscorps.org/HCSI/)

Recent Offerings

Arts Corps’ teaching artists work in a wide variety of art forms. Residencies can be in Visual Arts, Music, Movement, Theatre, Poetry, and more. Here are some examples of recent past projects:

 

A blue flower drawn onto paper with a plastic cup sticking out as its pot, on each leaf a thing needed for flowers to grow
School Topic:
Plant Growth and Development

Art Form:
Mixed Media and Movement

Grade:
2nd 

Teaching Artists:
Maryem and Taylor

 

The cover of a comic hand-drawn with pen on white paper, "Rise and Fall" with a robot falling into a colorful void


School Topic:
English

Art Form:
Narrative Storytelling and Comics

Grade:
4th and 5th 

Teaching Artists:
Adam

 

Part of a mural painted on gravel ground, of underwater creatures. Around a drain, "Keep Water Clean"
School Topic:
Environmental Justice

Art Form:
Muralism

Grade:
3rd

Teaching Artists:
Maria

 

Hands of a student cutting up a black and green design in the style of Coast Salish art
School Topic:
Native American History

Art Form:
Coast Salish Visual Art

Grade:
7th 

Teaching Artists:
Cecelia

 

Background

The Creative Schools Program, began in 2012 with the Creative Schools Initiative, an intensive arts integration partnership that embedded teaching artists in schools to collaborate with classroom teachers and build an arts-rich school environment.

In 2014, Arts Corps received a 4-year, $1.8 Million dollar investment from the U.S. Department of Education to expand this program into Highline Public Schools and to conduct research to study the impact of the program on student’s academic engagement and learning mindsets, this was known as Highline Creative Schools Initiative (HCSI). You can view the full Highline Creative Schools Initiative research report here.

Beginning in the 2015-16 school year, teaching artists partnered intensively with 5th and 6th grade classroom teachers to integrate theatre and visual arts into language arts curriculum at four Highline elementary schools. From there, the program has continued as the Creative School programs, expanding to new sites and grade levels.

Cost

Arts Corps classes are always free to youth. Schools and organizations partnering with Arts Corps pay to deliver these classes. For more information on rates, please contact programs@artscorps.org.

If you are interested in partnering with Arts Corps, please fill out the partnership inquiry form, or contact our program staff.