Seattle Public Schools Arts Newsletter   | October, 2019
October Focus: Arts Partnerships
This issue includes:
  • Why bring arts partnerships into your school day?
  • Arts Partner Meet and Greet - RSVP today
  • Arts Sustainability Funds - 1st deadline 11/1
  • More arts funding opportunities
  • Arts learning opportunities for students and staff
  • Student Arts Showcase Opportunities
West Seattle Elementary students playing hand drums.
Photo by Stephen Brashear.
Why Bring Arts Partners Into Your School?
Seattle Public Schools and The Creative Advantage believe that all of our students benefit from the collective impact of arts education from three kinds of educators:

  • Certified arts teachers who provide a sequential, standards‐based education in the arts.
  • Certified non‐arts teachers who integrate the arts into their curriculum - an approach to teaching and learning in which students connect an art form with another subject to promote deeper learning in both. 
  • Arts organizations and teaching artists through which students gain additional standards‐based arts learning experiences from professional artists. 
 
An artist residency consists of a curriculum-based art project (dance, literary art, media art, music, theatre, visual art) developed and conducted by a teaching artist in close collaboration with classroom teachers or arts specialists. Here are a few of the things an arts partnership with a teaching artist or arts organization can bring to your school:
 
Arts diversity: Through arts partnerships, a school can diversify the arts disciplines students experience. For example, if students already have weekly music and visual art classes, arts partners can bring dance, theatre and literary arts to the classroom. 
 
Cultural diversity in both content and teachers: An arts partnership can bring a new racial and cultural lens into the classroom.  The Creative Advantage Roster includes arts and artists from a variety of cultures such as East African drum and dance ( Ocheami , Sumayya Diop , Franchesska Berry ), Islamic Geometric Art ( Amina Quraishi ), and Native American story-telling, song and dance ( Red Eagle Soaring ,  Roger Fernandes ). An arts partnership is an opportunity to include arts that represent and celebrate the cultures of your students and introduce students to a variety of cultures in an engaging way.
 
Multiple perspectives: Arts partnerships introduce young people to different ways of thinking, that there are many ways to see the world and that a problem can have more than one solution.
 
Teacher Benefits: Finally, a teaching artist experience can also benefit the classroom teacher by bringing in a collaborative thought-partner in who asks critical question and helps to expand their capacity to engage students creatively.
 
As you are using The Creative Advantage Roster to find arts partners this year, please keep in mind that the partners are vetted for
  • Experience level - a minimum of 3 years working in schools
  • Their teaching approach. Do they bring a creative youth development lens that center students social-emotional learning
  • Their approach to racial equity in their practice
  • How they teach to 21st Century skills. Do they address and cultivate creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and growth mindset through their art form.
  By Audrey Querns and Tina LaPadula

Creative Advantage Schools & Arts Partners Meet & Greet

Mon, October 28, 2019
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM PDT

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
104 17th Avenue South

A networking event for The Creative Advantage arts partners and Seattle Public Schools.

This event is FREE and open to any SPS community member (e.g. school staff, families, PTSAs) and partners of The Creative Advantage. Come enjoy food, drink, music and creative community!

First Arts Sustainability Funds Application Deadline 11/1/19
The Creative Advantage Arts Sustainability Funds are a new non-competitive funding source to help schools sustain the student benefits that come from long-lasting arts partnerships.

This year, up to $5000 are available to schools in the first two Creative Advantage cohorts (24 schools in the Washington, Meany, and Denny K-12 Arts Pathways) and current Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster members with an agreed upon arts partnership (in-the-school day arts residency or school staff professional development).

Find more information and the the Arts Sustainability Funds application here
More Funding Opportunities
from the Women's University Club of Seattle

Grants may be used for instructional materials, to purchase equipment, music, instruments; repair instruments, provide coaching, etc. Application deadline: January 13, 2020.
Seattle School Arts Grants
 
Grant ($500 to $1,000) applications will be accepted for projects that bring arts opportunities to Seattle area public school students. 

Applications may be submitted from Oct 1, 2019 until Jan 15th, 2020. Grant recipients will be notified by February 2020. 
Please contact grants@woodlandparkplayers.org for an application
Arts Learning Events for Students and Staff
‌
Watch this space next month for...
Information on the Creative Advantage Arts Integration PD Series.

Free PD for all SPS educators from Arts Impact, Seattle Art Museum, SIFF, RadioActive and more.
Student Arts Showcase Opportunities
Regional Arts Festivals

this winter, 2020
The Regional Arts Festivals are an opportunity to celebrate the arts learning taking place in Seattle Public Schools, highlighting visual and performing arts from activated schools in K-12 Creative Advantage Pathways in the Central, Southeast and Southwest K-12 Pathways.

So far, we have the date for the Southwest Festival:
Thursday, February 6th at Chief Sealth High School.

Southeast and Central are TBD.

General format: Festival-style celebrations open to all grades in the school pathway and arts disciplines. While a full slate of performances will happen in an auditorium, there will also be displays, hands-on activities and smaller ensembles or individual performances in other spaces. Adult and student emcees will manage the flow of the evening.

You can be involved by:
  • Bringing students for a 4 minute performance (performances can be choral/singing, instrumental, dance, theatre, spoken word, poetry, story-telling, visual art, projected visual art, short films or documentaries)
  • Bringing students 

Creative Advantage will support with: 
  • Pre-festival planning and prep
  • Day of event logistics + running order
  • Tech and stage management (general mics, lighting and sound) - with support from high school students
  • Parent letter templates
  • Event marketing + communication / flier templates
  • Transportation
  • Stipends for teachers and adult mentors supporting participating youth.

If you would like your students to be celebrated in the Regional Art Festivals or know of students who would be interested in joining the student youth committee please contact our RAF Manager, Masao Yamada, via email at masao.yamada-c@seattle.gov
Show Student Art at University Heights Center
The Art Hub at University Heights Center in the U-District would like to partner with schools to display student art on a rotational basis. If you would like to share your students; art, please contact their Outreach and Program Coordinator, Shirin Subhani.
RadioActive Youth Media's New Season Starts This Week
RadioActive Youth Media is proud to announce our newest season of feature radio stories produced by teens . These compelling, personal stories about young people and their communities will premiere this Thursday 10/24 on KUOW 94.9, kuow.org , and the RadioActive Youth Media podcas t .
A teacher who makes art to protect students from active shooters. A Muslim girl who created her own soccer camp – with no dress code. A 13-year-old facing homelessness. A transgender teen learning to love himself. Each of these 16 stories are powerful and unique. Support youth voices by subscribing to the RadioActive Youth Media podcast, and by spreading the word.
Resources
As you work to expand the arts in your school community, here are a few websites and people you can look to for help:


The Creative Advantage Page on the SPS website
Resources and tools for arts teams, Creative Advantage news and archived newsletters.

The Community Arts Partner Roster is a vetted list of teaching artists and community arts and culture organizations approved to work in Seattle Public Schools through the Creative Advantage.

The Creative Advantage Website Provides an overview of The Creative Advantage and the value of arts education.

If you can't find what you need on-line, contact the Creative Advantage staff:
 
Audrey Querns -SPS project manager for Creative Advantage (for questions about arts teams and planning, arts partner logistics like contracts and funding)
 
Tina LaPadula - Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Arts Education Project Manager (for questions about the Arts Partner Roster and working with teaching artists and arts organizations) 

Gail Sehlhorst -SPS Visual and Performing Arts Manager (for questions about arts staffing, curriculum and assessment, and supports for arts teachers)

Pam Ivezic - SPS Music Specialist (for questions about supports for music teachers and programs)

Masao Yamada - Regional Arts Festival Event Manager (for questions about participating in the 2019-20 Southwest, Southeast or Central Regional Arts Festivals this Winter)