Advocating the Arts

http://www.psarts.org/

P.S. ARTS is a non-profit organization that recruits, hires, underwrites and trains professional artists to develop curriculum and teach classes during the regular school day.  The organization also works to educate and empower classroom teachers through arts-related workshops that demonstrate how to integrate creative expression and the arts into core academic subjects. 

P.S. ARTS customizes the instructional model to meet the specific needs of individual schools and school districts.  Current methods include a conservatory model offering one-to-two traditional arts disciplines per school (Theater, Music, Dance, and/or Visual Arts).  Each discipline is taught by a salaried Teaching Artist (a professional artist with classroom experience) for the full school year - upwards of 30 weeks.  P.S. ARTS also provides an innovative Integrated Arts Model (I AM), which furnishes every classroom in a school with three Teaching Artists, each specializing in a different artistic discipline, who rotate during the course of the school year.  Finally, P.S. ARTS offers a professional development partner program between classroom teachers and Teaching Artists to support skills development and strategies for integrating the arts across school curriculum. 

All of P.S. ARTS’ instruction models are built upon the California Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Standards and draw heavily upon the organization’s 19 years’ experience.  The goals of P.S. ARTS’ programs are to engage young minds, develop creative skills, improve observational powers, increase receptivity and develop problem solving abilities – all skills that serve children in their academic and personal development. In addition, P.S. ARTS programs help students develop grade-level appropriate concepts and skills in the arts, and help them identify connections between the arts and core subjects like language arts, social studies, math and science.

Event hough this is a Californian origination, I find it very interesting and happy that this is going on. I was watching tv today and I saw and event about this so I decided to google it and check it out. In California P.S. ARTS held an event where a whole bunch of celebrities, teachers and artists went to advocate for the arts in school. On their website you can donate money or find ways to help out, such as volunteering. I wonder if they have an organization like this for New York or any other state??