CREATIVE CLASSROOM: artists in the schools initiative

Help us connect the wealth of creative talent and arts expertise that exists in the region with rural schools to enhance learning in the arts for students.

Arts education teaches keen powers of observation through lessons like the one pictured above. This student is painting a still life with flowers after seeing an exhibit of floral paintings by Telluride artist Ally Crilly at the Stronghouse Studios.

The Creative Classroom program will address a critical need in our region that all students in the area have access to the arts in their schools.  In collaboration with the Telluride, Norwood and West End School Districts and regional arts organizations, Telluride Arts will facilitate a pilot project that we hope to implement in the winter and spring of 2012.  This program will provide dynamic, well planned, quality arts education to students through collaboration with schools, teachers, artists and arts organizations.  It will bridge the creative community with the school districts and give students access to a breadth of art making and appreciation.

The program is rooted in the philosophy that the arts teach essential skills that students need to thrive and the arts deepen and enhance learning across curriculum. ‘Arts’ includes the performing (music, theatre and dance, literary (including poetry and creative writing), and visual (including 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional and digital media) Lessons will provide sequential skills development for students over time.

For example, a middle school classroom unit on Shakespeare may be deepened through visiting artists who help the students develop short theatrical vignettes and then perform them as an opener to a professional Shakespeare production held in their school and/or community. Another example is teaching basic art skills to elementary students by a visiting artist coming into a classroom for weekly visits that introduce students to watercolor technique through a series of sequential lessons. Another example is for a teaching artist to expand a unit on oceans by developing sea creatures in paper mache, or clay, and then having them on exhibit in the schools at an open house event.

Key components of the program include developing a roster of teaching artists in the region who have the skills and interest to teach students and the development of age appropriate lessons that teach skills in the arts. This resource will then be made available to classroom teachers who will select artists and then work collaboratively to develop lessons that enhance curriculum, teach basic to advanced art skills and meet identified school priorities. Projects will address the new Colorado P-12 Academic Standards in the Visual Arts, Dance, Drama and Theatre Arts, Music and Reading Writing and Communication, as well as support learning in other academic areas.

Long term goals include providing mentoring and ongoing education for teaching artists in the region to develop their classroom skills, and curating partnerships to bring professional performances into the schools and bring students to professional performance venues in the region. Partners may include Telluride Theatre (SquidShow + REP), ACE of Norwood and the Telluride Institute, among others.

Interested in becoming a teaching artist? Please email us at creativeclassroom@telluridearts.org