LIVING ARTS BLOG

Guest User 11/8/19 Guest User 11/8/19

We've hired a New In-School Arts Program Manager!

Brent is an educator, recording artist, and event producer. Deeply rooted in community building, Brent makes connections between artists, schools, foundations, and businesses.

Meet Brent Smith!

Brent is an educator, recording artist, and event producer. Deeply rooted in community building, Brent makes connections between artists, schools, foundations, and businesses. For the past six years, Brent has facilitated youth engagement: teaching media arts, youth entrepreneurship, and critical social thinking in K-12 schools across Detroit and Wayne County.

He loves designing musical experiences with audiences large and small, and believes that art and music are essential to student development.

Brent is excited to work and build with the Living Arts Detroit team!

We’re very excited to welcome Brent with all his Detroit K-12 experience and artistry to our team! Please join us in welcoming Brent Smith to the Living Arts family.

Guest User 2/19/19 Guest User 2/19/19

Dance Me a Story: Developing Early Literacy Skills through Movement and Creative Dance

On Saturday, February 2nd, the Living Arts Youth Dance Ensemble was invited to participate as honored guests at the Detroit Dhamaal 2019 Bollywood Fusion Competition.

Held at the historic Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Detroit, the competition featured Bollywood dance troupes from colleges across the nation. Board member Matthew Nahan spoke about the Living Arts programs and the value of teaching artists in the community. Nahan also introduced the Youth Dance Ensemble performance.

Photos: Erika Villarreal Bunce

At the age of 9, Lorna Park started her work with young children. Ms. Park is proudly still in early childhood care as an educator at House of Joy Child Care in Detroit. Using her body artfully is important to Ms. Park "Nurturing a love of learning is a priority to me. The arts help us to get where we need to be mentally, physically, and spiritually to receive experiences. Movement helps us to follow the child".

In partnership with Help Me Grow Michigan, Living Arts hosted two professional development workshops for early childhood educators at the Detroit PAL on Friday, February 15th and Saturday, February 16th. Seventy educators, including Ms. Park, attended the workshops over the course of both days. The workshops, lead by Master Teaching Artist Kimberli Boyd, provided educators with methods to incorporate movement and dance in their work around early literacy.

Using chants, songs, stories, and props, Boyd demonstrated developmentally appropriate strategies to support literacy skills in the early childhood classroom. Beyond literacy, these strategies support social and emotional growth, as well as whole body awareness and fine and gross motor skill function.

Young children are able to gain understanding of the world around them by learning how they move through the world. “I believe that the Arts are powerful enough to cause transformation, and that dance is empowering enough to move hearts, minds, and bodies — and to revolutionize learning,” said Ms. Boyd. Participants of the workshop received certification for their time.