LIVING ARTS BLOG
An Arts Retreat for Early Learning Professionals
On Saturday, February 22, Artists Kimberli Boyd and Alesha Brown designed and facilitated a relaxing staff retreat for early learning professionals working in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit.
On Saturday, February 22, Artists Kimberli Boyd and Alesha Brown designed and facilitated a relaxing staff retreat for early learning professionals working in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit. The retreat was hosted at the Detroit Artist Village studio space. Participants were invited to engage in mindful artistic practices that encouraged everyday rejuvenation and peace of mind.
During the retreat, local chef of Faniz, LLC, Jefani M. Edison presented on how great food can support the body and mind and. Edison provided an amazing home-cooked meal as well. Participants walked away sharing that they had an enjoyable experience and will use what they learned in there learning centers.
Celebrating Early Childhood Initiatives with Hope Starts Here
On November 22, 2019, Living Arts' artists and staff joined hundreds of educators, parents, funders, and other change-makers for the 3rd Annual Hope Starts Here Celebration. Hope Starts Here is a movement initiated in 2016 stewarded by the W.K.Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation to:
create a vision for what early childhood can look like in Detroit
develop a framework for that vision and
inspire folks from all over the city to get involved and help bring that vision to life.
On November 22, 2019, Living Arts' artists and staff joined hundreds of educators, parents, funders, and other change-makers for the 3rd Annual Hope Starts Here Celebration. Hope Starts Here is a movement initiated in 2016 stewarded by the W.K.Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation to:
create a vision for what early childhood can look like in Detroit
develop a framework for that vision and
inspire folks from all over the city to get involved and help bring that vision to life.
Teaching Artist Alesha Brown led an invocation “Free to Be Me” at the Hope Starts Here celebration.
Grounded in the belief that every child has the right to access high quality early childhood education from birth, our city got to work! Since then, Living Arts and many other groups, have come together to have futuristically-minded and frank conversation around the quality of early childhood education. It truly is awe-inspiring to share this space with incredible parents, teachers, early childhood directors, funders and so many others. We are proud and humbled to be an arts partner to this movement! Together with our incredible team of artists, parents, and staff, we've been able to bring focus and intention around quality in Head Start/Early Head Start classrooms, informal caregiving settings, independently owned provider settings, and community-based settings that serve families.
Master Teaching Artist Kimberli Boyd led a movement-based invocation at the Hope Starts Here celebration.
We were honored to be invited to present the invocations for this event. Our amazing artists, Alesha Brown and Kimberli Boyd, of Living Arts' Detroit Wolf Trap program can typically be found day-in, day-out, working with early childhood teachers and their children to make learning come to life through music and movement. But on this day of celebration, Alesha and Kimberli were able to share a special part of themselves, as Detroiters and masters of music and movement, in a call to action. Alesha's "Free to be me" morning invocation brought life to the meaning of "Hope Starts with Me." Kim's movement-based afternoon invocation brought the entire room of stakeholders together in a call to action, powering our collective commitment to ensuring that every child and family can access early childhood in Detroit.
We are thrilled to partake in this movement that respects children and their families and we look forward to building more into the future together.
Detroit Wolf Trap Fall Meet Up
On Wednesday, October 16, the Detroit Wolf Trap team (including teaching artists and staff) met for their fall meet up. Sharing coffee and a hot breakfast on a chilly morning, the team caught up and opened their day with a discussion on their best practices for self-care while they care for others.
On Wednesday, October 16, the Detroit Wolf Trap team (including teaching artists and staff) met for their fall meet up. Sharing coffee and a hot breakfast on a chilly morning, the team caught up and opened their day with a discussion on their best practices for self-care while they care for others.
Director of Programs Erika Villarreal Bunce gave a program update about the work we are doing with Informal Caregiver (ICG) Workshops and the Brightmoor Quality Initiative (BQI).
The goal of the work is to conduct outreach to caregivers in informal home settings, bring early learning and arts workshops to them to implement into their own work, and ultimately facilitate legitimacy for the work they do and create momentum toward licensure and state/federal funding for services. These workshops are being led by Karilu Alarcon Forshee and Alesha Brown, two of Living Arts long-standing Teaching Artists.
Some highlights:
Living Arts is working with 125 ICGs throughout Southwest Detroit in partnership with three organizations: Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, Congress of Communities, and Mathematica Policy Research.
50% of the caregivers have sustained throughout the series
Parent-child workshop model allows caregivers to learn skills with their children, and childcare is provided to give them some time to learn separately
Through funding from the Fisher Foundation, Living Arts Teaching Artists Kimberli Boyd, Alesha Brown, and Shirel Hernandez have been working in Brightmoor with private child care facilities through the Brightmoor Quality Initiative. Bringing the Wolf Trap model to these spaces requires flexibility, adaptation, and resilience. With music, movement, and drama skills our teaching artists are able to impart literacy and social-emotional learning, as well as kinesthetic learning in these early childhood spaces.
An interactive session was led by DWT Specialist Roberta Lucas on modeling for co-leading. Using props, fabric, and animal movements, the Teaching Artists created metaphors for how they see their roles as co-leadership in the classroom. Animal representatives like the chameleon who’s adaptable and can give and take from others; cone of communication that receives and transmits; embracing cape that holds in and supports; elephant that holds up, and more were represented.
The day closed out with a deep discussion on relationships and a sharing of major takeaways from partner-teachers. These included honoring the space—but still being yourself, modeling resilience among resistance from teachers, carving your path while managing expectations, and allowing yourself to be vulnerable when your partner teacher opens up. This discussion focused on finding ways to thread through but also meeting teachers where they’re at.
Creating Meaningful Partnerships: An Interview with Teaching Artist Katy Schoetzow
One of Living Arts’ core values is partnership. By cultivating relationships with schools, educators, families, and institutions, Living Arts creates collaborative and creative learning experiences for Detroit's youth. One such partnership is between Living Arts, Shulze Academy, and Teaching Artist Katy Schoetzow. As we enter the fifth year of this partnership, we interviewed Katy about her work and collaboration with her students and the Shulze faculty.
Teaching Artist Katy Schoetzow with her DHH students.
One of Living Arts’ core values is partnership. By cultivating relationships with schools, educators, families, and institutions, Living Arts creates collaborative and creative learning experiences for Detroit's youth. One such partnership is between Living Arts, Shulze Academy, and Teaching Artist Katy Schoetzow. As we enter the fifth year of this partnership, we interviewed Katy about her work and collaboration with her students and the Shulze faculty.
Krystle Cheirs-Roberts: How long have you worked as a Teaching Artist for Living Arts at Shulze Academy?
Katy Schoetzow: I started in 2015.
KCR: What population of students do you serve (ages/special needs) and why?
KS: The program has evolved a lot since I've been there. Now I work with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students ages 2-9 and emotionally impaired (EI) students in first through sixth grades. In our original residencies, these groups were mainstreamed with other classes which meant:
a) class sizes were very large and
b) the material was only modified to fit their needs instead of created intentionally for those needs
Now that I'm directly in the classroom it's much more focused and these kids are at the forefront of their experiences.
KCR: How did you get into working with this population of students?
KS: Before moving to Detroit I worked with VSA in Grand Rapids (now Artists Creating Together) as a Program Manager and Teaching Artist so I had previous experience with special needs populations. Also when you're looking at the social/emotional curriculum goals for DHH and EI students, communication is the main tenet and drama is a natural fit for that.
KCR: What inspires you about working with your students?
KS: I particularly enjoy working with the DHH kids because it's very much an environment of mutual learning. When we establish dialogue for a scene we're working on, they teach me the sign as they're learning their parts. We make choices and build our stories together which provides fantastic insight into their lives and personal experiences. It feels like a true collaboration.
KCR: What relationships have you built in your classrooms?
KS: I've been in these specific classrooms for two years now (and before that many of these students were in my mainstreamed groups) and the great thing about a special education program is that kids aren't shuffled around to new teachers every year. So there are a couple of kids I've had for four years now. We don't have to spend the first have of the residency establishing trust and building a foundation for the work we're doing. It's also great because there are always a mix of new and old faces each year and it gives the returning students an opportunity to become leaders and mentors for the new kids. The relationships with the teachers have also benefited from this. We know what to expect so when we start the new year we're both full of ideas right away.
KCR: Why is this work important to you?
KS: Consistency is incredibly important for children. Special programs that come in for a couple of weeks and teach something new are great, but a program that returns every year and builds off of the success of the previous year has so much more impact on the academic success and personal growth of these students. The kids know they can count on me to keep coming back so when I ask for contributions and commitments from them, they are more than willing and what we've been able to create is much more personal and brave because of that.
Arts Workshops for Southwest Detroit Caregivers
We’ve partnered with Congress of Communities, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, and Mathematica to present a series of workshops for caregivers who provides care or babysitting to pre-school youth ages 0-5 in Southwest Detroit communities.
We’ve partnered with Congress of Communities, Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, and Mathematica to present a series of workshops for caregivers who provides care or babysitting to pre-school youth ages 0-5 in Southwest Detroit communities.
The first installment of the series was held on July 27th at the Ford Resource and Engagement Center. Teaching artists Karilu Forcee-Alarcon and Alesha Brown led participants in creative play activities that help to support early learning and kindergarten readiness in our youngest learners.
Ten participants (including caregivers and children) used books, toys, costumes, DIY instruments, and song and dance for the workshops. These creative arts activities create a brain boost for the youth and center developmentally appropriate learning styles.
The next installment of the series will be held on August 31st.
Detroit Wolf Trap Goes to National Conference
Last week, members of the Detroit Wolf Trap team traveled to reunite with our fellow Wolf Trap Affiliates at the Wolf Trap Institute Affiliate Conference. The conference was held at the Wolf Trap Foundation in Vienna, Va. from August 13-16.
Living Arts Program Director, Erika Villarreal Bunce; Detroit Wolf Trap Program Manager, Sicily McRaven; and Teaching Artist Alesha Brown at the Wolf Trap Conference
Last week, members of the Detroit Wolf Trap team traveled to reunite with our fellow Wolf Trap Affiliates at the Wolf Trap Institute Affiliate Conference. The conference was held at the Wolf Trap Foundation in Vienna, Va. from August 13-16. In total, representatives from the Institute’s 21 affiliates throughout the US and now, Singapore, bonded over our shared love and work of early learning through the arts.
In addition to Detroit Wolf Trap Program Manager, Sicily McRaven, we were accompanied by our very own Alesha Brown—musician and long-time teaching artist who has taught in all of Living Arts’ programs.
With our national and international peers, the Detroit Wolf Trap team gathered to learn about strategies in story-telling, expansion into 1st grade, equity and inclusion, and more.
We presented on new work with informal caregivers and independent early childhood providers in the Southwest Detroit and Brightmoor communities. Teaching artists from many different affiliates, including Alesha, lead our group in community-building through music, movement, bringing us closer together despite our huge spread throughout the country and world!
Detroit Wolf Trap Evaluation Partner Secured
After a rigorous screening and interview process, Living Arts has found a Evaluation Partner for our Detroit Wolf Trap early learning program!
After a rigorous screening and interview process, Living Arts has found a Evaluation Partner for our Detroit Wolf Trap early learning program! We're pleased to announce we've partnered with Research for Action, a Philadelphia based non-profit education research organization.
With funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Living Arts and Research for Action will evaluate the impact of the program on teacher growth and professional development. This study will be conducted through June 2021.
For more information on the mission of Research for Action, click here.
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 BunceAt 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.