Performing Arts Workshop’s programs work with school and community partners to provide effective and tested arts programming to San Francisco Bay Area youth.
Workshop teaching artists are professional artists, trained to teach performing arts to youth, particularly those often referred to as “at risk”. Students in Workshop classrooms build their critical thinking, creative expression and basic learning skills through the arts. We offer performing arts programming in the following art forms: World Dance, Creative Movement, World Music, Theatre and Creative Writing.
Program Structure
A Workshop teaching artist visits a classroom or after-school program once or twice a week for a minimum of 10 weeks (maximum of 30 weeks) – we call this a “residency”. In partnership with site staff, artists set learning goals for their students that go beyond technical training in a particular art form. Residencies that occur during the school day are part of our Artists-in-Schools program. Residencies that occur out of school time or in nontraditional school settings such as juvenile hall are part of our Artists-in-Communities program. For more information on the specific art forms we offer, please click here.
Download: 2009-2010 Site Partners
While our artists come from diverse artistic backgrounds, they all train to use Performing Arts Workshop’s Cycle of Artistic Inquiry to build students’ critical thinking skills. The Cycle of Artistic Inquiry (CAI) is a teaching method developed in Workshop classrooms over the last 45 years. It consists of five processes that often occur simultaneously: perception, conception, expression, reflection and re-vision. In other words, students don’t just learn the dance steps, or write a poem, or act out a scene; they learn to perceive, conceive, express, reflect, and revise (or re-vision) their own artistic creations. Performing Arts Workshop classrooms go beyond “exposure” to the arts; they are places of deep engagement with the creative process.
What does the cycle look like in a Kung Fu or Theatre residency? Here are some examples:
Cycle of Artistic Inquiry: Theatre Arts
Cycle of Artistic Inquiry: World Dance
Cycle of Artistic Inquiry: Creative Movement
Cycle of Artistic Inquiry: World Music
Cycle of Artistic Inquiry: Creative Writing
Outcomes, Standards and Evaluation
Performing Arts Workshop expects all of our students to develop as artists and as members of their classroom community. That is why we have articulated our Youth Outcomes, which illustrate learning priorities in our classrooms. We aim to build the skills of all of our students in the areas of Leadership, Relationships, and Focus & Concentration. However, we also understand that different types of classrooms build toward different goals, so we developed Youth Outcomes that are specific to Artists-in-Schools and Artists-in-Communities classrooms:
- Artists-in-Schools: Peer Critique, Artistic Vocabulary, Participation, Pro-social Behavior
- Artists-in-Communities: Self Efficacy, Cultural Understanding, Community and Social issues
We evaluate our Youth Outcomes at the end of every residency using an educator survey, completed by site staff; and an artist survey, completed by Workshop teaching artists. We also evaluate Youth Outcomes annually through selected student surveys and focus groups. All Performing Arts Workshop programs are aligned with California Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Standards:
K-12 English and Language Arts Content Standards from the California Department of Education
Pre K-12 Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards from the California Department of Education
Performing Arts Workshop Artists are the key to our program quality. We work hard to train and support them – both in and out of the classroom. All artists, regardless of experience, must undergo an audition and interview process before hiring. All new artists, regardless of experience, must undergo an 8-week internship with an Artist Mentor. The internship process introduces artists to the Cycle of Artistic Inquiry, to reflective practice, and to the Workshop’s Youth Outcomes. Both in the classroom and in one-on-one meetings after teaching, interning artists of all levels receive the support and attention they need in order to grow as artists and as teachers.
All artists meet in small artist “cohorts” on a monthly basis, under the curriculum guidance of an Artist Mentor. In these meetings, artists problem-solve questions of curriculum, class management, and the complexities of teaching artist work. These cohorts are responsible for preparing and presenting to the full artistic staff at two professional development events during the course of the year.
In addition to support, artists are also evaluated in the field by their Artist Mentor twice each year. Artists are rated, and must rate themselves, using the “Teaching Skills Assessment”. At the end of class, the Artist Mentor and teaching artist debrief and discuss the class and their ratings. All workshop artists are encouraged to learn, grow, and thrive as artists and teachers while at Performing Arts Workshop. We believe that an artist who is excited about learning will in turn ignite the young minds of their students.
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