Urban Bright
Arts-in-Education
In March 2017, The School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania released a study that revealed that low- and middle-income residents with greater access to the arts experience better education, security, and health.
Art House's award-winning Urban Bright Arts-in-Education Program is an artist residency program that provides students with meaningful, hands-on arts opportunities and exposure to artists, methods, and materials to which they would otherwise not be exposed. The program aims to promote critical thinking, improve communication skills, and increase each student’s ability to participate in teamwork settings.
Through grant raising and fee-for-service partners, AH is able to provide the Urban Bright residency programs to individual schools. AH works with schools to tailor an artist residency appropriate for a specific grade and group of students (classroom). Residencies are coordinated by AH and include the services of a professional, qualified teaching artist, all supplies, and the agreed-upon curriculum.
In & After-school residencies run between 5- 16 weeks long, for k- 12, meeting once or twice a week and follow ODE, VAS, and SEL standards.
Some examples of in-school projects:
Stewardship Silk Banners, High School. The students learned about local plant life while working in groups to paint silk banners.
Conservation Recycling project, 3rd grade. The students learned about the impact of plastics on the environment while using plastic to decorate their own sculptural cone hat.
Self-esteem mixed media project, 1st grade. Students discussed what they liked about themselves and in others, their aspirations, they learned about photography and created self-portraits.
Many projects are individually driven but ambitious, collaborations are also successfully realized and are permanently installed in the respective schools.