We are pleased to share with you "Bringing Language to Life: Quest's TheatreBridge Enhances Learning in Class," an article TheatreBridge Lead Evaluator, Linda Delk and Quest Artistic Director, Tim McCarty wrote for this Spring's Odyssey magazine. Published and distributed nationally by Gallaudet University, Odyssey features articles about issues important to the families of deaf and hard of hearing children and the professionals who work with them. This issue of Odyssey focuses on research to practice.
Funded largely by a United States Department of Education Arts in Education Model Dissemination and Demonstration grant and conducted in partnership with the Maryland School for the Deaf and Gallaudet, TheatreBridge focuses on the use of visual theatre to enhance the literacy skills of deaf and hard of hearing children. The program employs a multi-dimensional, year-round arts-in-education approach involving students, teachers, teaching artists, and parents. TheatreBridge uses a visually-based empirical research approach to assess the impact of the program.

Over the coming years, the Quest staff will share information and findings about TheatreBridge with educators, parents, artists, and researchers. Articles, like this one, help spread the word. The Quest staff also provides face to face sharings and trainings in a variety of locations and settings such as the California Educators of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Annual Conference, American Alliance for Theatre in Education National Conference, Arts with the Disabled: Hong Kong professional development program, and Quest's Teacher/Artist Institute. Quest is also expanding the number of schools where students, teachers, and parents participate in yearlong TheatreBridge programming. In the fall, in addition to the Maryland School for the Deaf, schools in Baltimore City and Prince George's County will receive free visual theatre education support from Quest. In the coming year, Quest will create a global community of learning. Teachers, parents, and artists will be able to freely download visual theatre games and lesson plans on the Quest website. In the next two years, Quest plans to post at least 300 activities on its site.

The TheatreBridge programming and its related research reinforce Quest's role as a national and international leader in arts-in-education for all children. If you would like more information about Quest's TheatreBridge programming, please contact us at info@quest4arts.org.