AE 20: Intro to Community Engagement through the Arts

Ping Ho from the Arts and Healing Initiative visited the AE 20 class. A longtime VAPAE friend and colleague, Ping engaged students in an activity where everyone created music together, building sounds off one another. Through this experience, Ping demonstrated how arts and playful expression can promote healing, support health improvement, and enhance overall well-being. Students from many majors and artistic backgrounds gained insight into how creative practices can be used to build connections, support emotional expression, and positively impact communities. 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE 107: Visual Arts Methods for the Teaching Artist

AE 107 students have been exploring various methods to create and teach the visual arts, adding more strategies to their teaching artist toolkit. For instance, Lecturer Marissa Sykes led an activity that asked students to work with clay, individually building dynamic Alebrije sculptures, followed up by an activity in which they painted their sculptures. The unique pieces were colorful, expressive, and evocative.

Photos by VAPAE Staff.

AE M102: Introduction to Arts Education for Multiple Publics - Theory and Practice

AE M102 students have been studying foundational theories of arts education, engaging in meaningful discussions about the importance of the arts in the development of all children. In one assignment, students responded to course readings in their own artistic ways. During class, led by Lecturer Dr. Lora Cawelti, students shared their art with one another and discussed the readings alongside their artistic responses. 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE M192XP: Arts Education Teaching Practicum & Capstone Project

Capstone students in M192XP practiced their “Get to Know Me” presentations, in preparation for presenting in their LAUSD classrooms. In this photo, VAPAE Student Mayu shared a bit about her elementary school experience in Japan, hoping to show her first-grade class the ways school is different in different cultures. 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

Conference Presentation: American Educational Research Association 

In April, VAPAE presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in Denver, CO! VAPAE Director Kevin Kane chaired a roundtable entitled Constructing Equitable Arts Education Spaces, where VAPAE Research & Evaluation Specialist Lindsey Kunisaki presented a theory-informed discussion of her Prop 28 research in a paper entitled Resourcing as Repair Through California Proposition 28: An Investment in Equitable Arts Education. In another session, VAPAE lecturer Lora Cawelti presented Embodying Memory, Time, and Space: Improvisation to Explore Personal History in Qualitative Research, an exploration of memory embodied through improvisation. 

VAPAE Lecturer Dr. Lora Cawelti (left), VAPAE Director Dr. Kevin Kane (center), and VAPAE Research and Evaluation Specialist Lindsey Kunisaki (right) at AERA.

There are a few hours left of Bruin Giving Day! VAPAE relies on and is grateful for any and all support to help us maintain our mission to train the next generation of teaching artists and provide quality arts education to Title I schools throughout Los Angeles. Any amount is appreciated to help our program thrive. Check out our Giving Page to learn more.