Classroom in Residence Program Participants with Hammer Staff. Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE 101: Museum Education 

Under the expert guidance of Lecturer Corrie Siegal and TA Maryan Ragheb, students in Strategies in Museum Education class celebrated the range of topics and skills they tackled this quarter such as looking at museums across our city, studying and practicing visual thinking strategies, and leading engaging discussions about art pieces with personal significance. The range of creative interests and artistic backgrounds of the students made for enlightening and meaningful exchanges. Congratulations to the whole class and thank you for helping VAPAE launch a new special topics in arts education course.

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE 105: Strategies in Arts in Corrections 

Students in AE 105 finished the quarter with final presentations where they shared program proposals and lesson outlines of original arts workshops geared towards working with system impacted, incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated youth populations and families. Proposed workshops ranged from Exploring Emotions through Art, Music and Mindfulness, and Painting Emotions. The class became extraordinarily close with each other throughout the quarter by experiencing story sharing, amazing guest speakers, and wonderful teaching from Lecturer Jimmy Wu and TA Florence Ho. 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE 192: Arts Education Teaching Practicum: Preparation, Observation, and Practice

AE 192 students participated in a collaborative drawing activity they did on the first and last day to promote and strengthen team unity and communication.  

The activity consisted of a bunch of markers tied together by ribbons and each student held onto 1 ribbon strand. As a team, they needed to communicate and move together as a whole in order to draw a series of shapes together. Led by Lecturer Joannza Lo and TA Andrew Child, the cohort has been developing unique and creative ways to build a strong classroom community through a range of art forms and teaching methods. 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

AE 192XP Capstone: Arts Education Teaching Practicum & Capstone Project 

During their last class, AE 192XP students celebrated finishing the Arts Education Teaching Sequence with food, camaraderie, and reflections. Following VAPAE custom, students received their completion certificate, their VAPAE t-shirt, and love and gratitude of our whole VAPAE community. Thanks to Lecturer Robin Branch-Scott and TA Markele Cullins for guiding these students so lovingly and successfully. Congrats to this cohort! You’ve all become accomplished and inspiring teaching artists before our eyes. We’re so excited for your future as artists, teachers, and change makers!

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer 

This March, VAPAE and the Hammer Museum welcomed elementary schoolers to Classroom-in-Residence at the Hammer (CRH) for a weeklong immersive experience at the Hammer Museum and UCLA.  

During their residencies, Ms. Brown’s 4th grade class from Foshay Learning Center and Ms. Guillen’s 5th grade class from Monte Vista Street Elementary School explored themes of community, joy, and positive change with VAPAE Teaching Artists Cammie Kao and Helena Gomez, along with lead teaching artist Ayda Gragossian. 

VAPAE thanks these students and teachers for their joyful and creative residencies! 

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

Photo by VAPAE Staff.

VAPAE Research & Evaluation Specialist, Lindsey Kunisaki (left) and Create CA Executive Director, Dr. Veronica Alvarez (right). Photo by VAPAE Staff

Research Conference Presentation: California Association for Bilingual Education 

On March 27, 2025, VAPAE joined Create CA to present at the 50th annual conference of the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) in Long Beach, CA. VAPAE’s Research & Evaluation Specialist Lindsey Kunisaki presented alongside Create CA’s Executive Director, Dr. Veronica Alvarez, Ed.D., exploring culturally sustaining pedagogy, visual thinking strategies, and conversation-based language learning. Their workshop was entitled Empowering English Learners Through Arts: Enhancing Learning and Cultural Identity. 

Share Your Insights in WestEd/Create CA’s Prop 28 Survey 

Calling arts educators, administrators, and school leaders! WestEd in partnership with Create CA is conducting a survey as part of a study to understand the implementation of Proposition 28 Arts and Music in Schools funds and enhancing student access to the arts. 

This confidential survey should take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete and can be accessed through this link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Prop28Survey  

For more information, contact Abe Flores (Deputy Director of Policy & Programs, Create CA) at abe@createca.org. 

ICYMI: To read more about local Prop 28 perspectives, check out this related report on implementation and public perceptions in LA County. Released in October 2024, the report was authored by VAPAE’s Research & Evaluation Specialist through Arts for LA’s Laura Zucker Fellowship for Policy and Research. Read more here. 

Classroom in Residence Program participants during an activity with VAPAE Teaching Artist. Photo by VAPAE Staff.