Young Audiences of Louisiana to pilot national five-year project for Responsive Arts in School Education
Young Audiences Charter School student participates in an arts integration residency.
Last October Young Audiences Arts for Learning (Young Audiences), the nation’s largest arts in education learning network, received a federal grant award of $9.2 million through the US Department of Education’s (DOE) Assistance for Arts Education (AAE) program. This May, Young Audiences of Louisiana (YALA) and Young Audiences will pilot the five-year arts education program in Jefferson Parish Schools.
The project, Responsive Arts in School Education (RAISE), will bring Teaching Artists (TAs), School Social Workers (SSWs), and classroom teachers into partnership to develop healing-centered and culturally responsive-sustaining arts in education residency programs, in order to enhance student learning and well-being across the country. It consists of four primary activities: (1) TA training, coaching, and action research; (2) learning networks for TAs and SSWs across the country to share best practices; (3) professional learning for SSWs and teachers in incorporating the arts into their practice; and (4) customized school-based arts education residencies.
RAISE builds on the arts-integrated model YALA has developed and refined over the past 8 years in partnership with YA National thanks to three previous cycles of US Department of Education Funding. YALA’s experience building customized residencies in Jefferson Parish Schools make them the ideal partner to lay the foundation for the customized school-based arts education residencies that will launch across the country starting this fall.
“YALA is honored to pilot the RAISE residencies in Jefferson Parish Schools,” said Jenny James, Executive Director of YALA. “Participating in this project provides us with the opportunity to meet our students where they are by layering trauma-informed practices and social-emotional learning into our research-based arts-integrated instructional model.”
Residencies will be led by veteran teaching artists Ja’Nese Brooks-Galathe, Nanette Ledet, Dana Leon, and Todd Shaffer at Terrytown Elementary School and Young Audiences Charter School (Little YACS).
Beyond the residencies, over 50 hours of in-depth professional learning will be offered each year to TAs from the full YA network and beyond, covering healing-centered and trauma-informed practices and culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy. Additional instruction and coaching will be provided to TAs working in school partnerships at 16 affiliate sites, who will convene regularly as a learning community to share action research strategies and findings.
“Having been in education for 25 years, it is always exciting to learn about something that is going to change the way you teach forever,” Shaffer said. “RAISE is definitely going to raise me to the next level as a teaching artist.”
The project period for RAISE extends for five years, through September 2026. Metis Associates, based in New York, will serve as research partner on the project.
Over the five years, RAISE will serve over 17,000 students and 800 teachers and SSWs from under-funded urban, suburban, and rural areas across the country, as well as over 500 TAs from within and outside of the YA network who will receive training. At the conclusion, Young Audiences will publish an online library of resources for use by other organizations, TAs, SSWs, and teachers.
“The Responsive Arts in School Education program brings to light the opportunity to further position the Young Audiences Arts for Learning network as a national research laboratory steeped in differentiated practice nationwide,” said David A. Dik, National Executive Director of Young Audiences. “Through both formative and summative research over the next half-decade, we look forward to connecting our collective practice to support the social-emotional learning and wellbeing of students across the country.”
According to the US Department of Education, RAISE was selected as one of 27 projects awarded through the AAE program for FY21. The AAE program promotes arts education for students through activities such as professional learning, development, and dissemination of accessible instructional materials and arts-based programming, and community and national outreach activities that strengthen and expand partnerships among schools, local educational agencies, communities, and arts centers.
About Young Audiences of Louisiana
Young Audiences of Louisiana (YALA) is the leading provider of arts education and integration programs in the state of Louisiana. Founded in 1962 to bring chamber musicians into local classrooms, YALA has adapted and evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of youth throughout the state through our mission of “inspiring, empowering, and uniting children and communities through education, arts, and culture.” YALA offers a comprehensive and creative approach to educating young minds. Fortified with years of experience, YALA draws upon New Orleans’s strong arts culture to provide young people with tools to impact their worlds using art. Through school performances, arts-integrated residencies, extended learning programs and community workshops YALA not only impacts the children of New Orleans, but make intentional contact with the influential adults in their lives.
About Young Audiences Arts for Learning
Founded in 1952, Young Audiences Arts for Learning is the nation’s largest arts in education network, serving more than 5 million young people each year. Young Audiences works to support its diverse network of affiliated organizations that are each dedicated to playing a decisive role in young people’s personal, artistic, and educational development. Learn more about Young Audiences and its mission to inspire young people and expand their learning through the arts at www.youngaudiences.org.