Thanks for Supporting Arts + Literacy!

This October, we decided to do something a little different with Information Literacy Awareness Month. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle teaches the Beast to read, highlighting the importance of literacy through the arts. In recognition of Belle’s commitment, we decided to partner with the Ozark Literacy Council to promote “Arts + Literacy,” a campaign to raise money and awareness for literacy in our community. From Oct. 1 – 14, $1 was donated to OLC for every ticket purchased to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which is happening this weekend. If you missed out, don’t worry! Limited tickets are still available, and OLC will have information tables set up in the lobby at every performance!

We are excited to say the campaign was a great success! With your help, we were able to donate $500 to OLC to support literacy in our community! The Ozark Literacy Council’s mission it to improve lives by expanding and promoting literacy within the community. Their vision is to ensure that everyone in Washington County possess literacy and language skills that enhance their lives and empower them to become full participating members of our community.

Ozark Literacy Council…

• Is the oldest and largest literacy council in the state.
• Serves well over 300 students from more than 50 different countries.
• Had almost 20,000 instructional hours completed by volunteers last year.
• Offers all classes at no cost.

Literacy is more than being able to read, it’s the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.

Did you know…

• 298,000 Arkansas function at below basic literacy skills. That’s 10.5% of the state’s population!*
• 93 million adults (32.1%) struggle with basic literacy skills nationwide.*
• The U.S. ranks 5^th on adult literacy skills when compared to other industrialized nations.
• Low literacy costs the U.S. $225 billion or more each year in non-productivity, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
• According to LiteracyPartners.org, for every dollar that gets spent on adult illiteracy, society reaps $7.14 in returns — whether through increased revenues or decreased expenditures. Thanks to your help, this campaign could have a $3,570 impact!

Literacy + Community

Besides the donations made to OLC, we also participated in other events in the community to encourage literacy.

On Oct. 8, we joined 5 News anchor Jocelyne Pruna for a funny fairy tale story time at the Fayetteville Public Library. Kids whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities score 10 points higher on standardized tests. Plus, a mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, more important than factors like neighborhood and family income!

Literacy +  Schools

Just like Belle, NWA school children love books, and we wanted to hear about it! The I Love Books Essay Content was held at three area schools that participate in the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project through the University of Arkansas. This was part of our Learning and Engagement literacy initiative. Students from 2^nd-12^th grade wrote essays talking about their favorite books, and two winners were selected at random. Read one of the essays here! Congratulations to our winners: Taylor Caudle of Prairie Grove Middle School and Lexi Willroth of Walker Elementary School!

Beauty and the Beast will be at Walton Arts Center for five performances this weekend, from Oct. 18 to 20. More information and tickets can be found at: waltonartscenter.org/event/beauty-and-the-beast/.

*Based on population size in 2003 when the U.S. Department of Education conducted the National Assessment Survey of Adult Literacy.

Introducing...Bear State of Mind!

In 2010, Walton Arts Center partnered with Trike Theater to create Digging Up Arkansas – an engaging Arkansas history production for students in grades 3^rd through 5^th.

Now, a new play has been developed for K-2^nd grades, called Bear State of Mind!  WAC, along with partners Trike Theatre, NWA playwright Ashley Edwards and songwriter Shannon Wurst, produced Bear State of Mind as a way to help students learn about Arkansas. The play uses experiential theater techniques, music and puppetry to meet Common Core State Learning Standards, including Arkansas history and social studies curriculums.  Pre- and post-show lesson plans, activities and materials were developed by our Learning & Engagement Team for schools, to deepen students’ understandings of Arkansas history.

More than 2,000 area students from 14 schools have already seen Bear State this year, and seeing them experience this show has been great!

The story is about Bear, who travels through three of Arkansas’ geographic regions and meets new friends and uncovers native wildlife, folklore and state symbols. The unique staging of the play makes the most of 5-8 year olds’ natural tendency to explore their surroundings; seating them under a tree canopy in a “Magical Forest” to help facilitate their physical participation in the performance.   

Students at a performance of Bear State of Mind. Photos by Ironside Photograpy.

As the students entered the Bear State campground in Starr Theater, they couldn’t contain their excitement! “Wow!” “It’s so dark!” “Oo!” They turned to their friends and giggled in excitement as they followed their teachers inside.

The children sat on their sleeping bags and tarps around the campfire, full of energy, excitement and wonder. Their heads whipped around each time a new sound came through the speakers, crickets and cicadas chirping, a bird’s song, frogs croaking.

Bear State performers Jason Suel, (top right) Shannon Wurst and Julie Gabel. Photos by Ironside Photography.

Performances like Bear State and DUA allow us to bring these benefits to the classroom, and reach students who may not otherwise have access to these opportunities! A recent study showed that field trips to WAC provide students with long term benefits, like higher tolerance and empathy and a desire to participate in cultural activities. For a synopsis of the recent WAC study, visit EducationNext. 

Check out these comments from teachers who brought their classes to see Bear State:

• “One of the best performances I have ever attended with students!” Anne Garrett, Root Elementary, Kindergarten

• “This was a fantastic performance! Students were actively engaged the entire time.  I can’t wait to get back and discuss the content with them.”  Root Elementary Teacher, Grade 1

• “I have always enjoyed Walton Arts Center performances, and this was the best – aligned with expectations for student learning.”  Delia Gorder, Root Elementary, Grade 1

• “Fantastic and engaging show.  Relevant to our kids’ lives and super interesting.  Lots of details & hidden surprises.  Our kids loved it!”  Ms. Ogle, Washington Elementary, Grade 1

• “Probably the best show we have seen!  Very entertaining and age appropriate!”  Washington Elementary Teacher – Grade 1

Bear State performers Shannon Wurst, Jason Suel and Julie Gabel. Photos by Ironside Photography.

Long-Term Benefits of Field Trips to the Walton Arts Center

Some exciting news came to Walton Arts Center this week: A recent study shows that field trips to Walton Arts Center can provide long term benefits to students! Last year alone, more than 50,000 students experienced the arts through programs like Digging Up Arkansas, the Colgate Classroom Series, and other master classes and activities with WAC performing artists.

In tandem with a study on the educational value of museum field trips conducted at Crystal Bridges, University of Arkansas researchers Jay P. Greene and Brian Kisida investigated the long term benefits of student field trips to Walton Arts Center.

More than 2,000 7^th graders from around the area participated in a survey asking about their participation in cultural activities and their values like tolerance and empathy. The students’ answers were analyzed based on how many WAC performances they had been to throughout their school careers. 

For each field trip students took to WAC, there was a statistically significant difference in students’ desire to attend cultural events. And more than that, field trip participation increased student desire to participate in cultural activities, not just attend them. Also notable, the study found that students who participate in arts field trips are more tolerant and empathetic than other students. The study will help educators better understand the important benefits that field trips to arts institutions offer students.

View the AWE teachers in action!

Walton Arts Center’s 2013 Arts with Education Institute concluded last week, and we are so excited for the impact arts-integration teaching will have on Northwest Arkansas schools this fall!  The teachers were a part of professional development workshops, lectures and discussions with artists.  To learn more about how and what the AWE teachers were preparing for the classroom, we have a video to summarize the week’s events!       

To learn more about Arts with Education Institute visit our website!

2013 Arts with Education Institute

Walton Arts Center was excited to host the 2013 Arts with Education Institute (AWE) last week! The annual week-long professional development is designed to train Northwest Arkansas teachers to integrate the arts into everyday lesson plans, connecting to core curriculum.  

WAC hopes to positively impact the classroom learning experience for both teachers and the almost 1,200 students that are influenced by the AWE teachers each year. “Arts integrating will help my students build their cooperation muscles,” said an AWE teacher about the foreseen benefits of the program. 

Arkansas History, Social Studies and Visual Arts were the focus areas for AWE 2013. Teachers learned how to integrate the arts in these subject areas with hands-on, interactive workshops presented by John F. Kennedy Center professionals. “My students will be better in communicating,” said an AWE teacher about the program.              

The experts from the Kennedy Center believe in and teach the three main ways arts can be interjected into students’ learning experiences. Arts as curriculum involves music, art, drama or dance teachers, and students learn particular art forms. Arts-enhanced curriculum uses the arts as a “hook” to engage students when learning in other curriculum areas. Finally, an arts-integrated curriculum, which is the goal of programs like AWE, uses the arts as the approach to teaching and learning. Students gain knowledge of both the utilized art form and another subject.  (The Kennedy Center Arts Edge)

 Chart courtesy of The Kennedy Center Arts Edge

This year’s AWE featured lectures and workshops led by Sean Layne from The Kennedy Center. Layne has a B.F.A. in Acting, and has been a part of numerous arts education programs such as founding Focus 5 Inc., arts coaching for the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program, directing and set designing for the InterAct Story Theatre and internationally representing the Wolf Trap Institute Early Learning Through the Arts program. Some of the workshops led by Layne at AWE this year were Intro to Arts Integration, Acting Right, One Minute Challenges, Strategies for Memorization Text Cards and Connections to Common Core. Trike Theatre teaching artists assisted directly in the teaching of AWE, and will help teachers throughout the year by periodically stepping into the classrooms.   

AWE teachers are given a presentation on arts-integration learning

Along with working at the Walton Arts Center, the AWE teachers travelled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for additional hands-on instruction. Lectures and workshops at CBMAA included an Introduction to Teaching from Art lecture and a Teaching Content with Artwork workshop given by teaching artists.    

While at Crystal Bridges, School Programs Manager Anne Kraybill began a lesson plan revolving around visual essays with an introduction to Visual Essay Instruction. This was followed by Creating Visual Essays given by a team of leaders. After the teachers were introduced to the concept and structure of visual essays, they were taught how to implement the learning technique in the classroom with the facilitated reflection Bringing Visual Essay Back to the Classroom. “My students will be highly engaged and own their learning,” said one AWE teacher about the lesson plans.  

The AWE Institute 2013 creating tableaus

We are excited to see these teachers take what they learned about arts-integration back to their classrooms this fall! To learn more about Arts with Education Institute visit our website! Funding for AWE is provided in part by Crayola® with additional funding from Arkansas Arts Council and Walton Arts Center supporters and benefactors.  

Student Engagement with Colgate Classroom Series

Walton Arts Center believes it is vital to expose children to the arts.  Our Colgate Classroom Series (CCS) provides us with a way to give the children of Northwest Arkansas access to live matinee performances of theater, dance, puppetry and world music.  This year, our focused efforts allowed growth in the reach of the program and cultivated new relationships with a Rural School Initiative.   

Since 2009, our reach has doubled - with 100 schools attending CCS performances this past year.  The number of registered seats grew as well, reaching 34,000 seats, compared to 2011’s 30,000.  Our goal next year is to register more than 40,000 students for the Colgate Classroom Series. 

Students arriving at Walton Arts Center

This growth is due in part to efforts to make participation as affordable as possible for the schools.  Two types of partnerships, Smart Partners and 100% Smart Partner Schools, allow us to work with the schools through every aspect of CCS.  Both partnerships receive assistance in ticket prices, online performance guides which support classroom instruction by helping educators connect art forms with core curriculum standards, and transportation subsidies from J.B. Hunt Transportation Inc.

Another way we expanded our reach this year was by focusing on rural schools in NWA. Of the 15 schools targeted, one third attended CCS performances, including Gentry, Pea Ridge, Farmington, West Fork and Decatur. Rural schools in the area account for 5500 students, and we are happy to have made great contacts in order to reach these students in years to come.  The goal next year is to have participation from at least half of these schools.   

Hakim Bekkam from Caravanserai interacts with students

The Colgate Classroom Series gives every NWA school and their students access to world-class arts. Through research with the University of Arkansas we’re learning more about how attending live performances at Walton Arts Center benefits students.  In a recent research project, Junior High School students from Bentonville and Springdale who attended performances at Walton Arts Center as part of elementary school, were surveyed. The results were impressive. Students who attended more performances demonstrated more positive student values, including greater tolerance and empathy and were more likely to read for pleasure compared to students who attended less or not at all. This research begins to quantify some of the many important benefits the arts have for students.   

Students watching the CCS performance of STOMP

CCS performances are chosen for their ability to enrich class curriculum. To make the process easier for participating schools, we provide a list of the shows offered, a brief synopsis of each and the suggested grade levels that are appropriate for the shows. This past year a few of the select shows were Boats, Grug and Dinosaur Petting Zoo.  We are excited to further expand the CCS reach this next year with theater performances like Digging Up Arkansas, dance productions like Company Käfig and world music demonstrations like AnDa Union!  

For a complete listing of the upcoming Colgate Classroom Series, and to learn more about the program, visit our website. 

Learning & Engagement at Walton Arts Center

Here at Walton Arts Center, we strive to positively impact our community through learning and engagement.  One of our main goals is to strengthen school learning communities through arts integration teacher training by to sharing model arts integration programs with the State education community.

One way we reach this goal is by training teachers throughout the area on how to creatively integrate education about the arts into their classroom lesson plans.  There are three main programs designed for these teachers: AWE Institute, SmART Residency and ARTeacher Fellowship.

ARTeacher Fellows

This year’s ARTeacher Fellowship was held June 19-21.  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative and the Center for Children and Youth joined the Walton Arts Center in an effort to provide this exemplary professional development. The Center for Children and Youth selected 27 Jr. high and high school literacy and social studies teachers to participate in the program, and they will implement the arts integration strategies across their curriculums for a year.

ARTeacher Fellows studied with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presenter, Randy Barron; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art School Programs Manager, Anne Krybill; and University of Arkansas’ Center for Children and Youth, Hung Pham and Dr. Chris Goering.

ARTeacher Fellowship teachers participating in an art integration strategy for the classroom

Last year, the ARTeacher Fellowship reached nearly 500 students with 10 teachers participating in the program, so there are great expectations for the impact this year’s 27 trained educators will have on Northwest Arkansas students.

Teachers being trained through the ARTeacher Fellowship with small group practices

All three programs have yielded positive results in the classroom, for teachers and students alike, all the while keeping the arts alive in schools.  Teachers have noticed that students respond well to art integration strategies with better attitudes, eagerness to participate and an overall preference to the strategies over traditional ones.  Teachers that have participated in the programs say they have gained confidence teaching literacy and social studies with the art integration strategies and 90% believe their teaching skills have improved through the training.

We are excited to see the talented teachers integrate the arts into their curriculum this upcoming school year!  To learn more about the arts integration teaching training programs, visit our website. 

Caravanserai - what does it mean??

Our next 10x10 Arts Series show is just around the corner; Caravanserai: Majid Bekkas Gnawa Ensemble with Brahim Fribgane. If you're anything like me, you're looking at that first word wondering how to even pronounce it, let alone figure out what it means. Let me break it down for you phonetically: Kara-van-sir-eye. There, see? It's not that hard. :)

Majid Bekkas Gnawa EnsembleNow, let's talk about what it means. From their website: Caravanserai: A place where cultures meet creates new pathways for Americans to experience the diversity of contemporary Muslim artistic expressions by introducing U.S. audiences to exciting and dynamic artists from the Muslim world. Sounds pretty interesting, right?

We're very much looking forward to hosting this performance next Thursday, October 18 at Walton Arts Center. They are only traveling to four places in the United States this year (Tennessee, North Dakota, Minnesota and Arkansas)!

Brahim FribganeAs per usual, we like to find out more about these artists before they arrive. There were so many things we wanted to ask, but alas, we had to temper ourselves to make sure we don't overwhelm them. :) Read on to find out more about the artists behind Caravanserai: Majid Bekkas Gnawa Ensemble with Brahim Fribgane.

1. What are you most looking forward to on this US Tour?

Majid  - The chance to share my culture and my community with American people and to let them discover our music and way of life - the things they cannot learn in books or through movies or television.

Brahim - Looking forward to sharing  the art and music that I learned back home. And to connect with American audiences in terms of seeing us differently than how the media portrays us. I want to share with happiness because whatever you feel in music we all feel it together. We are the same inside.

2. What size of audiences and whom do you typically perform for in Morocco?

Majid – Mostly festivals with many young people - some have thousands of peope like the Essaouria Gnawa World Music Festival which can have as many as 50,000 in the audience. Sometimes I do concerts in theatres and special places for people that know about music like teachers and students at universities in Morocco that are much more intimate. I alos perform in jazz clubs in Europe.

Brahim – I performed with Hassan Hakmoun and Peter Gabriel at Woodstock in 1994 and some big festivals in Europe. I also do a lot of jazz clubs and more intimate setting with with my jazz group Club d’Elf and Medeski, Martin and Wood and a band called Moving Picture with Adam Rudoloph.

3. Explain the tradition of twirling the hat?   Why do only men do it - is it a religious act or just something fun to do?

It is not a religious act like a dervish. It is not about connecting with the divine or achieving a trance or anything. It is just fun. It is to make people smile and add color to the performance. One legend goes that the first slave emancipated by Mohammed named Bilal was asked to be the first mushin (the person who calls people to prayer). Mohammed’s cousin Ali was having trouble with his wife and Bilal created the quarqabs (the castanet we play)and the twirly hat to sing and dance and make them happy to bring Ali and his wife back together.

4. What is your most favorite Moroccan dish/meal to prepare?

Majid - My specialty is fish tagine cooked with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil spiced with cumin, pepper, paprika, lemons and parsley.

Brahim – sfinge it is a fried bread like a donut that makes me think of home. Mint tea with sugar too.

Other members of the ensemble: Sidi Abellfattah El Houssaini likes ice cream vanilla, Fath Allah Chaouki likes shell fish, Abdelhafid Oummane likes couscous with chicken and vegetables, Mesbah Chaouki likes bouzroug (mussels), and Abdessadek Bounhar likes everything…he is an “every-terian.” (<--ha! We love this!)

5. How did you learn how to play your instrument? When?

Majid - I learned to play guembri in Sale where I was born with a master named Bahaman. I started playing guenbri and banjo when I was fourteen in the early seventies.  There was a band called Nass Ghiwane known as “The Beatles of Morocco” that inspired me.

Brahim -  I was thirteen or fourteen. I was born in Casablanca and I was influenced also by Nass Ghiwane. The first instrument I learned was harmonica because of Bollywood movies I saw often at the cinema when I was a kid.

6. What are 3 goals of your performances? What do you want audiences to walk away with?

Majid – First to have the audience accept and enjoy it, the second is if we can have people sing and participate with us like clap or whatnot we feel like we are sharing, and third to bring the message of love and peace in this world. Musicians are the best ambassadors.

Brahim – First to tell people that Muslims are not only what they see on tv and read in the papers - burning flags and being violent. We are people of peace like them. Also that people will learn about my amazing culture and my language and my tribe from the Souss or South part of Morocco, and third that we are making peace with music and music with peace. 

7. What makes you unique from other performers?

Brahim - Every musician plays with his own hands, and his own life influences. That is what makes me unique. Your roots and experiences make you “you” and this makes the sound you play or the song you sing unique.

Majid Bekkas Gnawa Ensemble in Morocco. Photo by Hassan Abdellaoui.

8. Do you have any superstitions or backstage rituals, before you go on stage?

Everything that we do we say “bismillah” before we eat, before we put on our clothes in the morning, before we do anything. It is a blessing and a prayer and it means “in the name of God.”

9. Is there something you enjoy collecting?

Abdelfattah {ensemble member} collects percussion instruments and noisemakers. We all like to fish, and play soccer.

10. Was there some great advice you received as you began your artistic journey?

Brahim- The great musician Ali Farka Toure told me “whenever you play your instrument, be yourself, do not try to be anyone else. “

Majid – When I released my album African Gnoua Blues I received a call from from famous American jazz legend Archie Shepp and he told me “You are in the right direction. Now I understand how near gnawa is to the blues and jazz.” Then he invited me to play with him in Paris!

11. What profession other than yours would you most like to attempt?

Abdelfattah - ice cream maker

Brahim - When I was young I wanted to be a merchant marine so I could sail and see the world.

Abdelhafid – carpenter

Mesbah – electrician

Abdessadek – sales…business

Fath Allah -  only gnawa nothing else

Majid – teacher…but I want to me a musician all my life.

Turns out we're not too different from our friends across the globe. I mean, who doesn't like ice cream? Come join us for their performance on October 18, and don't forget to come early for the pre-show conversation at 6pm!

If you'd like to find out more about Caravanserai, please visit their website.

An AWE-some week with local educators!

Walton Arts Center just wrapped up another amazing year with the AWE Institute! We had such a great time meeting new participants, and welcoming old friends. We're already looking forward to next year!

Arts With Education (AWE) Institute is a week-long professional development for educators. It prepares teachers to use the arts to make teaching across the curriculum more engaging and effective (recent focus: literacy, social studies, and math). AWE involves teachers in hands-on, interactive workshops presented by John F. Kennedy Center experts, with support from local Teaching Artists.

This year marked the 21^st annual AWE Institute!  For one week in July we welcomed 45 teachers, 20 visiting administrators and staff from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 23 children from Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club and 5 Teaching Artists from our local region and from The John F. Kennedy Center into an incredible week of learning. This year we also spent one full day at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art learning new art forms to integrate into core curriculum teaching.  

Over the years, Walton Arts Center’s AWE Institute has trained over 400 teachers. For every year these teachers include arts integration instruction in their curriculum, more than 1200 students benefit from the engaging and effective teaching techniques learned at AWE.

Visual essay by an AWE teacher depicting population

Putting their new strategies to work with children from the Boys & Girls Club in Fayetteville

AWE Institute funding is provided in part by Crayola® with additional funding from Arkansas Arts Council and Walton Arts Center supporters and benefactors.

For more information on AWE Institute, call Dr. Patricia Relph at 479-571-2773.

**This blog post brought to you by Katharine Williams in our Learning & Engagement department. Thank you Katie!**

"Arts Involvement Narrows Student Achievement Gap"

When this headline came through on a weekly newsletter, we couldn't wait to click through and find out more. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) released a study that suggests "in-school or extracurricular programs offering deep arts involvement may help to narrow the gap in achievement levels among youth." You can read the entire article here.

As we mentioned last week, one of our favorite things about working at Walton Arts Center is bringing students of all ages in to experience the arts. Arts education has been the cornerstone of Walton Arts Center from the very beginning; even before our building was built the first person we hired was an education director. We understand the impact that the arts have on our youth, and want to insure that we do our best to give them that experience.

Rocco Landesman, NEA Chairman, visited Northwest Arkansas a few weeks ago, and made stops at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, NWACCC, TheatreSquared and Walton Arts Center.

Martin Miller, managing director TheatreSquared; Rocco Landesman, NEA Chairman; Robert Ford, artistic director TheatreSquared

Here's what Martin Miller, Managing Director of TheatreSquared, shared with us about Landesman's visit:

Seated on the set of the recent T2 production of Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still, Chairman Landesman commented on TheatreSquared's rapid growth as a professional theatre through a period of economic uncertainty. He requested details on the theatre's world premiere production of Kevin D. Cohea's Sundown Town, funded in part by the theatre's first NEA Art Works grant, as well as earlier original productions such as Robert Ford's My Father's War. Singling out these plays as well as the theatre's annual Arkansas New Play Festival, the Chairman applauded TheatreSquared's willingness to take artistic risks.

"There's a reason non-profits need public support," said Landesman. "They shouldn't have to base their decisions on the market. They can take risks—that's why they're here."

 Barbara Putman, Foundations Relations Officer WAC; Jenni Taylor-Swain, VP Programs WAC; Terri Trotter, COO WAC; Rocco Landesman, NEA Chairman; Joy Pennington, Executive Director Arkansas Arts Council; Jodi Beznoska, VP Communications WAC

The NEA Chairman also visited Walton Arts Center for a tour. This year we received grants from the NEA that helped fund some of our 10x10 Arts Series Programs, our SmART Residency program, the Martha Graham Dance Company performance and our general operations. Our staff took him on a tour of our campus, and graciously thanked him for all the NEA does to support Walton Arts Center as well as the arts community as a whole. Landesman had this to say about his visit:

"At the NEA we're interested in getting out around the country and seeing what's being done with the arts," Landesman said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "What we're seeing here, I think, in Bentonville and Fayetteville, is a real intersection between the arts and communities."