What is the Arts and Literacy Program?.
The purpose of this project is to provide a quality arts and literacy
program
that values, supports,
and improves academic achievement, builds reading, phonics, and
literacy
skills,
offers engaging and high quality arts training and workshops, and
impacts the
surrounding neighborhood
through arts related publications, events, and projects. The
program’s
overall goal is to enhance the
educational and creative abilities of young people through art and
literacy, in
a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment and provide an avenue for them to contribute their skills
and
talents to their community.
The program
began in November 1, 2005 by collaborating with
Rock Rose Gallery, a community gallery
serving as an exhibition, performance, and gathering space for local
artists,
writers, musicians, and neighborhoodresidents for over five
years. Core program components include homework
assistance, Accelerated Reader(a computer program that assesses,
monitors, and improves reading and
comprehension skills), phonics development, and a variety of arts and
life skills workshops.
In December 2005 Mural
Restoration and Urban Art workshops led to a community mural
restoration project of John Zender’s 1993
“Cultura” (a powerful depiction of a face-down kneeling Aztec warrior,
fists outstretched, stopping violence between
parts of the Latino community) and a youth art exhibition, titled: School
Yard Skills (advertised in the local
paper). Parents participated alongside their children in the
restoration and beamed with pride as the young people displayed
their artistic accomplishments.
The
Arts and Literacy
After School Program owes much of its success to strong community partnerships.
Our most important partner is Rock Rose Gallery. Its owner,
Rosamaria
Marquez, is an accomplished
producer, a member of the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, and the
Highland
Park NeighborhoodCouncil. Her community gallery has a five-year
history of hosting,
gathering, and exhibiting hundreds of local artists, musicians,
writers, community groups, and politicians.
These connections provide a wealth of resources for our program. In
addition, our program is spearheaded by John
Zender Estrada, a renowned Mexican American muralist and long time
resident of this community with deep
ties to neighborhood residents, community groups, and politicians in
this area. His murals are an
integral part of the landscape of and recognizable to youth who have
great respect for the work he has produced.
Our program
aims to provide a safe haven in the community
that cultivates and develops artistic and educational excellence and
achievement while providing opportunities for self-expression
and contribution to the community.
Success at the end of this project will be to produce engaged, inspired
young
citizens who have improved in their school performance, reading, and writing abilities.
They will
exhibit a hunger to learn, increased creativity andcuriosity, an
appreciation for multiple perspectives, a strong work
ethic, an appreciation for subtlety, and the desire and confidence to contribute to their communities.
Finally,
a noticeable improvement in their artistic skills will also be evident
over time.
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Arts and Literacy Programs and Curriculum.
Urban Arts: Art that is inspired or interpreted through experiences of living in an urban environment. In our case living and growing up in Los Angeles.
Lettering: Learning to play with fonts and recreating letters in a free form.
Cartooning: Creating gestures and development of cartoons.
Graff Style: Inspired by the urban art of New York and Los Angeles, graff style means giving letters 3D effects with bold color outlines and combining letters with cartoons.
Painting: Inspired by the city, we allow an experimental approach to painting, mixing pop culture with all forms of art.
Collage and Assemblage: Creating works of art with found objects and magazine or paper scraps, creating both 2 as well as 3 dimensional pieces.
Fashion: Creating designs for t-shirts, jackets or pants.
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Graphic Arts
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Computer generated art, including Logo design and development.
Photo shop: Learning the basics in Adobe Photo shop to create graphic photos and artistic designs.
Illustrator: Learning Illustrator program to develop signs, banners,graphics and designs for silkscreen.
Dreamweaver: Learning Dreamweaver basics to edit and create web designs, this site is created and maintained by students of our program.
Graphic Design: Developing posters, logos and graphics. Understanding the basics in advertising and marketing. Out T-shirt design was created and designed by student: Daniel Beltran.
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Competitive Games
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We make sure all our students learn Chess. We also participate in chess tournaments for prizes to inspire students to improve their game.
Domino is also learned to acquire quick math skills participating in domino tournaments. |
Accelerated Reader
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Accelerated reader is a computer reading improvement program that first conducts an assessment test to see at what reading level each student is in. Then through a series of books based on grade level, students receive points for simple comprehension test conducted on the computer to raise the students reading grade level as they acquire points for rewards. |
Phonics Games
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Phonics games are done on our program to help students pronounce sounds for letters and words. Most students learn to read by association or word identification like pictures. when a word is not identified or recognized they can not read it. Phonics help them create the sound for each letter giving them the ability to read any word through sound and syllables. |
Murals and Mural Restorations
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Murals are a part of every child life living in Los Angeles, This city is know as the mural capital of the world. We use murals and their history to teach public art awareness and community development. Mural restoration also teaches the importance of respect and community beautification. |
Life Skills Workshops |
Interactive discussions that help students understand current events, aswel as get information about social and cultural issuues. Topics such as: Racism, Economic developtment, College and Education, Chicano studies, Capitalism, Community Awarness and many other topics are discussed and explored. |
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