Arts Learning

Participants will learn about theater through drama activities (emotion statues, mirroring exercises, and scenarios) and will fill in the blanks to prompts like, “I am…” and “My strengths are…” to create poems, set the poems to music to make songs, and devise choreography through structured improvisations, and participants will express emotions and ideas through line, color, and shape using painting activities. The residency culminates in public performances at each artnership Resources site where participants and teaching artists will present short vignettes of theatre, poetry, songs, and dances created by clients and teachers with participants’ original paintings and poems on exhibit, which will serve as the scenic environment for the performances. As part of the reflective and evaluative process Upstream Arts lead teaching artists will write reports after each session documenting participants’ creative expression, breakthrough moments, and success of activities. Further evaluation of client success and artistic goals reached will occur in ways best suited to the individual, such as interview scenarios or a conversation with staff or project personnel. The project will also be evaluated through an audience survey given during the performances and performances will be filmed.