Arts Learning

Participants from Midwest Special Services gained knowledge and skills in filmmaking by collaborating with professional artists to create a feature length film and behind the scenes documentary. Participants completed a survey before the project began that asked if they have any experience in theater or acting, and if they have any experience in video production. We based the degree to which the project achieved the proposed outcome of increasing the quantity and types of arts learning on the percentage of participants who were engaging in a new activity for the first time. Given that 82% had never done any acting or theater, and 96% had never participated in a video project, we determined that we were pretty successful in achieving this outcome. 2: Arts learners engaged in video production and theater activities, and when necessary teaching artists used adapted techniques to mitigate communicative, sensory, and physical barriers. The interview questions were: what were the barriers the participant faced and do you feel we overcame those barriers? Also, rate the project’s success as either- not successful, somewhat successful, successful, or very successful. Of the fourteen staff, eleven rated the project very successful while three rated it successful. The data showed that based on their knowledge and experience working with them, staff felt that the majority (94%) of the participants’ barriers were mitigated. This data and the personal testimonies from the behind the scenes documentary show that we were successful in making arts learning opportunities more accessible.