BREAKOUT SESSIONS C
Friday, April 5 – 11:45am CT
Session C1: Youth As Partners: Collaborating to Create, Connect and Change
Dana Carr (she/her), Chief Executive Officer, The Creative Impact Group
During this session, we will explore best practices for incorporating and elevating youth voice in community arts-based programming. This kind of programming is the perfect medium for implementing a developmental approach that honors youth voices and input as true partners. By discussing the challenges and examining real world applications, we will discover the benefits of community-based arts programming in collaborative, youth-centered spaces. Participants will learn several tried and true methods for incorporating and elevating youth voice based in multiple developmental frameworks, coming away with creative project ideas that they can implement within their own programming.
Friday, April 5 – 11:45am – 12:45pm CT
Location: Wilde Ballroom, 3rd Floor
Track: Executive Leadership
Session C2: Designing a Human-Centered Brand for Impact
Omote Ekwotafia (she/her), Founder, Otwo Design Studio
Renee Benson (she/her), Director of Access, Belonging and Strategic Partnerships / YA Nationally Credentialed Teaching Artist, Young Audiences of Louisiana
Community collaborations are an essential part of arts in education programming at all levels. A key component of a successful partnership is finding entities who share your goals and culture. In this session, participants will explore best practices in DEIAB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, Belonging) and branding and begin applying them to their work through session activities. As a result, participants will learn how to collaborate in ways that are genuine and attractive not only to fellow organizations that share goals and culture, but to educators, artists, and administrators who want to participate in and support their work. Participants will come away with a stakeholder profile to facilitate understanding of key demographics; a branding template to gather the main messages of their brand; and a goal framework to reach desired impact.
Friday, April 5 – 11:45am – 12:45pm CT
Location: Churchill, 3rd Floor
Tracks: Teaching Artists, Program Staff
Session C3: Arts Lab: A Multi-year Collaboration between YANJEP and Community Partners
Liz Winter (she/her), Education Operations Director, Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern PA
Laura Marchese (she/her), YA Nationally Credentialed Teaching Artist, Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern PA
Arts Lab, currently in its sixth year at Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern PA (YANJEP), is a multi-year project that began with the focus of impacting student attendance by creating an arts-rich school environment. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on different collaborations in their own organizations and hear about the multi-layered collaborations that structured this project, such as those between YANJEP and funders, Arts Champions, school administration, teaching artists and classroom teachers, and the larger school community. The session will include art-making, a video presentation, and multiple opportunities to move, discuss, reflect, and connect with other participants to inspire creative thinking.
Friday, April 5 – 11:45am – 12:45pm CT
Location: Churchill, 3rd Floor
Tracks: Teaching Artists, Program Staff
Session C4: Collaborative Partnerships as a Culturally Sustaining Practice – The IDEAL Example
Andrew Lusher (he/him), Artist and Programming Manager, Arts for Learning Virginia
Spotlighting Arts for Learning Virginia’s innovative IDEAL residency, a ten-week out-of-school time program for students in grade five, this session will focus on collaborative partnerships as a culturally sustaining arts practice to support high-quality educational experiences. IDEAL (Intentional Designs of Expression in Artistic Languages) is an ideal example of bringing together professional arts practitioners, local arts institutions, and three school divisions, resulting in culturally sustaining arts practices rooted in collaborative community partnerships. Participants will explore the intersection between culturally sustaining practices and community engagement, and take part in a community asset mapping activity, identifying the cultural wealth of their own communities and imagining potential collaborative relationships.
Friday, April 5 – 11:45am – 12:45pm CT
Location: Dickinson III, 4th Floor
Track: Program Staff