Creative Schools Initiative

Arts Corps is proud to announce the launch of the Creative Schools Initiative in the fall of 2012 at Madrona K-8 and Orca K-8 Schools

Thanks to leadership investments from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, musician Dave Matthews, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and Boeing, Arts Corps has rolled out this program at two south Seattle middle schools serving diverse student bodies that reflect the spectrum of economic, racial, and cultural backgrounds of the surrounding communities.

The inaugural Creative Schools sites are Orca K-8 and Madrona K-8, both of which are committed to enhancing student learning and school culture through the arts. Each site is working with a dedicated teaching artist who is collaborating with teachers to create engaging projects that are rooted in student inquiry and build creative and critical thinking skills.

Madrona K-8
Students at Madrona are working with Teaching Artist Charhys Bailey and AmeriCorps Artist-in-Service Zoey Belyea to integrate storytelling, poetry, memoir and fiction with their studies of language arts and social studies. Charhys and Zoey will focus on stories and texts that are relevant to students and help them to express their learning through projects such as dramatic interpretations, poetry slams and playwriting.

Orca K-8
Students at Orca K-8 are working with Teaching Artist Nate Herth and AmeriCorps Artist-in-Service Sammy Tekle to research archetypes as a means of understanding social studies.  Students will discuss storytelling from diverse perspectives, using contemporary and historical source documents such as text, video, song, visual art, theatre, and dance. Drawing from their personal stories, students will create projects that explore myth as metaphor, journey as discovery, and the illumination of one’s purpose.