Our Process

Why and how we do it.

Arts Corps believes that every child, regardless of financial ability, deserves the freedom to imagine and the courage to be: to build a foundation to know and be true to oneself, as we stretch our imagination and generate original thought, explore new territory, look a little closer at ourselves and the world we live in, and have the courage and persistence to keep progressing in our endeavors.

Under this vision, access to our programs is a priority. Arts Corps places professional teaching artists at program partner sites throughout King County where youth are naturally present: schools, community centers and other youth-serving organizations. We bring powerful arts learning experiences to young people at program partner sites that represent the most need. In the 2006-2007 school year, four out of five of our classes were delivered in communities where 60 to 100 percent of the youth qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

Arts Corps' teaching philosophy balances a respect for the autonomy of our teaching artists and our core purpose and standards of teaching. We believe in "emergent curriculum" - a curriculum that grows out of an interaction between students' interests and questions, the expertise of the teaching artist as well as the art form being studied. Our teaching artists create comprehensive outlines for their courses but are not afraid to deviate from them based on the interests of the students, individual needs and class dynamic.

We hope to inspire our students through serious engagements with art and art-making and expose them to new perspectives and ideas. Teaching artists structure lesson plans such that students consistently practice important creative habits of mind such as imagining possibilities, thinking critically, persistence & discipline, courage & risk-taking and reflection.

At the heart of Arts Corps' teaching philosophy lies the belief that all children deserve the opportunity to engage in this journey of learning in a real, sustained and relevant way.

To read more about "Creative Habits of Mind" and Arts Corps' most recent highlights, please click here for our 2006-2007 annual report.

To see creative habits of mind in practice, please click here to watch "Powerful Learning through the Arts," a short documentary produced by the Seattle Arts Education Consortium.