Developing an Awareness of Art as a Professional Career

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

I teach visual arts in an elementary (grades kindergarten through five) magnet school in a large urban school district that offers an English/Spanish dual language program. The learning community emphasizes diversity with its English/Spanish cultural theme. Slightly more than one-half (57.1%) of the student population is Hispanic and receive free or reduced priced lunch. Students spend half of their instructional day learning literacy and science in English, and the other half of the day is devoted to math and social studies which are taught in Spanish. With this curriculum, students become bilingual and bi-literate.

Since more than 50% of our students receive free or reduced priced lunch, this often limits families’ abilities to participate in enrichment experiences on their own. Many students lack exposure to culturally enriching events, such as theatrical events, musicals, and museums. Our school has very little resources to provide arts and culturally related experiences for all of its students. During the school year students participate in a variety of musical performances (six to seven per school year) that are presented to other students, staff, administration, parents, and the community at large. Our ability to expose students and parents to an authentic theatrical experience that includes costumes and set decorations is limited due to budget constraints. The school Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has provided some funding for costumes, but set design and decorations are one of our biggest challenges.

I am requesting two rolls of canvas so that students can paint on both sides to use as set decorations or backgrounds for our musicals. The painted canvas will hang at the back of the stage, which is approximately 18 feet wide by six feet long. Under my supervision, students will have the opportunity to participate in an after-school art club (grades three through five) and they will create the backdrops for musicals throughout the school year. I have allocated part of my instructional budget to purchase acrylic paints for this purpose. According to Airborne Inc, between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 pm is the peak period for juvenile crime and drug and alcohol experimentation. By participating in an afterschool club, students may be less likely to participate in these other types of illegal behavior. In addition, the program will adhere to state and national visual arts standards by developing an awareness of art as a professional career. Students will be exposed to different aspects of becoming a professional artist.

Your funding of this proposal will benefit students by helping move students beyond basic competency in classroom curriculum. Your support will make it possible for me to promote and teach global awareness at higher levels by integrating interdisciplinary themes, such as story telling and social studies with set design and visual arts. Cross-curricular teaching for students not only provides fun and exciting enrichment activities for young people who need it most, but it also creates programming that promotes self-esteem, enhances social skills, inspires creativity and nourishes the spirit.