New Los Angeles Charter School has partnered with the Virginia Avenue Project to create a dynamic and integrated arts experience for every child during their years at New LA.
The Virginia Avenue Project is an 18-year-old non-profit using long term, one-on-one Arts mentoring to help children think creatively, critically, and confidently about what they want to do with their lives. Their impact on the lives of children has been profound and long lasting.
The workshops that have been designed for New Los Angeles Charter School are the following:
6th Grade – Creative Expression 1
Through a variety of mediums – paint, collage, clay, papier mache – children are given the opportunity to express themselves in new and creative ways in an ever more visual world. Taught in one-hour segments to four groups of 25 children. The work the children create will be put on display at a special culmination event marking the end of the school year – and possibly combined with the culmination event featuring the seventh graders. The teacher is to be announced.
7th Grade – Creative Expression 2
Basic acting techniques including theatre games, mime, improvisation, movement, story telling – designed to build self confidence; physical, vocal, and emotional communication skills; discipline, respect, and courage. Taught in one-hour segments to four groups of 25 kids by the head of the Virginia Avenue Project’s Creative Play Program, John Achorn, with four class mentors who participate in the development and presentation of a “Harold” – a group improvisation featuring the games and techniques the children have learned in class – at a special culmination event in June, 2011. And possibly in combination with the culmination event featuring the art created by the sixth graders.
8th Grade – Creative Expression 3
Advanced acting classes and a deeper journey into the writing, story telling, and character development process - followed by the adaptation of a book already familiar to the class. Taught in one-hour segments to three groups of 25 kids by writer/teaching artist, Dorothy Fortenberry – with four class mentors. The culmination piece will be written and performed by the eighth graders with the support of the class mentors on stage and off and presented to families, peers, and the general public at Stage 52 in June, 2011.
