Young Audiences Brings Artists to Central Oregon Classrooms | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Young Audiences Brings Artists to Central Oregon Classrooms

Program offers opportunities for bringing performances, workshops and supplies to area schools

An exciting new opportunity is available to Central Oregon schools and artists: Young Audiences of Oregon/SW Washington now serves the Central Oregon community, bringing artists directly into the classroom. The program is expanding its roster and looking for artists interested in teaching, as well as seeking schools where educators want the added benefit of bringing arts-based learning to students.

Young Audiences Brings Artists to Central Oregon Classrooms
Courtesy Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington.
Fourth graders at Bear Creek Elementary in Bend created short films with Future Filmworks, working in teams to write, film, and edit their original works—finishing with a screening for their classmates, complete with movie theater popcorn!

The program, which has run in the Portland area since 1958, is now in the second year of its pilot program serving schools in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Terrebonne, Redmond, Prineville and Powell Butte. Perrin Boyd took over as the Central Oregon program manager last fall. A well-versed arts educator, Boyd hopes to develop relationships with schools and be a resource to connect them with arts programs. "If they get in touch with me, I will find them an artist!" says Boyd.

Young Audiences offers schools a "menu" of sorts to find artists who offer a variety of mediums and approaches. Opportunities include one-time performances as well as residencies where artists work in a classroom for several days at a time. For example, Young Audiences sent illustrator Rachel Lee Carmen to La Pine to work with 2nd and 3rd graders, showing them how to pair illustration with scientific discoveries.

Young Audiences Brings Artists to Central Oregon Classrooms
Courtesy Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington.

With arts funding often a problem for schools, Young Audiences offers a program called "Run for The Arts" that includes a fundraising element where youth collect donations for running "laps" around the school or playground. All the money raised goes into an account that can only be accessed for art-related costs, such as supplies or the fee for a teaching artist or performance.

Young Audiences is also looking for artists. The application process includes a questionnaire, submission of a resume and a sample lesson plan. "The lesson plan is to get a sense of what they would do in the classroom and if they understand how to develop a succinct class in 50 minutes," says Boyd. If an artist can't already do that, Young Audiences is committed to developing artists' teaching skills.

Young Audiences of Oregon / SW Washington
Perrin Boyd, Central Oregon Program Manager
[email protected]
ya-or.org


Teafly Peterson

For the last 20 years, I have been working as an artist and an educator. Some days I am better at one than the other. The good days are when I am excellent at both simultaneously. I love those days. I teach a variety of mediums– painting, drawing, photography, writing, film making. Mostly what I teach is how to...
Comments (0)
Add a Comment
For info on print and digital advertising, >> Click Here