Sample Fine Arts Residencies: Using Cultural Traditions as a Departure Point for Creating New Work
NB: Prices subject to change without notice. These are suggestions. We always work with teachers to collaboratively design programs. All planning, evaluation, supplies, & curriculum material included. Professional Development, additional. Prices are per class.

American History through the Eyes of One Group of People
This residency brings a choreographer and traditional dancer together to engage students in learning the many perspectives of America's rich history. Students research the history of the group through video documentaries, recordings, literature, historical accounts, and first person narratives. They interview their relatives and neighbors about their own immigrant experiences and past. Both traditional and choreographed dances capture key episodes in the group's history. Students are active choreographers. 16 double-sessions twice/week, $4525.00.

Hip Hop Theater
Hip Hop Theater is theater that researches, interprets and presents social issues relevant to young people. To that end, our residencies incorporate training in ethnographic skills (e.g. observation, documentation, and interviewing), theater skills (e.g. blocking, intentionality, character development) and b-boying (breakdancing), popping and locking and beat boxing. Past workshops have explored youth immigration experiences, perspectives on local community, and intergenerational relationships. 16 double-sessions, $4050.00.

Community Exploration & Oral History through Songwriting
A multi-disciplinary residency that uses songwriting to explore the people and places that make community. Students learn interviewing, observation and documentation techniques then work with a songwriter to turn their notes and observations into an original song. Over the course of the residency, students write lyrics, create melodies and rhythms for their song(s). The residency culminates in a performance and can include a fieldtrip to a recording studio with CDs for each student to take home. 13 double-sessions, $3475.00.

Monuments of Your Lives
What makes a monument? Students create diptych artworks with text that feature two monuments of their lives, one actual (a spot in the park, their corner store) and one remembered (a place they visited, or their former countries). The projects are made on individual sheets of paper (often using acrylic or tempera and oil stick) and mounted as a diptych on cardboard. 15 double sessions, $3875.00.

Memory Map
Students create a map of their neighborhood by drawing their favorite place in their local area (example: The bus stop on Grand Street where I first met my friend Alysia). The work is done on sturdy paper and then collected and strung together as a large quilt-like patchwork. The work can also be compiled into a book. 15 double-sessions, $3875.00.

Neighborhood Souvenirs Shadow Box
If someone was visiting your neighborhood, what objects could they take away as souvenirs? Students build a shadow box using foam core and paper and then create an assemblage using objects (found or created) that represent their environment. Objects are securely mounted into the box 3-dimensionally and then the box is strung for hanging displays. 15 double-sessions, $3875.00

My Neighborhood
Students discuss the history and dynamics of their community and then take a series of ethnographic fieldtrips around their neighborhood using double-entry field notebooks. They use their observations and documentation to create murals, sculptures, or paintings that they then exhibit (which includes a series of curatorial workshops in which students create wall text and program books) in their school and/or local community center. 16 double-sessions, $4200.00.

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Sample Folk Arts Residencies: Exploring Cultures Through Their Traditional Arts
NB: These are suggestions. We always work with teachers to collaboratively design programs. All planning, evaluation, supplies, & curriculum material included. Professional Development, additional. Prices are per class.

Music of the Andes
Students work with a musician from the Andes Region of South America to make the traditional Andean panpipe and to learn several songs to play on their instrument. They also learn about the culture, history, and community contexts in which the music is played as well as about the artist's own experiences growing up in the region. 12 double sessions, $3300.00 (4th and up) 15 single-sessions, $2325.00 (3rd and 2nd grade) Both prices include mandatory teacher training session.

Brazilian Dance and Capoiera
In this residency, students learn about eh different cultures (African, European, and Native) that combined to created the distinctive dances and cultures of Northeastern Brazil. They learn regional Afro-Brazilian dances and rhythms and Capoiera, the martial art that enslaved Africans brought to Brazil from West Africa. Students also take fieldtrips to New York City's Brazilian community in Astoria. 12 double-sessions with dancer & musician, $5950.00.

Nigerian Paper & Fiber Arts
A Yoruba artist from the art center of Oshugbu introduces students to a range of traditional paper and textile design styles and their meanings. Teachers can work on paper or cloth and final pieces can either be collaborative murals or individual wearable pieces of art. 12 double-sessions, $3260.00.

Persian Design and Glass Painting
The social and art history of Persia comes alive as students learn traditional Persian rug design elements and apply them to glass. The NYC-based artist comes from a family of Persian rug designers and shares her experiences growing up as an artist in Persia as well as her experience using a traditional artform as inspiration for creating new work. 12 single-sessions, $3260.00.

Haitian Drumming
A rare opportunity to work with master drummer and National Heritage Award winner, Frisner Augustin. Mr. Augustin, who learned drumming as a child, introduces traditional Haitian roots rhythms and songs while discussing his life and community both in Haiti and in the Haitian American community in New York City. 12 single sessions with musician and cultural specialist, $2750.00.

American Indian Dance
Working with American Indian artists, students learn traditional dances from several North American Indian Nations. They also learn about the relationship between the dances and the group's culture, history, beliefs, and environment. Students listen to stories and music from each group and make part of the regalia traditionally associated with each dance. 12 single-sessions , $2800.00.