Our Team’s Testimonies:
After we finished this project, we decided we wanted to provide our reasons behind the importance of arts-based education and Hartford Performs programs in the school district. Please continue reading to hear our thoughts on the importance of this work.
Ava:
I always understood the intrinsic value of the arts, they provide an outlet for expression and relief, a space where time and memories can be captured and then shared. Until this project, I had never considered the ways the arts could be used as a tool for learning. Through our research, I was amazed by all the times the arts had impacted my education as a child. I didn’t even recognize it at the time – all the dioramas for science classes, the theatric historical reenactments, the poetry, dances, and songs – they were all tools to help students learn and connect with material. They helped me learn and connect. All the worksheets and presentations I did are long gone from my memory, but I still have all of my art work saved, I can recall the dance moves, and I can sing along to the songs.
Hartford Performs provides arts education to students in the Hartford school district. They have some of the best local artists share their skills and passion for both the arts and learning with the children of the community. Our focus group with these teaching artists made their passion ever the more evident. They are a part of these programs because they believe in their worth and their impact. Our classroom observations served as a testament to this – students were moving, dancing, and engaging with one another and the course materials, with big smiles on their faces.
What Hartford Performs does is special. They teach students an academic lesson while teaching them an art form. They give them a space to express themselves freely, to relieve themselves of stress and worry, and to learn and engage with academics. These programs should have the opportunity to expand and grow, to reach their current audience more frequently and to serve a wider community of older ages and grade levels. To provide students with skills and tools for learning should not be seen as a privilege but as a universal right.
Sara:
I believe arts-based education to be so valuable in schools as it provides students with an outlet to express themselves and their knowledge in non-traditional ways. I have always loved the arts, especially writing, drawing, and photography. During my freshman year of college, I was in a gateway program called InterArts where I was exposed to so many other forms of art including steel drums, hip-hop dancing, and oil painting. It was so enriching to my education to have these experiences because they expanded my approach to different tasks and broadened my skill set. I think that Hartford Performs provides these same experiences to students which is incredible.
I was first introduced to Hartford Performs my freshman year at Trinity to make a promotional video for them. I thought it was the coolest program that I had heard of, and I learned so much through making the video and observing one of the programs. Now in my junior year of college, and with a few education courses under my belt, I can truly appreciate what Hartford Performs is doing for the kids in Hartford Public schools. They are giving them experiences from a variety of mediums all aligned with the core curriculum. I hope to be a teacher one day, and I would love it if a program like Hartford Performs could be in my school. Since HP provides so much for the students, I think the programs should be expanded to all grades in the K-12 system so that students continue to have access to this type of learning and to have the arts as an outlet. I think they need teaching artists who are adaptable and who can change their program to be more advanced based on the students’ grade level. Because of this, I urge the school district and other grant programs to increase giving to Hartford Performs so they can continue to grow and expand these programs that I truly believe are so valuable to a student’s education.
Lashawn:
The Arts are important to me as a parent because the arts allow my children to express themselves in a relaxing stress-free way. There are no extra pressures unlike curriculum guided one shoe fits all approach. Arts is freedom!
My kids were able to break out of the inner shyness and open up. My kids learned new ways to participate in arts even becoming a stage manager doing certain events. Expressing themselves through dance and music. This made my kids look forward to attending school and getting their work done. During my observation for the Hartford performs program at one of the schools on the south end of Hartford. It was very interesting seeing the children so engaged. The children were so excited to create their very own video games and characters. I myself work with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that I have never seen so engaged in certain projects. So this program for Hartford performs is very important to me. A program that is going to keep children engaged and excited to learn then this program should be expanded throughout the city of Hartford.
Brenda:
Art education brings an indispensable value in the classroom, creating a space for students to not only express themselves but also engage with the curriculum material in a different way. I have always believed the way an art-based approach has the power to reach different kinds of students in the classroom. Through this research and being able to experience what Hartford Performs does in the classroom, this belief was only reinforced. Students were excited to learn and even the quietest kids were participating in class. In our focus group interview with teaching artists, one teaching artist described the way he felt his intelligence was not valued in the classroom growing up. I think about how often a kid in a classroom has thought of themselves as ‘not smart enough’ just because they are simply not doing as well in the classroom as their classmates are. Those kids often get left behind in the classroom because the majority of other kids are doing well enough with how the curriculum is traditionally taught. I think Hartford Performs programming and their teaching artists are very much visionaries and are shaping the way teachers and schools are beginning to approach the curriculum material.
What Hartford Performs does for students is not only special but also invaluable. They create programs where they helped kids further engage with the material by interacting with course material in a more creative form. Kids learn interpersonal skills, practice creative thinking, and engage with the curriculum through an arts lens. Teaching artists impact students to the extent that the kid in the class who “hate writing” won’t want to stop writing in the class during one of their programs. Programs like Hartford Peroms give me hope that there are people that care about kids learning experiences being improved so it reaches all different kinds of students in the classroom.
Levey:
Being the youngest of eight siblings, I was exposed to many different types of music from my earliest memories. From Gil Scot- Heron, Yusef Lateef, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Mathis, Van Halen so many, all just as beautiful. Beginning in the 5th grade when the music teacher came to our classroom asking if you wanted to play an instrument, I started playing the flute after growing up listening to Brian Williams and Yusef Lateef.
From the time I started playing the flute I had an urge to become more involved with the arts and by the sixth grade I made my first performance in “Melvin the Magnificent”. Just a mind-changing experience which led me into working in the library by the seventh grade because of my fixation on the production. I worked in the library, theater, and the studio until I graduated from Windsor High School.
Once married I introduced my children to the arts from the beginning of all of their lives. The arts allow children to expand their minds to another level. Children that may have behavioral issues or some types of learning disabilities certainly benefit from having another way to learn and process. I currently work with third and fourth graders and I pay extra attention to the arts to help students process and slow their thoughts down. This is a bonding time with many of my students for relaxation, reflection, and releasing of their thoughts is what I call it for my students.
The work that Hartford Performs is doing for the students of Hartford Public School is immeasurable for the students of this city. A school district that has taken so much education from our students, Hartford Performs steps in to link up many of the programs with the curriculum and place a value on the amount that the arts play into the everyday life of students.
Not having a stable arts program at this age is not benefiting many students and Hartford Performs has picked up the torch and continues to move the bar forward. I do hope that the Hartford School district releasing the importance of the arts in your impressional minds, Hartford Performs understands.