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ARTS Welcomes Rayna Mathis, Seattle Public Schools Creative Advantage Project Manager! 

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By Tina LaPadula, Arts Education Manager

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) in its partnership with Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is pleased to welcome Rayna Mathis, the new SPS Creative Advantage project manager. The Creative Advantage Initiative is focused on putting artists in SPS to work with teaching artists and teachers to support equitable access to arts and arts education for every student in SPS. 

Rayna Mathis; Photo by Erin Hill

Mathis will be responsible for the implementation of The Creative Advantage vision and action plans for SPS. Currently ARTS, in partnership with SPS, is in 81 schools that have implemented The Creative Advantage program. She will also act as the liaison for partnerships between schools and community-based arts organizations, artists, and teaching artists and support SPS’s partnership with ARTS.  

Ashraf Hasham, ARTS Partnerships, Education, and Grants Manager, and Tina LaPadula, ARTS Arts Education Project Manager are responsible for ARTS’ Creative Advantage partnership with SPS. This new position lives within SPS’s Curriculum, Assessment & Instruction’s Visual & Performing Arts Program, and the School & Community Partnerships Department. It is an integral part of SPS’s partnership with ARTS and The Creative Advantage Implementation Team which includes, Gail Sehlhorst, SPS Visual + Performing Arts Manager, and Pam Ivezic, SPS Instructional Music Coach. 

About Rayna Mathis

Rayna Mathis is a graduate of the University of Washington with a BA in History. Her career has been dedicated and in service to Seattle’s arts and culture scene. She is committed to pushing the arts to be more equitable, empowering, and unapologetic. In 2018, she was awarded The Washington Art Education Association’s 2018 Outstanding New Art Educator of the Year.  

Join us in welcoming Rayna Mathis to The Creative Advantage Team! 

Anh Sy Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) Intern Explores The Creative Advantage Summer Online Arts

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By Anh Sy, SYEP Intern

About The Creative Advantage Online Arts (CAOA):

The Creative Advantage Online Arts videos were created as a swift pivot in response to COVID-19, with goals to support students and families during school closures, as well as to support teaching artists who had been contracted to lead school day residencies. CAOA includes videos of diverse teaching styles and artistic disciplines as teaching artists share tutorials on breakdancing, paper crafts, African dance and drumming, and more.

We asked our SYEP intern, Anh, to engage in some of the CAOA videos, make art, and share what she learned in the process. Take a peek at her reflections below!

Overall, I realized that when I watched these videos, I usually focused and really listened to what the instructors or teaching artists were talking about and trying to show. Sometimes, I watched the videos and also followed the instructions along with them at the same time. Watching these videos, following instructions, and doing the same thing as the artists in the videos gave me a feeling that I was learning virtually or even was in the same learning space/room as the artists.

Poetry – “Remember…” with Shelby Handler

This video helped me define myself — let me know who I am, who I want to become, and what type of person I want to be. When I grow up, will I be tall or short? Will I be wise enough to accept every immediate incident that’s unexpected? Will I be able to resolve every problem wisely? Where did I get my strange shape of nose and mind? Will I be a doctor — help people and my community to improve their health and my family’s health? Or will I be an engineer — spend the whole day with a computer? Or will I be working in an office? What type of person will I become? Who will I become? I am a person that is always confused and curious about the world. I will be myself so that even whatever would happen to my life that I can’t know, and even don’t expect, I will still be calm to face it.

Paper Lanterns with Amaranta Sandys

This was fun and entertaining! I enjoyed doing this art project by following Amaranta Sandys’ instructions. I made a lantern as a form of joy and decoration that will bring more light and color to my house.

Anh’s Paper Lanterns

Observational Imagination Drawing with Maria Valdovinos

I enjoyed learning new ways of drawing by using my observation and imagination to create a new type of artwork.

Paper Butterflies with Maria Valdovinos

It reminded me of one of the origami lessons I learned in my home country as a subject — making paper butterflies — and also one of the motivations that inspired me to create art and work in the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Anh’s Paper Butterfly

African Dance + Drum – Che Che Koolay with Sumayya E. Diop

I enjoyed learning a new music style from Western Africa with Sumayya — this is a kind of song that sings about a person, about someone in your family, or a friend, etc., with very simple lyrics, melody, and dance.

Drawing an Isometric Grid with Amina Quraishi

I enjoyed learning a new art style with Amina — a different type of drawing with patterns. By using triangles and an Isometric grid, I can create many different shapes and artworks on a piece of paper. It could be a 2D artwork of a pattern or a 3D simple project on a piece of paper.

Anh’s Isometric Grid

Paper Pinwheels with Amaranta Sandys

I enjoyed making art! I had a toy and it reminded me of another of my childhood memories, pinwheels!

Anh’s Pinwheel Made from Paper and a Pencil

Papel Picado with Maria Valdovinos

I had a fun and satisfying time making paper blossoms and creating art with Maria! Through this video lesson and creative process, I also learned about the structure of flowers, and wanted to create artworks in different ways. Although I didn’t have enough materials to do all the blossoms that Maria instructed in the video, I still enjoyed the process of it.

Anh’s Paper Flower

Portraiture Using Color with Janet Fagan

I enjoyed creating my own portrait project. Although I was not very satisfied with the result, it was worth it to spend some time learning and exploring new things and using pieces of colors to portray myself on paper.

Anh’s Portrait Created From Colorful Pieces of Paper

Tools and Tricks for Drawing Portraits with Janet Fagan

I finally learned how to draw and sketch a portrait of myself, which I thought is the hardest part of drawing art. So amazing!

Anh’ Self-Portrait

Percussion with Aaron Walker-Loud (Challenge 2)

Drum or Percussion is another style of art and music, and I got to know about different rudiment patterns, rhythms, and the “feel” (straight and swing). It broadened my perspective and knowledge about drumming and music!

Watch More CAOA Videos

The Creative Advantage Summer Institute Returns Live & In-Person

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By Tina LaPadula, Arts Education Project Manager

The Creative Advantage Summer Institute returns in-person to the Seattle Art Museum on Thursday, August 18, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. This day of professional learning is the creative kick-off to the 2022-23 school year, and a time for teachers, teaching artists, community arts partners, arts administrators, and education leaders to reconvene, get inspired, and explore new collaborations.

The event features members of The Creative Advantage Community Arts Partner Roster and includes panels, workshops, networking, student performances, lunch, and clock hours. The event is FREE, but registration is required.

The Creative Advantage is a leader in working with partners to imbed artists in Seattle Public Schools programs. Artists working with arts educators create diverse arts opportunities to keep meaningful art experiences available to our young people. Together we build One Seattle through the arts!

royal alley-barnes, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Interim Director
Register Now

Program Highlights

  • Workshops from all featured organizations highlighting four different artistic disciplines:
    • Theatre for Personal + Collective Empowerment with Red Eagle Soaring (RES) is a workshop that will focus on the personal and collective empowerment of our Red Eagle Soaring performing arts-related activities, the importance of bringing storytelling to the forefront of our holistic and educational growth mindset, and keeping that part of us vibrant throughout our lives. This workshop will be led by RES Program Manager Nicole Suyama (Inupiaq) and RES youth Olivia Vann & Sophia Vann (Cherokee) + Isaac Benally-Brooks (So. Cheyenne/Dine’/Nakota).
    • The Rhapsody Project’s interactive Layers of Heritage workshop will provide participants with activities and tools that help people of all backgrounds explore the layers of their identity and root themselves more fully in their status as a culture bearer. By sharing and discussing different elements that compose a person’s heritage — whether it be one’s ethnicity, the land or community that we are raised in, or the traditions we are drawn to absorb — participants will celebrate or express themselves in musical and written formats.
    • Dance For All is a workshop that provides a vibrant exchange with Spectrum Dance Theater artists and instructors. Open to movers of all ages and skill levels, Dance For All participants will explore dance as a medium for self-expression and social connection. Centering on the work of Spectrum Dance Theater and Donald Byrd, students will engage in a physical exploration of dance as an art form and as a social civic tool.
    • Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) with Seattle Art Museum is an art teaching philosophy in which students learn to think like artists. The TAB philosophy states that the child is the artist and the classroom is the artist’s studio. During this session, educators will discuss how to inspire and guide youth in connecting with artworks in the galleries and developing their craft. This workshop will be co-facilitated by Yaoyao Liu and teaching artist, Alicia Betty.
Seattle JazzED
The Rhapsody Project

A special thank you to Masao Yamada and the incredible young artists from Ground Zero (GZ) Radio, who will be on-site collaborating with The Creative Advantage on media coverage for the entire event.

Meet the Facilitators

Russell Brooks (So. Cheyenne) is the Executive Director of Red Eagle Soaring in Seattle. Russell grew up in Montana and is a former radio disc jockey, and is also a filmmaker and co-founder/board member of the Olympia Film Collective. Russell also works with band promotion and booking, and arts & cultural space preservation. Russell is passionate about continuing to create opportunities for Native artists and actors in the performing arts, as well as for Native storytellers to unleash their creativity across mediums, blending opportunities to tell their stories and finding the necessary support to bring their vision to the greater public, as well as collaborating with artists in the greater community. 

Nicole Suyama (Inupiaq) is the RES Program Manager and an Alum of RES, having been with the organization since age 11. Nicole is a musician, actor, director, teaching artist, and also the reigning World Karaoke Tour North American Champion. 

Joe Seamons is a musician and teacher who co-founded The Rhapsody Project with Ben Hunter in 2013. Through exploring his local heritage of Pacific Northwest folk music and lore, and the troubled history of prejudice therein, Joe’s work as a songster and teacher fused with his commitment to agitate for social justice. A descendant of the Aurora Colony in Oregon, Joe continues to explore the ways in which his personal heritage connects him to the legacy of that region. In shedding light on the songs and stories that have been preserved, as well as those that have been forgotten or suppressed, Joe works with his partners in the Rhapsody Project to harness the power of roots music to create empathy and equity. When he’s not performing with Ben Hunter, Joe plays with his Portland-based band Timberbound. 

Stephanie Guiland, originally from NYC, danced for Donald Byrd/The Group, Complexions on Broadway in Oprah Winfrey’s The Color Purple as the Dance Captain and Swing, and for Disney’s The Lion King. Her performance background also includes music videos and commercial dance work touring the U.S. and Europe. She served as Mr. Byrd’s Rehearsal Director for his company, his assistant on numerous projects for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and assisted with equity workshops for The Color Purple on Broadway and White Noise. Working with youth, she’s instructed for Dance Theater of Harlem’s Dancing Through Barriers program, Disney’s Lion King Cub School, WRArts, and in Arts in Education. Prior to relocating to Washington in 2020, she was a summer faculty member for the Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary program for five years and worked for the Bounce Summer Intensive in NYC. She was an Adjunct Dance Professor at Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY for nine years and is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer with numerous certifications. Her passion project aside from her main one — raising a beautiful child — is her fitness company, Kick My Assets. She joined The School of Spectrum Dance Theater as its School Director in 2021.

Yaoyao Liu is the Manager of School & Educator Programs at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). She joined SAM in 2018 as the Museum Educator for the Seattle Asian Art Museum, creating resources and programs for students, educators, and families. Yaoyao earned her BA in English with a minor in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Michigan and her MA in International Studies from the University of Washington. Outside of SAM, she serves as Volunteer Manager for the Seattle Asian American Film Festival, fostering youth involvement with filmmaking and community building.

Alicia Betty is a local artist who has been affiliated with the Seattle Art Museum since 2008, teaching both students pre-K-12 and educators in the classroom, in workshops, and at special events. Born and raised in Seattle, they hold a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in drawing and painting from the University of Washington. Their current Xerox collage-based prints reflect their involvement in the punk and queer community over the past 20 years. In addition to being an artist and craftsman, they are a 35mm film projectionist and are committed to preserving physical media as they work at Scarecrow Video Archives.

Aaron Walker-Loud is an artist, band director, composer, producer, and educator. He is the founder and director of Big World Breaks (B.W.B.), a production company built for performance, studio and education, that has shared stages with Janelle Monae, Kool DJ Red Alert, Digable Planets, DJ Qbert, Macklemore, Reggie Watts, Saul Williams, and many more. B.W.B. has also produced live show backing for various artists such as Grammy-nominated vocalists Wayna and Rocky Dawuni, Sy Smith, Zo!, Dynamq, Choklate, Kimberly Nichole, Massive Monkees, and Xperience. Aaron is a proud alumni of the CD Music Factory: Washington Middle School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Robert Knatt, and Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble / Drumline, under the direction of Mr. Clarence Acox. Walker-Loud began working with youth and families in 1999, eventually becoming the Education Director for Seattle JazzED (2010-2016), a teaching artist for Arts Corps (2008-present), as well as the drumline director for Washington Middle School (2008-2016) and O’Dea High School (2012-2018). Most recently, Walker-Loud became a member of The Creative Advantage roster, co-founded 50 Next: Seattle Hip-Hop Worldwide in 2012, founded the award-winning intergenerational BWB Drumline in 2015, and co-curated The Legacy of Seattle Hip-Hop exhibit at MOHAI (with over 31,000 attendees and 20 co-produced events), which won the 2016 American Association of State and Local History Leadership in History Award, “the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.”

A Recap of The Creative Advantage’s Artful Solidarity for Arts Education

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By Tina LaPadula
All Photos by Chloe Collyer

After 2 long, challenging years, The Creative Advantage hosted its first in-person event for Seattle Public School teachers and community arts partners on Saturday, April 30, at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM).

Artful Solidarity for Arts Education kicked off with a collective performance from 5 Youth Speaks Seattle poets who performed a piece with a justice-themed take on the Pledge of Allegiance.

Throughout the event, arts educators and community partners alike experienced: updates from The Creative Advantage team; words of encouragement and thanks from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s (ARTS) Acting Director, royal alley-barnes; a keynote by Donte Felder, Executive Director of South End Stories; art-making “solidarity tracks” responding to images from SAM’s current exhibition, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, led by Nabra Nelson, Director of Arts Engagement at Seattle Rep; music with Orlando Morales, Director of Arts Engagement at The 5th Avenue Theatre; and visual art with Yaoyao Liu, Manager of School & Educator Programs at Seattle Art Museum.

After much time spent in virtual meetings and workshop spaces, it brought us collective joy to come together to celebrate our creative resilience, create art, and seed new possibilities that are yet to come.

Save the Date

The Creative Advantage Summer Institute will be held in person on August 18, 2022.

The Creative Advantage is a program of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) in partnership with Seattle Public Schools, the Seattle Foundation, and community arts partners.  For more information, please visit The Creative Advantage website or contact Arts Education Project Manager, Tina LaPadula, at tina.lapadula@seattle.gov.

The Creative Advantage Welcomes Gabriel-Bello Díaz, the New Seattle Public Schools Creative Advantage Project Manager

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Written by Tina LaPadula

The Creative Advantage implementation team is thrilled to have Gabriel as part of our initiative to establish equitable access to arts education for every student in Seattle Public Schools (SPS). Gabriel joins forces with visual and performing arts leaders Gail Sehlhorst and Pam Iveciz at Seattle Public Schools as well as Seattle Office of Arts & Culture colleagues Tina LaPadula and Ashraf Hasham to steer the collective work. 

He will project manage from the district side of things and oversee the implementation of SPS arts vision and action plans in Creative Advantage schools; act as a liaison for partnerships between schools and community-based arts organizations and teaching artists; support the partnership with Seattle Office of Arts and Culture including communications and advocacy, grants, advisory groups, and initiative evaluation; and plan for future expansion to other schools and strategies for systems-wide change to expand arts learning to every student at every school. This position lives within SPS’s Curriculum, Assessment & Instruction’s Visual & Performing Arts Program and the School & Community Partnerships Department.

About Gabriel:

Gabriel-Bello Díaz is a Puerto Rican artist and educator born in London and grew up in New Jersey outside of Philadelphia. He began his academic career in architectural engineering and founded his first company before graduating in 2006 for subcontracting in architectural drafting in Boston MA. He later continued his education with a Master in Robotic Engineering from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona Spain, which pivoted his focus towards instructional education. His work in robotics was published in over a dozen books, which led to his consistency in developing research workshops, seminars and classes for University of Michigan, University of Sydney, Carnegie Mellon and other universities before his move to Seattle. Here he honed in on his experience through higher academics, his expertise in STEM and digital fabrication, and his love for teaching which brought him to Technical Access Foundation where he was the CTE Engineering teacher for 6th – 12th grade.

After fostering such dynamic and creative classrooms, he began to dive into the administrative side of supporting innovative curriculum and programming that was directly responsive to the culture of his students and the community of these schools. His goal is to continue uplifting educational spaces with resources and ways to bring the learning experience out of the classroom. Most recently he was the Youth and Teen Program Manager at Pratt Fine Arts Center. Gabriel is looking forward to bringing all of these experiences to Seattle Public Schools and The Creative Advantage. 

The Creative Advantage ALL ACCESS Arts Stream WINTER SESSION is open for enrollment

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This 6-week Winter Session of online classes for new and returning elementary-aged youth runs Wednesday, January 19 through Saturday, March 5, 2022.   

This project is a continued collaboration between Parks and Recreation, Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle Public Schools, and Creative Advantage Arts Partners, this program started as a pandemic pilot in December 2020 and grew into classes last spring.  

These free classes are led in real-time by master-level teaching artists and take place after school and on Saturdays. Students must enroll through the Seattle Parks & Recreation online ActiveNet registration system to receive the secure class Webex links to participate from their homes, community centers, and housing sites.   

Sign up the young artists you know through the links below, and help us spread the word about this amazing free arts learning opportunity. 

Magic Words & Magic Powers with Jay Thompson 
Jan 19 – Mar 2, 2022;  Wednesdays 5 – 6 p.m.

Poetry can be a great tool for grounding youth in the power of imagination and language and inviting them to find new magic in everyday life. Teaching artist Jay Thompson of Seattle Arts & Lectures’ WITS program will invite students to use their five senses, explore their homes, play with words, and delight themselves with their poems.   

Meet the Teaching Artist

Jay (he/they) is a Seattle poet, parent, and teaching artist working with youth and adults at Writers in the Schools, Hugo House, and King County Jail. 

Learn More

Virtual Dancing our Natural World with Ciara McCormack 
Jan 20 – Mar 3, 2022; Thursdays 5 – 6 p.m.
Great for students in grades 2-4  

Movement can share and express what you know, think, and feel. Join Pacific Northwest Ballet teaching artist Ciara McCormack to explore using nature and our physical world as inspiration for movement. 

Meet the Teaching Artist 

Ciara (she/her) has worked with students of all ages in dance studios, theaters, and schools in the US and Chile. Along with teaching for PNB’s Community Education program, she directs Moving Minds Dance, performs with Intrepidus Dance, and serves as the President of the Dance Educators Association of Washington.  

Learn More

Virtual Pop-up Books and Paper Magic with Jiéyì Ludden
Jan 22 – Mar 5, 2022; Saturdays 10 -11a.m.  
Great for students in grades 3-6  

Learn how to cut and fold paper to create 2D and 3D shapes with teaching artist Jiéyì Ludden of Arts Corps. Together, you’ll explore design strategies, crafting, and storytelling in an inclusive environment.  

Meet the Teaching Artist 

Jiéyì 杰意 (they/them) is a visual artist, illustrator, and teaching artist. They have developed visual arts and arts-integrated STEM, maker, and civic engagement curriculum for the Madison Children’s Museum, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Madison Public Library, Pacific Science Center, and the Seattle Public Library. 

Learn More

Celebrating Audrey Querns, The Creative Advantage Project Manager

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After nine years of work with the Seattle Public School’s arts plan and The Creative Advantage, Audrey Querns is transitioning from her role as The Creative Advantage Project Manager to a new exciting Seattle Public Schools (SPS) project. Audrey will join Assistant Deputy Superintendents Carri Campbell and Sarah Pritchett as the Senior Project Manager of SPS’s new Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness. The team’s first project will be to help coordinate the many cross-functional groups working on the fall Return to School. She was asked to join this new department to carry forward the collaborative and systematic approaches we take in The Creative Advantage into other cross-division SPS projects and initiatives.

As the project manager for The Creative Advantage, Audrey managed the SPS aspects of the collaboration with City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture partners, school leaders, teachers, teaching artists, and arts administrators to ensure that every student has access to a high-quality and culturally relevant arts education. Through that collective effort, The Creative Advantage has expanded to more than 80 schools — the number of music and art programs has more than doubled — and in tandem, schools have developed their arts plans using a racial equity arts dashboard. Audrey has utilized that collective impact approach in managing other SPS partner-oriented projects such as vaccinations for educators and students and planning for long-term partnerships with Seattle Housing Authority and Seattle Public Library.

“Audrey is incredibly detail-oriented, persistent, and dedicated to ensuring that all students are seen, heard, and supported. She is gracious in her approach to sharing information, and always strives to understand both sides of a problem before proposing a solution.”

Pam Ivezic, SPS Music Coach
Ashraf Hasham and Audrey Querns of The Creative Advantage

“Not only is Audrey the epitome of cool, calm, and collected — she’s also an optimistic, joyful, and justice-minded do-gooder who I’m grateful to have worked with. Audrey’s pristine project management and influence are a big part of the reason why The Creative Advantage has shone so brightly. We’re delighted she’ll be able to infuse creativity, access, and equity into her new work at SPS!”

Ashraf Hasham, Youth Arts Manager for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture

Gail Sehlhorst, SPS’s Visual & Performing Arts Manager, will be hiring a new Creative Advantage Project Manager, and Audrey has offered to assist with the transition to train the new staff member. Stay tuned for updates, and please join us in showing congratulatory love and appreciation for Audrey in the comments.

Art Kits for Seattle Public School Students

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While in a remote learning setting, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and partners across the city have been persistent in getting art supplies to schools and students. SPS and The Creative Advantage led a massive effort to ensure students have the art materials they need.  

SPS has worked with many partners to make this possible, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Seattle Department of Education & Early Learning, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and the Seattle Seahawks through the donation they made to The Creative Advantage last spring. 

“It’s critical that students are validated and affirmed through art materials that allow them to express, explore, connect, and deepen their learning,” Gail Sehlhorst, Visual and Performing Arts Manager for SPS said. “This pandemic is rough on all of us and this project has brought so many institutions and people together — it’s been a bright spot — and we are so very grateful.” 

In some schools, our amazing visual arts educators also collected and distributed supplies from their own classrooms to make sure their students had what they needed to continue learning in a remote setting. As a result, the district will be able to purchase art materials for every school with students enrolled in visual arts courses. 

“Access to high quality arts materials is a matter of equity,” said Ashraf Hasham, Youth Arts Manager for the Office of Arts & Culture. “I’m so proud of this City and all of its players for coming together to meet this need, and that these ‘arts kits’ can be incorporated with the Teen Hubs, our Online Arts videos we created this past Spring, and our synchronous after-school arts education opportunities we’re cooking up for this coming Winter.” 

This effort will serve approximately 25,000 students across the district with art kits. Providing important invest in the of arts and creativity so that students can to continue learning with quality art materials while at home. 

“One of DEEL’s top priorities during this period of remote learning is to support students’ social-emotional needs and ensure that they are able to connect and engage in meaningful ways while learning remotely, especially for our students of color and those furthest from educational justice.” said DEEL Director Dwane Chappelle. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Office of Arts and Culture in this effort to enhance student engagement and participation through the arts. Supporting the Creative Advantage at our SBI schools and providing arts materials to students participating in Teen Hubs are great ways to encourage student creativity and care for their social and emotional wellbeing.” 

The art kits may include a variety of materials, depending on the school or course, such as markers, erasers, pipe cleaners, colored pencils, sharpies, sketchbooks, scissors, paints and paintbrushes, glue sticks, crayons, and different papers like colorful construction paper, card stock, non-lined paper, and more. At one school, local restaurant Pagliacci Pizza even donated pizza boxes to hold all the supplies for students. 

Thank you to all of our partners that worked together to make this possible and for our visual arts educators for assembling and distributing the kits to their students. It truly was a team effort to serve all SPS students, especially those furthest from educational justice. During this time of uncertainty, it’s important to give students ways to express themselves through the arts, even while learning from home. 

Learn more about visual and performing arts at Seattle Public Schools. 

How arts education made an impact at two alternative high schools serving BIPOC unstably housed youth in Southeast Seattle 2018-2020

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In The CYD Secondary Arts Project, a two year pilot program, Seattle Public Schools and The Creative Advantage specifically designed arts programming to reach and engage high school communities who were unstably housed or unsheltered. In 2018, ARTS received funding through the Human Services Department (and the endorsement of the Mayor’s Innovation Team) to provide high quality and culturally-relevant arts to chronicle the role of arts and creative youth development approaches to boost school attendance, classroom engagement, and matriculation.  

ARTS partnered with two schools, Southeast Interagency High School (87% BIPOC students and 30% of total enrolled students self-reported being unstably housed) and South Lake High School (where there are nearly 100% BIPOC students, of which 50% are unstably housed). Future iterations of the program will include the Seattle World School, which is 100% recent immigrant and refugee youths and at least 30% reported in recent years as being unstably housed.  

The program engaged a number of community arts partners including WeAPP, a speech writing and public speaking program, The Acting Lab (created and taught by Steve Sneed), where students learn the fundamentals of theater, and Print 4 Life (created and taught by Greg Thornton), a program that teaches students the mechanics of screen printing and gives students first-hand experience with entrepreneurship. Local government agencies beyond the arts sector are recognizing the importance of the arts in reaching harder to reach vulnerable communities. 

To tell the impact story of this partnership, we collaborated in the data collection to share the social impact that these programs had on aggregate with our young people, without stigmatizing the individual youth’s circumstances themselves. We conducted interviews at all levels of administration, teaching artists, youths; shared light anonymous paper surveys; and examined the creative works that emerged over the course of this two year pilot. In other words – we wanted to tell a story not just with GPA and graduate rates – but a more holistic account of what we observed, knowing that our programs allowed young people to tell their own stories, boosted their engagement in the classroom, and allowed them to access creative marketplaces with their wares. 

Young people also gained close knit relationships with their BIPOC teaching artists, brimmed with excitement over the culturally-relevant teaching and learning assignments, and used their artwork to channel grief and trauma that is an ongoing part of the circumstances of navigating economic uncertainty and houselessness, and at times, street violence and loss of life.   

The pivot to online learning due to COVID-19 during the Governor’s Stay at Home orders brought significant challenge to both teachers and our evaluation process, but all of this is documented to the best of our knowledge in our follow up addendum. To review other research on arts education visit our research section here.

This series of papers was written by Hannah Curtis, University of Washington, sociology doctoral student, who is currently also a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow hired as a consultant, with significant contribution from Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar, PhD, and Tina LaPadula, employees at the City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. We are grateful to our SPS partners at all levels, community arts partners, and the young people for being so giving of their time. Thank you to HSD for their financial partnership and the Mayor’s Innovation and Performance Team, for support in arranging this pilot partnership.  

The Creative Advantage All Access Arts Streaming December Workshops

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The Creative Advantage has been hard at work this Fall exploring ways to ensure students can still access arts learning from community partners despite limited online school schedules. Intentionally blurring the lines between ‘in-school’ and ‘out-of-school’ time, we present Creative Advantage ALL ACCESS Arts Stream (CAAAAS): high-quality, accessible, family-friendly, *synchronous* arts education in the after-school space. 

This December, we’re kicking off CAAAAS with four workshops with four different teaching artists from PNB, Arts Corps, TeenTix, and SAL’s WITS program. Registration is open now! Plus – all registrants for these December workshops will get a free screen-printed, youth-designed face mask from The Vera Project! 

Please note: a link to WebEx for the class will be in your email, two days prior to class.

Image designed by Garfield HS student Ilah Walker, @/ilahwalkerart

Later this Winter, these same teaching artists (+ more!) will be invited to cook up multi-week virtual residencies for longer-term engagement to build community + keep our creative juices flowing as we emerge from the darker months of the new year. 

Workshops + Descriptions 

 Poetry – The Magic in Our Special Places w/ Jay Thompson of WITS 

Wednesday, Dec. 16, 3 – 4:30 p.m.

Headshot of Jay Thompson
Jay Thompson

Registration, Seattle Parks & Recreation ActiveNet Class Code: #40924
Grades 2-5
In a time of disruption and confinement, poetry can be a great tool for grounding youth in what is magical and unique about a space they love. Teaching artist Jay Thompson of Seattle Arts & Lectures’ WITS program will guide students to see home through fresh eyes or imaginatively evoke a distant place using their five senses, their memory, and their observational powers.

Teen Night w/ TeenTix 

Thursday, Dec. 17, 6 – 7:30 p.m. 

A dancer stands with their arms bound as if in a strait jacket, wrapped with face masks from shoulders to calves. All around them, more face masks are scattered on the floor.
Spectrum Dance Theater’s Lyric Suite, choreographed by Donald Byrd

Registration, Seattle Parks & Recreation ActiveNet Class Code: #40925
Grades 8 and up
Hosted by young folx from TeenTix and teaching artist Alethea Alexander, this virtual Teen Night includes a screening of a performance from a local arts organization and a facilitated conversation and reflection activity on what you just saw. An opportunity for teens to continue to experience amazing local performances and connect!

Dancing Our Natural World w/ PNB’s Adriana Hernandez-Wright 

Friday, Dec. 18, 3 – 4:30 p.m.

Adriana poses with her left arm pushed against a wooden beam.
Adriana Hernandez-Wright

Registration, Seattle Parks & Recreation ActiveNet Class Code: #40926
Grades 2-4 
Movement can share and express what you know, think, and feel. Join teaching artist Adriana Hernandez-Wright of Pacific Northwest Ballet in using nature and our physical world as inspiration for movement.

Pop-Up Books and Paper Magic w/ Jiéyì Ludden of Arts Corps

Saturday, Dec. 19, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Books with colorful dragons, cats, flowers and snakes popping out.
Examples of pop-up books

Registration, Seattle Parks & Recreation ActiveNet Class Code: #40927
Grades 3-6
Learn how to cut and fold paper to create 2D and 3D shapes with teaching artist Jiéyì Ludden of Arts Corps. Together, you’ll explore design strategies, crafting, and storytelling in an inclusive environment.

Building upon the Creative Advantage Online Arts videos commissioned this past Spring, the goal of CAAAAS is to ensure Seattle’s youth and families have access to teaching artists and organizations on our Community Arts Partner Roster. 

These free, city-wide, youth and family opportunities are spearheaded by The Creative Advantage in a massive collective partnership with Seattle Parks & Recreation (SPR), Seattle Public Library (SPL), Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL), and Seattle Together. In addition, The Vera Project is providing support in working with young people to integrate youth-made music, graphic design, screen-printed facemasks, and streaming support.