Berkeley Rep, Freight & Salvage, Kala Art Institute, and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center Implement Summer Arts Immersion Program

Leaders from Berkeley Rep, Freight & Salvage, Kala Art Institute, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, City of Berkeley's Civic Arts Program and Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) Extended Learning Program have announced a new two-week summer arts immersion program.

Through support from Berkeley Public School Funds, and The California Arts Council, 330 elementary school students enrolled in BUSD's summer program will receive hands-on theater, visual arts, dance, and music learning experiences at no cost from July 12 through 23. The program will be held at three BUSD elementary sites (Washington, Silvia Mendez, and Rosa Parks schools) where BUSD's summer school and summer programs are taking place.

Grants for the immersion program were obtained by the Berkeley Civic Art Program in partnership with the four arts organizations and BUSD's Extended Learning Program, as part of the implementation of the City of Berkeley's Arts and Culture Plan. A goal of the Summer Art Immersion program is to provide equitable access to high quality and culturally relevant arts learning experiences for Berkeley public school students who are currently enrolled in BUSD's summer session.

"We are excited to partner with Berkeley arts providers to offer our students multiple arts experiences this summer," said Aaron Jorgenson, Program Supervisor of Extended Learning for BUSD. This past school year brought on a lot of change and trauma for our students and these experiences will provide joy, fun, and healing."

The Art Immersion Program includes four workshops in one arts discipline for each student-Berkeley Rep's Kimiya Shorki will use an ensemble and improvisation method to dramatize a story, Jamey Williams & Bryan Dyer of Freight & Salvage will lead spoken word and music. Korea Venters from Shawl-Anderson Dance Center will explore multiple dance forms (hip-hop, modern, and creative movement). In addition, Kala Art Institute's Jocelyn Jones will explore storytelling and narrative art through mixed media visual art activities. The content taught by these artists is aligned with the art-making they do professionally in the Bay Area, and these teaching artists all share the approach of integrating creative exploration with discipline-specific skill-building and are committed to centering youth creative voices.