INTERARTS

Overview

Imagine students creating murals that convey concepts of empathy, respect, and tolerance based on current-day atrocities in the Balkans rather than reading a textbook lesson about war crimes. INTERARTS is a two-pronged program that offers both artist residencies and teacher professional development to improve the learning process by integrating literary, cultural, visual and performing arts into lesson plans. INTERARTS is different from other arts education programs because its focus is on student learning, rather than on producing a final performance or art exhibit.

Over the last 15 years the INTERARTS program has developed a strong curriculum of artists residencies and professional development workshops, but it is our goal to address the needs of an individual school. Therefore, INTERARTS teaching artists, along with IAHE staff will work with school administrators and teachers to identify their school's needs and develop a program, based on an existing lesson or an entirely new area, that addresses those needs.

To find out more about INTERARTS, e-mail Patricia Martinez at pmartinez@iahenj.org.

Program Benefits

For Students:

INTERARTS reaches students by engaging their senses. Students who learn visually, through sound and rhythm, kinesthetically, or conceptually become involved because they are working in a medium that reaches them and through which they can express themselves. Students are actively engaged and their creativity is stimulated. They are guided in relating their arts activities to classroom studies, enabling them to anchor learning while having fun.

Students succeed and self-esteem rises. During the process students learn skills that they practice while creating personal pieces of writing, dance, visual art, music or performance. In the safety of the INTERARTS setting, students dare to try new things and experience the rise in self-esteem that accompanies their success.

For Teachers:

Teachers learn new ways to teach basic skills. INTERARTS is most effective when teachers in all subject areas, at all grade levels, become involved in the process. Teachers who participate gain invaluable insight into other ways their students learn. They also become acquainted with new ways to present their subjects, and mechanisms for reaching students who learn through multiple means.

Professional Development Workshops

Offered in several formats, our INTERARTS Professional Development Workshops provide in-depth, learner-centered educational development opportunities for teachers, school administrators, and youth service providers. The strategies modeled in the workshops enable participants, of any grade level or discipline, to fully integrate a student-centered multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning. After engaging in hands-on arts and humanities activities, participants will be able to implement new "best practice" skills into their curriculum or program.

  • Interdisciplinary Learning - An Integrated Approach
  • Fine and Performing Arts Standards Training
  • Standards 101
  • Creative Teaching Techniques and Assessment
  • Team Building
  • Lessons in Tolerance
  • The Arts and Creativity -- Thematic Units
  • Developing an Arts Plan for a Community Program

INTERARTS Residencies

Planning and teacher preparation take place at the start of each INTERARTS residency. Classroom teachers, subject specialists and administrators all contribute to the planning process. The target population is identified, learning and experiential objectives are established, themes are chosen and project timetables are determined. INTERARTS artists then refine the theme and develop activities for the students.

  • Residencies-at-a-Glance
  • The Art of Invention
  • Folk Art of the Americas
  • Lessons in Tolerance
  • Global Villages
  • Legacies