Submitted by the DC Collaborative Team 8/28/2020

On Thursday, August 27, Mary Lambert of DCPS Arts joined the DC Collaborative Team and 70 members of the arts and humanities education community of practice to give an update on the virtual start of the school year. Mary gave updates regarding: the school environment, logistical priorities to keep in mind with distance learning program design, background check policies and other relevant updates from the DCPS Arts team including Visual Art and Music ACE Fellows, Arts education data collection and art/ music supply distribution. View the meeting recording below for more information.

Background Check Updates

In an effort to ensure the safety and protection of all parties, and in compliance with DC Public School system, providers and/or anyone else directly interacting (i.e. - shared audio, visual and/or chat between providers and participants) with students through their programs for more than a one-time event will be required to complete a background check through DCPS.

Background check clearance is not needed if it is a live-streamed event with no direct student interaction (students hidden from view from presenter) OR a one-time event, fully supervised by a DCPS employee, with student interaction. For members who are part of the DC Collaborative’s Arts and Humanities for Every Student program, the DC Collaborative will not allow any programs to proceed without proper background check and clearances approved and verified by DC Collaborative staff.

Meeting Resources

Meeting Recording

DCPS Arts Website- https://www.artsdcps.com/

DCPS Connected Schools: https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-connected-schools

DCPS Clearance Website

Fieldprint Background Checks Partnership- https://www.fieldprintdc.com/

DC Collaborative Distance Learning Resource Database

AHFES Provider Orientation RSVP Link

Collective Impact Mapping Project Information

Submitted by the DC Collaborative Team 4/10/2020

Meeting Links Resources

DCPS Youtube Channel

Pulitzer Center Education Website

Pulitzer Center PowerPoint - Community of Practice Zoom Chat

DC Collaborative Distance Learning Resource Database

DC Collaborative Website

Virtual Convenings Archive, includes recordings of each session

Monday, 4/6/20: Arts Education Update from DCPS Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities

Commission on the Arts and Humanities Update, David Markey, Interim Senior Grants Officer and Arts Education Manager

CAH is attempting to move forward with “business as usual” while attempting to accommodate the needs of organizations in a changing time April 17th the interim reports are due. The FY21 grants should be announced in May.

DCPS Arts Updates, Mary Lambert, Director of Arts, DCPS

DCPS announced that Digital Device support has been expanded and will be provided to all grade levels, including laptops and access to wifi and hotspot support. An update on the timeline is forthcoming.

DCPS Arts discussed a funding opportunity from Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. DCPS launched videos for all the grade levels on DC TV and some lessons will be featured on a new DCPS Youtube channel. DCPS Arts is looking for more Teaching artists for the videos and Washington Performing Arts are partnering with DCPS Arts to hire teaching artists. 

If organizations have video content, Mary instructed them to post it on the DC Collaborative website or send it to Mary via email- [email protected].

Mary also shared that DCPS curricular content areas were instructed to write curriculum for the last 6 weeks. 

Monitoring Impact and Participation

Mary said that monitoring participation is not centralized in DCPS as not all schools are completing attendance. For those who are fully online they are using CANVAS + Microsoft Teams because educators can see which students logged in, for how long and how much they participated. Younger grades have a higher engagement rate than older grades.

Tuesday, 4/7/20: Open Forum: Self Care for Parents and Caregivers

Cynthia Gertsen (Ford’s Theatre), Michelle Hoffmann (Washington Performing Arts) and Jeanette McCune (Arts Education Professional) led the participants in a discussion around self care and work / life balance in a time when they are  home schooling their children when they themselves are working harder than ever to ensure that distance learning is happening locally in DC, nationally and in some cases internationally. 

In educating your children from home, Jeanette and Cynthia both expressed challenges in home schooling children with special needs.  Recognizing that children’s needs are diverse, flexibility and more time being present is needed. Juxtaposed with this sentiment, the group also discussed that the workload seems heavier and it is harder to step away from work while they are at home.

To mitigate the anxiety and stress call participants discussed taking regular breaks, defining space in your home where the family could sit together and “go to work together” and then leave it and shut everything off, creating family check lists, taking long walks, meditation and most importantly giving grace to yourself and your other family members. This is an unprecedented time where people in our communities (and globally) are experiencing anxiety and fears. The message of the day was yourself permission to let go of the perfection and recognize that this is not a normal situation.

We also chatted about the inequities and how educators were responsible for the education of their children and all of their students when students may not even have access to the online lessons. 

Next steps include: plan an educator self care session as well as a parent self care session focused on residents in every ward in the District.

Wednesday, 4/8/20: Teaching Artist/ Practitioner Open Forum

Wednesdays are for teaching artists and practitioners! A dedicated group of individual artists and teaching artist came together to share ideas and brainstorm about how to balance our self care and need to adapt for Distance Learning. We discussed resources and grants that were out there for individual artists. A few practitioners also expressed the challenges of keeping their work of high quality while adjusting to digital mediums and the need to share guidance on affordable ways to enhance the production quality of of our virtual workshops.

Next Steps include:

Compiling a resource list for teaching artists and practitioners

Offering a “Tech Tuesday” workshop where Devin Walker of the Uncle Devin Show will share his affordable tricks and tips to enhance the production quality of Distance Learning programs.

Thursday, 4/9/20: Community Practice Zoom Chat Featuring Fareed Moustoufi, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

On Thursday we heard from Fareed Moustoufi of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting! Fareed shared Pulitzer's education programs, including the online Lesson Builder and the Everyday DC project, and how Pulitzer pivoted their programs for distance learning. 

The Pulitzer Center’s education mission is to cultivate a more curious, informed, empathetic, and engaged public by connecting students and teachers with under-reported global news stories and the journalists who cover them. To that end the provide Thousands of articles, photos, and videos on under-reported issues; Lesson plans and student contests; Virtual journalist visits; Workshops for students and teachers. They are passionate about storytelling and use tools that journalism provides to inspire a more informed and empathetic society.

Puitzer Center’s education team has done thousands of virtual classroom visits from journalists all over the world, pre-COVID-19. Learn from Fareed about their how they’ve shifted their focus and some tips and tricks to setting up a virtual classroom. View the PowerPoint and the Meeting Recording.

Contact Fareed at [email protected] He loves to partner and brainstorm ideas!

Friday, 4/10/20: Distance Learning for Students with Special Needs

Clarissa opened the floor for special education teachers to talk about their experiences with distance learning. Teachers talked about the limitations of distance learning, specifically how teachers are limited to working with students visually. Distance learning does not allow for observations, hand-over-hand, or tactile learning methods. Students, parents, and teachers are frustrated by these limitations. 

How can the arts community help? 

The response from the educators was: more videos and art therapy resources to bring to parents. The community discussed the importance of engaging parents/ caregivers and meeting them where they're at. The group also brainstormed using art therapy techniques as a way to mitigate parent, student, and teacher stress. 

Next Steps Include: 

Submitted by: Tracey Wyton, DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative July 30, 2018

The DC Collaborative is thrilled to serve as the backbone support organization for Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child Washington, DC (AGC DC). Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child is a collective impact program that assists communities in developing and implementing a plan for expanded arts education in their schools, ensuring access and equity for all students in grades preK-12. This program is nationally facilitated by of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The DC Collaborative was an equal partner with other participants but had a critical role as the backbone support organization of this collective impact initiative in liaising between the Kennedy Center facilitators and the community and took a leadership role during strategic planning meetings. Read more about the Collaborative’s role in our Collective Impact FAQ sheet.

The focus of AGC DC during the 2017-2018 school year was strategic planning with a Community Arts Team (CAT) comprised of 30 representatives from the Mayor's Office, DCPS Chancellor's office, arts educators, cultural institution partners, as well as communications, corporate and philanthropic leaders (Washington, DC CAT members). Throughout the course of the year the CAT crafted a vision statement, core values, goals and action steps AND took a deep look into DCPS data as well as data from other cultural institutions.

Big announcement about our 1st year findings and strategic plan will take place this November!

Along with its AGC DC CAT including The Kennedy Center, the DC Collaborative will share the AGC DC strategic plan as well as its data findings this November. Stay Tuned for our big announcement in November!

Looking ahead, DC Collaborative will be calling on our membership and broader community, including colleagues in the humanities disciplines, public charter schools, out-of-school time, early childhood and arts for the aging colleagues to become more involved in this collective impact work. Please stay tuned!

DC Collaborative Story Bank Blog Any Given Child DC - Collective Impact Blog Series:

“Any Given Child DC Blog Series: The Importance of Data in Collective Impact"- May 8, 2018

"Any Given Child DC Blog Series: The Importance of Collective Impact in Advocacy"- March 5, 2018

"Any Given Child DC Blog Series: Meet the Any Given Child DC Community Arts Team"- January 17, 2018

"Any Given Child DC Blog Series: Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child, DC"- September 29, 2017

"Interview with Ayanna Hudson: Director of Arts Education at the National Endowment for the Arts" - January 23, 2017

"The NEA supports our Collective Impact Work"- May 26, 2016

Collective Impact Resources

DC Collaborative Collective Impact Website

Any Given Child, Washington, DC Community Arts Team

Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child Website

Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child Brochure

Stanford Social Innovation Review Collective Impact (link here)

Arts Education for All: Lessons Learned from the First Half of the Ford Foundation’s National Arts Education Initiative- Includes the DC Collaborative! (link here)

Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination- ([email protected] or 310.451.7002) (link here)

The Kennedy Center’s Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child DC announcement Press Release

Americans for the Arts Blog- “3 Steps to Success for Equity and Access” Posted by Jeanette McCune, Apr 04, 2016

National Endowment for the Arts Collective Impact Grant Description

NEA Arts Education Webinar on Collective Impact Trends

Submitted by: The DC Collaborative Team May 31, 2017

On May 16th we invited our members to the stunning backdrop of Dumbarton Oaks, Fellowship House and Gardens, in order to celebrate our final meeting of the 2016-17 School year.

The DC Collaborative has plenty to celebrate from this year: having served with our members a total of 33,932 DC students from our AHFES program! Our meeting opened with a brief speech from our host - which covered the history and exciting Arts and Humanities education program run at Dumbarton Oaks. Next we moved onto a summary of our work this school-year with focus on federal and local advocacy, DCPS, member spotlights, and an internal update from our staff.

Americans for the Arts Federal Update— Jeff Poulin, Arts Education Program Manager, Americans for the Arts

DC State Board of Education Update (ESSA Implications for the Arts)— John-Paul Hayworth, Executive Director, DC State Board of Education

Office of the Out-of-School System Set-Up Team Update— Mila Yochum, the Director of the Out of School Set-up Team, A project of the DC Deputy Mayor for Education and the United Way of the National Capitol Area

DC Public Schools Update— Nathan Diamond, Director, Arts, DC Public Schools

DC Collaborative Business and Updates:

Collective Impact and Programming, Membership, and Special Events Committee Updates— Lissa Rosenthal-Yoffe

Program Update— Tracey Wyton, DC Collaborative

Member Mapping Data Collection Update - Rebekka Nickman, DC Collaborative

Member Feature Presentation: Dumbarton Oaks— Yota Batsaki, Executive Director, Dumbarton Oaks

Since the theme of our members meeting was gratitude, we took the opportunity to honor a few of the outstanding achievements within our community. None of this great work could be done without our exceptionally dedicated members and we chose to honor some of these achievements in our first ever “Member Awards” which included:

Schools:

Most Field-trips:

Niya White, Principal Center City PCS- Congress Heights Campus

Perfect Survey Response Rate:

Creative Minds International (Mary Thomas) Randle Highlands ES (Keeta Jones)

Most City-wide Art Contest Submissions:

Fillmore Arts Center (Tikk Pollet, Karen Daniels, Margaret Meenehan)

Most Professional Development Session Registrations:

Greta Schorn, Amidon Bowen ES

Teacher Representative Programming Committee: 

Manuel Hernandez, DC Bilingual PCS Terry Thomas, Seaton Elementary Carolina Clarens, Oyster Adams Bilingual Elementary

Members:

Most Committed Arts and Humanities Education Advocate: Most testimonies and meetings in the Wilson Building aside from the DC Collaborative.

DC Scores (Bethany Henderson and Katrina Owens)

2016-2017 Members Meeting Hosts:

National Geographic Shakespeare Theatre Company Dumbarton Oaks National Museum of Women in the Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Most Active Teaching Artist:

Karen O. Brown

Collective Impact: Helping us shape our Collective Impact Journey

Hannah Jacobson Blumenfeld - Capitol Hill Arts Workshop and Amy Moore - Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

Establishment and Commitment to our “Connecting to Curriculum” Professional Development Series:

Nathan Diamond, Director Arts DC Public Schools

Special Achievement in “Connecting to Curriculum” Program

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting- Fareed Mostoufi

Most AHFES Field-trips Donated: fully donated tickets, transportation and fees provided.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington Bach Consort Imagination Stage

Programming Committee Members:

Jeanette McCune, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Nathan Diamond, DCPS Manuel Hernandez, DC Bilingual Joanne Seelig, Imagination Stage Terry Thomas, Seaton Elementary School Fareed Mostoufi, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Caitlin Miller, National Building Museum  Joanna Lewton, Capital City PCS Cynthia Gertsen, Ford’s Theatre Steve Reichlen, Tyler ES Carolina Clarens, Oyster Adams ES Vanessa Hope, Shakespeare Theatre Company Sarah Durkee, National Gallery of Art Jennifer Reifsteck, Freer|Sackler Museum Thembi Duncan Playwrights’ Theater Maria Matheison, Levine Music Alexis Hartwick, Keegan Theatre Lola Pyne, Library of Congress Molly Berg, Environmental Film Festival Susan Rosenbaum, DC Collaborative Board Michelle Martz, President Lincoln’s Cottage Michelle Koerner, Eaton Elementary Carey Stipe, George Washington University, Practitioner Member Janey Moskowitz, Washington Bach Consort

Membership Committee Members:

Jeanette McCune, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Sarah Pokempner, Avalon Theatre Caryn Fraim, The Choral Arts Society of Washington Roberta Gasbarre, Discovery Theatre Monica Lewis, The DRANREF Foundation Cynthia Gertsen, Ford’s Theatre Linda Powell, George Washington’s Mount Vernon Caitlin Miller, National Building Museum Sarah Durkee, National Gallery of Art Christie Walser, Project Create Jared Shortmeier, Shakespeare Theatre Company Maureen Dwyer, Sitar Arts Center Karen O. Brown Thembi Duncan, Young Playwrights’ Theater

2016-2017 Volunteers and Interns:

Katie Greer Katherine Gutierrez Mick Kelly Maya Simkin Eva Steinhardt Bryce Fuhrman Anna Walker Rebekka Nickman

5 Years of Service: 

Tracey Wyton

DC Collaborative Board President: 

Linda Harper 

DC Collaborative Board of Directors:

Linda Harper, LD Harper and Associates* Nik Apostilides, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center*

Gerald Boyd, D.B. Consulting Cher Castillo, Shy Real Estate Sarah Durkee, National Gallery of Art Susana Florian, Corporate Business Consultant* Chris Jennings, Shakespeare Theatre Company Gregory McGruder, National Geographic Society* Jordan Monroe, The Monroe Trust Artist Collective Patricia Pride, Hardy Middle School Susan Rosenbaum, Rosenbaum and Associates* Barbara Stauffer, National Museumof Natural History Joy Ford Austin and Jay Stewart, Humanities DC, Ex-Officio Jeanette McCune, The Kennedy Center, Ex-Officio Lissa Rosenthal-Yoffe, DC Collaborative, Ex-Officio

*Executive Committee

2016-2017 Supporters:

DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities National Endowment for the Arts Humanities DC Agua Fund Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Capital One Capitol Hill Community Foundation The Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington Dallas Morse Coors Foundation The Max and Victoria Dreyfuss Foundation Harman Family Foundation Stanley and Lucy Lopata Foundation Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation Charles Schwab FoundationShare Fund Stone Soup Films Alliance Physical Therapy Wells Fargo Bank The JBG Companies Graham Holdings Plaza Art Braulio Agnese Nik Apostolides Gerald Boyd, Sr. Karen O. Brown Pia Brown Mia Caras Chelsey Christensen Janis Coe Kenneth Dreyfuss Sarah Durkee Joan Fina Susana Florian Holly Fussell Roberta Gasbarre Linda Harper Erica Harper Nicole Jacobson Chris Jennings Brooke Josebachvili Chhaya Kapadia Alison Kaufman Judith Klein Stephanie Klodzen  Zara Korutz Joni Langevoort Matthew Liberati  Brian Maney Jonn Marc Violetta Markelou Jeanette McCune Gregory McGruder Dorothy McSweeny Christina Mei Carolyn Melrose Katherine Milikin Jordan Monroe Jason Orlando Eloise Pasachoff Alicia Perez-Arrieta Heather Pierce and Mark Schofield  Laurence Platt and Clare Herington Patricia Pride Susan Rosenbaum Lissa Rosenthal-Yoffe and Mark Yoffe Megan Smiley Luke Smiley Karen O. Solomon Barbara Stauffer Carolyn Sweterlitsch Ilona Teleki Grace VanderVeer Brad Weaber and Mitchell Plave Tracey and Chris Wyton Diana Zurer Anonymous (12)

And a special thank you to all of our members: 2016-2017 membership directory here.

Ice cream with a side of networking in the Orangery

After the meeting was adjourned we took our members on a brief and sunny, walk over to the Orangery where our “Ice Cream and networking” event continued into the evening.

Our spring gratitude meeting, ice cream and special awards was a perfect moment for us to enjoy out arts and humanities education community here in DC. We loved seeing all our members together, sharing ideas and sweet treats, and are thankful to Dumbarton Oaks for creating such a lovely afternoon! 

#CollectiveImpact #CollaborativeEffect #Gratitude #IceCream

One more huge ‘Thank you’ from the team at DCAHEC!

View More Pictures from the Meeting 

  Host Welcome— Jan Ziolkowski, Director, Dumbarton Oaks

Americans for the Arts Federal Update— Jeff Poulin, Arts Education Program Manager, Americans for the Arts

DC State Board of Education Update (ESSA Implications for the Arts)— John-Paul Hayworth, Executive Director, DC State Board of Education

DC Public Schools Update— Nathan Diamond, Director, Arts, DC Public Schools

Office of the Out-of-School System Set-Up Team Update— Mila Yochum, the Director of the Out of School Set-up Team, A project of the DC Deputy Mayor for Education and the United Way of the National Capitol Area