#memberfeature

Submitted by: Rebekka Nickman, DC Collaborative Development and Communications Coordinator October 26, 2016

‘Tea with Tracey and Lissa’

In order to foster close working relationships and to learn how we can better serve our membership, the DC Collaborative is embarking on weekly site visits this year! During our #teatime field-trips, we’ll share refreshments as we observe and learn more about the organizations that comprise the collaborative. 

This week the Collaborative team made our way to the vibrant H Street Corridor in Northeast, DC, to catch up with Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Community Heartbeat

The Atlas Performing Arts Center, a historic venue along the H Street Corridor, offers a diverse range of arts programming and events to the DC community. The building was renovated from its origins as a movie theater and re-opened to the public as a live theatre in 2006. It now houses five different arts organizations and offers multidisciplinary opportunities to learners of all ages.

Their mission is as stated: “[to] bring people together through the arts to create, connect and engage through compelling performances, events and initiatives spanning a range of artistic expressions, traditions and cultures.”

Theatre for the Very Young

As an active member of the DC Collaborative’s Arts and Humanities for Every Student (AHFES) program, Atlas is helping to fill gaps in arts education by introducing DC elementary school students to the theatre. By partnering with organizations like Imagination Stage, the Atlas provides a slate of interactive and innovative theatrical experiences for Pre-K through 2nd grade students. Imagination Stage is also partnering with Atlas PAC and The DC Collaborative to bring 3,000 third graders to Imagination Stage’s production of Looking for Roberto Celemente October 31- November 18! Stay Tuned for a future #StoryBank Blog describing this partnership.

The performances encourage students to respond and play with the performers. Through use of intricate puppets, props, and the power of imagination, they create an immersive and multi-sensory learning experience.

1st graders from Burroughs Education Campus at the Theatre for the Very Young’s Aquarium performance on 10/26.

Atlas hopes to expand their educational capacities in the near future. Through partnerships with entities such as Imagination Stage and Arts on the Horizon as well as through creative programming such as an in-house silent film series, they hope to broaden their reach to middle school and high school age students. They also hope to include Professional Development training for teachers in the near future.

As the Atlas continues to grow and develop their programming for families and young audiences, they seek to encourage a continuum of engagement. Their goal is to have students return with their families, by offering after-school and weekend programs. Read more about education at Atlas Performing Arts Center here.

As an added treat, the Collaborative team sat alongside an audience of highly responsive first graders from Burroughs Education Campus at the Theatre for the Very Young performance of Imagination Stage’s Aquarium following our morning #teatime. We are looking forward to the continued partnership with Atlas Performing Arts Center as their education program continues to grow and reach more students and teachers in the DC public education system.

Thank you to Atlas Performing Arts Center for both the metaphorical and actual tea! Special Thanks to Doug Yeuell, Mary Hall Surface, Renee Littleton, and Robin Fender for meeting with us.

Quick Links

Atlas Performing Arts Center

Atlas Performing Arts Center Education

Imagination Stage

DC Collaborative

Submitted by Nicholas Kelly, Program and Communications Intern, DC Collaborative September 29, 2016

Photo Credit: 100Reporters

DC Collaborative member 100Reporters is committed to the cause of investigative journalism as a means of promoting transparency and good government, and for the second year in a row, they are presenting that commitment through film.

This October, 100Reporters is presenting the second edition of Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival and Symposium. Pairing film screenings with a symposium featuring leading investigative journalists and filmmakers, the purpose of the festival is to provide a space for filmmakers and investigative journalists to inspire and collaborate with each other. It is also a platform to showcase innovative investigative journalism and present it to the public.

The festival will take place at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Press Club from October 6 to October 8. Screenings will include:

The Ivory Game: activists and investigators lead the effort to save elephants from poachers

Betting on Zero: a financial docu-thriller about a battle between a hedge fund manager and a company he accuses of scamming Latino communities

Fire at Sea: a look at an Italian island that has become the first stop on the way to Europe for hundreds of thousands of refugees

Solitary: an examination of solitary confinement in prisons

and more!

The festival garnered attention last year when the Washington City Paper selected it as a highlight of 2015 in its “Year in Review.” The festival’s screening of the Oscar-winning Spotlight was also noted in the New York Times, Slate, and IndieWire.

In anticipation of this year’s festival, 100Reporters wants to build relationships with the audiences that will find Double Exposure most appealing: not only filmmakers and journalists who will use the festival and symposium as an opportunity to learn and connect with their peers, but also open-minded members of the public who are excited to attend a screening and raise their hands to ask great questions in the post-screening discussion.

The main goal of the festival is to demonstrate how important investigative journalism is to democracy through the power of investigative storytelling, bringing together journalistic inquiry and artistic expression. In their own words, Double Exposure “ties audience appreciation for artistic output to the rights of reporters and filmmakers to pursue investigations in the public interest; it ties stirrings of artistic curiosity to practical consequences and groundbreaking storytelling to policy changes.”

Double Exposure is very exciting to us for two big reasons. First, as the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, we highly approve of the effort to bring arts and journalism together. Second, we are incredibly proud of how our community of practice here in Washington, DC can do work with a local, national, and even international reach.

You can learn more about Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival and Symposium here. Find out more information about the films, when they are screening, and how to purchase tickets and passes (including a discounted pass for students)!

Quick Links

100Reporters

Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival and Symposium

Schedule of Films

The Ivory Game

Betting on Zero

Fire at Sea

Solitary

2015 Year in Review, Washington City Paper

New York Times Article

Slate Article

Submitted by Caroline Pappalardo, Membership and Development Intern, DC Collaborative  August 17, 2016

  Photo Credit: The MusicianShip 

The MusicianShip believes music education can change lives. The DC-based nonprofit “facilitates music lessons, experiences, and opportunities.” The MusicianShip doesn’t just teach music—it teaches life lessons.

The MusicianShip CEO Jeffery Tribble Jr. emphasizes the impact music education can have on a student inside and outside the classroom. Jeffrey, one of the original founders of The MusicianShip, comes from a musical family; both his mother and father are musicians, and he began playing an instrument at age 3.  At age 5, he began taking private lessons and quickly realized the value of private lessons. It was in college, however, where he realized his desire to pursue a career in music. “I knew I wanted to be involved in music. I need to be rooted in music.” While attending law school at The George Washington University, Jeffery recognized his passion for music education. After classes and an internship, he would go into classrooms around D.C. and teach music lessons to students who otherwise might not have the opportunity to receive lessons. And just like that, The MusicianShip was born.

The MusicianShip’s impressive growth highlights the desire for music education in the DC community. Now in its seventh year, The MusicianShip serves students year-round with After School and Summer Programs. The MusicianShip’s summer program has grown from just two students to two-hundred students and now provides opportunities for students to take courses relating to Music Media and Music Business.

Photo Credit: The MusicianShip

For Jeffery, the most important part of The MusicianShip’s work is providing hope to students. According to him, many of the students The MusicianShip serves don’t believe they will graduate high school.  Playing an instrument teaches students the skills they need to succeed in school—skills like determination, focus, and goal setting; a simple four hours of music education a week can improve a student’s chances of staying in school. These skills are also valuable outside the classroom and that’s a crucial part of The MusicianShip’s mission in providing students with opportunities to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. (See their Vision Statement)

The MusicianShip works to inspire the next generation by changing lives by providing opportunities. And change lives they have. Nearly 100% of their students graduate high school and are accepted to a college or university, and 100% of their students who tried out for music scholarships received them. What’s more, many of these students come from communities where the high school dropout rate is 50%. These statistics highlight the impact of The MusicianShip and reflect the success of its mission “to change lives through music.”

Photo Credit: The MusicianShip

Quick Links

The MusicianShip

Submitted by Nicholas Kelly, Program and Communications Intern, DC Collaborative August 11, 2016

Photo Credit: Mary Tait, Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has been exhibiting works of art that tell America’s stories in its Penn Quarter home since 1968. It is a collection of works that document the culture, heritage, and innovative spirit of our country. Now the museum will continue to do its great work as a member of the DC Collaborative.

Local Impact

As a national institution, the museum draws visitors from all over the country and addresses a national audience through its loan programs with other museums and its Distance Learning Program. The museum also has an incredible local impact. As Teacher Programs Coordinator for the museum, Elizabeth Dale-Deines has seen the impact the museum can have on teachers and students. She works to make sure that the museum meets their needs and makes them feel respected.

Much of Elizabeth’s work involves organizing professional development opportunities for teachers on weekends or during the evenings. During these workshops, teachers have the museum to themselves for 2 hours. They engage in Thinking Routines in front of works of art just like students would during a field trip, and then give their feedback on the program. Together, Elizabeth and the teachers learn how to use the artworks: the museum takes teacher feedback in developing programs, and teachers leave equipped with new tools and with the experience of working with other teachers across the city.

Historical Empathy

When students from all over the area come to the museum on field trips, they arrive before the museum opens at 11:30, so just like their teachers, they have the museum to themselves. “It’s quiet,” Elizabeth says, “and it gives the students the opportunity to feel special. They have access to the museum at a time when no one else does.” The field trips involve activities and open-ended questions designed to get students thinking about the artwork and making connections with their personal experiences. Elizabeth loves the opportunity to have conversations with young people about issues that affect us today inspired by themes in the artwork, such as works from the Civil War, which have inspired conversations about modern struggles for civil rights.

One of the museum’s programs involves yearlong collaborations with some middle schools, which culminate in published books of student writing. Through these writings, students have had very creative responses to the artwork. One of Elizabeth’s favorite examples of student writing was an advertisement written from the perspective of someone in the 1830s. Field trips to the museum give the students the opportunity to exercise historical empathy, as Elizabeth says, “to try on the perspective of someone in the past to figure out why we are the country we are today.”

Photo Credit: Mary Tait, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Visual Learning

Engaging with a work of art helps to inspire creativity, curiosity, and empathy in students, but it also helps to give students entry points into other curricular content. From her own experience, Elizabeth knows the importance of giving students a visual touchstone that they can connect to another topic in school. When she was growing up, trips to art museums gave her visuals that she could hold onto when learning about something in class. She describes how Dorothea Lange’s iconic Migrant Mother photo helped her when learning about the Great Depression. Her work with the museum gives her the opportunity to help students who learn just like she did.

Elizabeth’s favorite thing about the museum is how broad and diverse the collection is. “We usually learn history as one story,” she says. “By looking at our collection, I get to see that there are so many stories that haven’t been told on a national scale.” She also wants DC students to know that the American Art Museum, which can seem austere and imposing, is for them. “We want to be relevant to people in DC,” she says.

Meeting Needs

Accessibility and relevance are part of Elizabeth’s goals for the museum as a member of the DC Collaborative. “I want to better understand what teachers need and want from cultural institutions,” she says. Membership in the Collaborative is an opportunity to learn from teachers and better understand what is happening in the world of arts education.

For Elizabeth, meeting the needs of teachers and students, making them feel valued and respected, is an incredibly important part of the work of an art museum. One of her favorite field trip experiences was going the National Gallery of Art when she was in third grade. She had the opportunity sit and sketch a sculpture of a ballerina, given quality materials and space to do her work. She felt like she was given the same respect that anyone who would go into the museum would get. She does her work to make sure that students and teachers who visit the museum feel they have been given that respect, too.

Important Conversations

The Smithsonian American Art Museum will be continuing its work of engaging in thought-provoking conversations with the community with an exciting, upcoming event. On October 13, in celebration of the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum will host “Art and the African American Experience”: a free workshop to explore the historic, social, political, and aesthetic roots of race today. Elizabeth hopes this evening of lectures and activities will inspire teachers to think about how their classrooms can be safe spaces to address challenging content.

Quick Links

Smithsonian American Art Museum

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Submitted by Nicholas Kelly, Program and Communications Intern, DC Collaborative July 6, 2016

Photo Credit: Shout Mouse Press

Shout Mouse Press knows that everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone’s story is heard. Its mission is “to amplify the voices of the marginalized and under-represented by empowering them to write and publish their stories.”

Members Meeting

Kathy Crutcher, founder of Shout Mouse Press, was already in the process of launching a nonprofit publishing house and writer’s program for unheard voices when she came to a DC Collaborative new members meeting. As the members went around the room and introduced themselves, Kathy heard Lana Wong, founder of the Shootback Project, describe her work coaching young people in Kenya in participatory photo storytelling, a project that resulted in a 200 page book and a traveling exhibition that went to a dozen countries. When the meeting ended, Kathy and Lana went straight to meet each other, finding that they had similar interests in wanting to amplify unheard voices, but different skill sets that could make for a wonderful combination, what Lana calls “a marriage of the minds to put the power of words and images together.”

That first meeting led to five books that have been published through Shout Mouse Press, in partnership with organizations and programs such as Beacon House, Reach Incorporated, and the Ballou Story Project, all created by young writers from Washington, DC.

Photo Credit: Shootback/Shout Mouse Press

Telling Their Stories

Their most recent publication is Humans of Ballou, Volume 3 of the Ballou Story Project. In the Fall, Kathy and a team of teaching artists help between 80 and 100 students at Frank W. Ballou High School to tell their stories in scholarship and college application essays. Then in the Winter and Spring, she invites students to take what they have written and prepare it to be published in a book. While Kathy coaches the students in crafting their words, Lana brings the cameras and coaches them in crafting beautiful images. Both Kathy and Lana insist that the photography is crucial to these books being taken seriously and reaching as wide an audience as possible. The results are powerful and inspiring: words, images, experiences, fears, hopes, and dreams of amazing young people confronting the ordinary and extraordinary challenges of growing up, as well as challenges that would shake many adults.

The mission of Shout Mouse Press is to amplify unheard voices, and these books have certainly succeeded in doing so. Three of their books were named as finalists in the 2015 INDIEFAB Awards, and Our Lives Matter (Volume 2 of the Ballou Story Project) was awarded Honorable Mention for YA Nonfiction Book of the Year. Four of the young authors represented the book at the awards ceremony in Orlando. These books are in all DCPS libraries, and the picture book A to Z: The Real DC (produced by Reach Incorporated in partnership with Shootback) is in every 3rd Grade classroom in DCPS. The books even made their way into the hands of President Obama. You can read all about that story here.

Photo Credit: Shootback/Shout Mouse Press

Impact

Perhaps most important has been the impact these books have had on DC students. Lana and Kathy say that readers need to feel represented in the books they read, and these books have been especially helpful in inspiring reluctant readers to pick up books. What makes the Shout Mouse books even more powerful for young people in Washington, DC is that they were written by young people just like them. Many of the young writers have done readings at DC schools, showing their fellow students that they can tell their own stories, too. For the writers, the experience of having their experiences and their voices taken seriously and heard broadly gives them confidence, dignity, and the energy for more writing.

This work is a testament to the life changing power of providing young people the opportunity to express themselves creatively, especially in the beautiful, professional products that Shout Mouse creates. Through her work with Shootback, Lana has had a nearly 20-year window on what happens when you give young people this opportunity. Of the students in her original project in Kenya, eight have gone on to be professional photographers, filmmakers, and foundation founders. Her experience is proof that when young people express themselves creatively, it really can change their lives.

The partnership between Shout Mouse and Shootback is also a testament to our arts and humanities community here in DC and the potential for amazing things to happen when we work together. Kathy told us, “I want to give credit to the DC Collaborative for making possible these kinds of collaborations. Meeting people with similar interests and different skill sets can create magic.” Lana agreed, saying, “There is such value in having a space for like-minded arts educators to meet and cross-pollinate.” We are so happy that the Collaborative could help make this amazing work possible!

So what are you waiting for? Pick up these books and read some amazing stories!

How To Grow Up Like Me: the first volume of the Ballou Story Project

Trinitoga: Stories of Life in a Roughed-Up Tough-Love No-Good Hood: a novel-in-stories by middle school authors

A to Z: The Real DC: DC teens take the reader on an alphabet tour of their city

Our Lives Matter: volume 2 of the Ballou Story Project

Humans of Ballou: volume 3 of the Ballou Story Project

The Day Tajon Got Shot: coming in Fall 2016

Quick Links

Shout Mouse Press

The Shootback Project

Shootback Project History

Shout Mouse Meets the President

2015 INDIEFAB Finalists Announced

Shout Mouse Catalog

Beacon House

Submitted by: Nicholas Kelly, Program and Communications Intern, DC Collaborative June 30, 2016

Photo Credit: The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress National Book Festival wants to connect children with their local libraries and get them to reflect on what books mean to them personally through the “A Book That Shaped Me” summer writing contest.

For rising 5th and 6th graders this is an opportunity to write a one-page essay “about a book that made a difference in their lives, sharing how the book made them feel and changed the way they see themselves, their family, or the world.”

Connecting with the Library

Now in its 5th year, the “A Book That Shaped Me” contest has a number of important goals: to raise awareness of the Library of Congress and the National Book Festival, to encourage youth to be involved with their local libraries, and to combat the summer reading slump. While the contest is available to students across the Mid-Atlantic region, it still has incredible importance in the Washington, DC area in helping to connect young people with the Library of Congress and the Festival. A lot of Lola Pyne’s work in the Office of Communications at the Library of Congress involves reaching out to local youth and families to let them know that the Library of Congress is open to them. She believes that the “A Book That Shaped Me” contest has really helped people in the area connect with the Library of Congress and the National Book Festival for the first time.

Annie Lyon, a Youth Services Librarian at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library has a perspective on how the contest helps connect more students with their local libraries and the importance of making sure that children discover the library at a young age. “When students visit,” she told us, “the chance that they'll find a book that they'll really enjoy is high because they have numerous resources to help them. They can really connect with librarians who can recommend books based on what students have enjoyed in the past or suggest a new title. ‘A Book That Shaped Me’ helps the students find more about what they already love.”

The contest helps students develop their reading and writing skills, but it also helps them reflect on what a book means to them and make connections to their personal lives. Lola described how students have used their books and essays to process events in their lives or feel new empathy for classmates. Annie told us that students who participate in the contest have “found books that speak to their hearts, that reflect their own family situations, encourage them to impact the community around them, or connect with their histories.”

Winning and Giving Back

For a perspective on what it’s like to participate in the contest, we talked with Mason Gray, the 2015 DC Winner of the “A Book That Shaped Me” contest. He wrote his essay about A Guide to Giving Back by Claire O’Neal, which details how young people can get involved with volunteering. His award-winning essay, which you can read here, not only describes his experience reading the book, it embraces the theme of the contest and describes how he applied the lessons of the book to his own life: helping his schoolmates in their work, making his habits more environmentally conscious, and helping the elderly.

When we asked Mason how it felt to win and to receive his prizes, he said, “It was awesome! I was very excited, happy, and shocked. The whole process was outstanding and amazing.” He got to learn a lot about the Library of Congress, received a gift card, a certificate, and a medal. The medal was his favorite part: “I felt a lot of honor in myself. I knew this is something that will be with me for the rest of my life.” Still, he says the contest was not really about receiving prizes. "It helped me to shape myself as a person.” There is probably no better way to describe “A Book That Shaped Me.”

Mason also says he will be submitting an essay this year, too. This time, he is writing about Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

You can find the contest guidelines and the entry form here. Students can submit their one-page essays in person to a participating public library.

The deadline for the contest is July 18!

Happy reading and writing!

Quick Links

The Library of Congress

The National Book Festival

“A Book That Shaped Me” Contest Guidelines

2015 Winning Essays