We provide weekly multidisciplinary art classes for our students in dance, music, visual arts and creative writing.
The arts classes culminate in performances and art exhibitions challenging both teachers and students to present and share their work. Each term, the classes and performances are organized around particular themes, such as identity, health, and environment.
In addition, we support the children's individual, social and cultural development in a few ways. Among others, we organize field trips to arts studios to promote understanding of abstract art and, as was done in the past, to record music for a video clip sang by the students. Moreover, we organize activities with other children in Kampala to promote interaction and integration across socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
To ensure the success and sustainability of this approach, we are committed to document, monitor, and disseminate this new educational development model. We produce audiovisual materials to share our work with interested parties around the world.
Art is a seed for Social Change
"The arts can be a way of expressing that which is otherwise inexpressible. The arts are a call to action, to education and to empowerment."
-- Vivien Marcow
"Many studies indicate that artistic learning creates important social and academic benefits for youth, including development of literacy and language skills, better concentration and endurance."
--Deasy, 2002
"Artistic learning helps youth to gain self-confidence and integrate themselves in their communities, thereby helping them to develop empathy, tolerance, and the ability to work in teams."
-- Smyth & Stevenson, 2005)
"Art develops the imagination and the ability to see things differently. It promotes diversity and is an effective tool for reducing violence."
-- Greene, 1995
"When you couple the process of evoking what is within with the creative process, which helps people to find their words and images and believe in their power to put them out in the world, the result is social change, not always monumental, but real social change from the inside out."
-- Mary Clare Powell & Vivien Marcow Speiser
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