Fog Beast and Pulse Arts Explore Possibilities for Expansion of These Lines are Living
Resident artistic director, Melecio Estrella, and his company Fog Beast are developing a new site-specific dance work as part of a residency at the Marin Headlands Art Center. The project titled These Lines are Living draws on climate science, human impact, geographical history, and topography to bring attention to how our bodies, communities, and governance institutions interact with and conceptualize shorelines in a time of accelerating climatic and social change. By drawing on the science of sea level rise and water management, Fog Beast and collaborating youth dancers will create site-specific dance works on the historic grounds of the Marin Headlands to be presented to live audiences on March 7th and 8th. Pulse Arts hopes to support Fog Beast in their desire to build educational resources for the project and expand to involve youth across the bay area.
Pulse Arts Administers Big Idea Arts Education Grants
In June 2019, Pulse Arts accepted a generous $20,000 donation from Big Idea Arts and Education Consulting to design and administer grants for teachers participating in the iAspire project at Windsor Unified School District. The grants would provide arts experiences and expanded arts learning opportunities to hundreds of students across the district and support the teachers in their arts integration implementation. Grant's supported arts residencies with teaching artists; field trips to the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts and the Schultz Museum; instrument, art supply and book purchases; and stipends for extra curricular arts classes.
Pulse Arts Hosts Hip Hop Workshops and Performance Assemblies in Sonoma County Elementary Schools
Hip Hop artist and Pulse Arts Teaching Artist Wood Rowe Farghusen Jr. aka "Radio" visited Caesar Chavez for a performance assembly and classroom workshops in December of 2019. He taught students techniques in rhyme, writing, free styling, and beatboxing. This is the first of several Hip Hop education workshops Pulse Arts is coordinating for districts across Sonoma County. Spring workshops include Hip Hop Dance at Oak Grove Elementary and Mattie Washburn Elementary, Rap and Spoken Word at Cali Calmacec, and beat-making with Garage band at Brooks Elementary. For more information or to book call 707.583.1556
Pulse Arts Partners with Transcendence Theatre Company
Transcendence Theatre and Pulse Arts teamed up in August of 2019 to support arts integration efforts at Dunbar Elementary in Glen Ellen. Pulse Arts curriculum specialist Hector Marquez designed a tiered 6-week arts integration curriculum for Dunbar teachers and Transcendence Teaching Artists. Transcendence and Pulse co-facilitated a training with Dunbar teachers and according the Nikko Kimzin of Transcendence, all of the teachers had "the most profound and incredible things to say about arts education and the teaching artists and the students are excited for ELD time now." Pulse Arts looks forward to more collaborations with Transcendence Theatre.
Why Arts Matter: Pulse Arts receives Creative Sonoma Pop Up Creativity Grant
Pulse Arts received a grant from Creative Sonoma to host 3 Pop Up Creativity events in Sonoma County in February of 2019. The events promoted the value of arts education as empowering, inclusive, and character building. Each public event brought together youth and professional creatives in public art-making and workshops across the county. Why Arts Matter was produced by Pulse Arts in partnership with the Movement Lab, Bow and Arrow Clothing, and MC Radio Active, I AM VIBRANT was an arts festival and collaborative mural painting project at Mattie Washburn Elementary School. I Am Able was a positive kid-friendly Hip Hop dance festival at Santa Rosa Square, and I am Beautiful featured a free professional photo shoot for community members at Bow and Arrow Clothing. Why Arts Matter brought together individuals of all backgrounds and abilities to engage in positive creative activities around the theme of empowerment through the arts, and be a part of a short film documenting the process.
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Dancers Unite! Pulse Arts Partners with Sonoma County Dancers United and the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
Pulse Arts was instrumental in the design and Implementation of Dancers Unite!, which was adopted by the Luther Burbank Center for the arts for county-wide implementation in the 2019-2020 School year. Dancers Unite! is an Elementary dance education program that was piloted in Windsor Unified School District in partnership with Sonoma County Dancers United (SCDU). SCDU received a Creative Sonoma Arts Education Innovation Grant and a California Arts Council Professional Development grant in 2018 and Pulse Arts was brought on to design and implement the programs in 15 elementary classrooms. The Creative Sonoma grant also involved mentoring and outreach to 15 elementary schools by Windsor High School's Advance Dance program. Dancer's Unite! brought teaching artists into the TK-2nd grade classrooms to teach 10 dance sessions to students and coordinate a showcase at the end of the school year. Participating teachers were paid to participate in 6 hours of professional learning around dance integration strategies. In Fall of 2019, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts adopted, doubled the impact, and fully funded the pilot program for implementation across Sonoma County. Dance education is now in over 25 classrooms in multiple districts and and teachers across the county are able to learn from the dance specialists and begin to integrate integration strategies across content areas.
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Pulse Arts Partners with Windsor Unified School District
Allison Frenzel, former employee of Windsor Unified School District, was instrumental in the launch of the Windsor Arts Now Community. She worked with community member and arts advocate Joella Olsen and school board member Bill Adams to build capacity within the district so every student has access to arts education. In 2018, the district brought on Bob Bullwinkel of Big Idea Arts and Education consulting to work with Frenzel in the design and implementation of a strategic arts plan. Over the next two years, Frenzel and Bullwinkel helped secure approximately two million dollars in arts and technology grants, trained every teacher in the district in arts integration strategies, launched an elementary dance program, established a scope and sequence for all arts disciplines, and secured funding for a full time elementary Music teacher and arts facilitator position for a teacher on special assignment.
From February 2019 until September 2019, Pulse Arts worked in collaboration with Big Idea Arts and Education consulting and Windsor Unified School District to oversee implementation of the iAspire arts integration project and strategic arts plan. WUSD received a 1.7 million dollar Student Support and Enrichment grant from the California Department of Education which accelerated the district's strategic arts plan by providing ongoing support to all teachers in the district. The district purchased approximately 450 iPads, obtained a fully arts integrated customized curriculum and assessment program for grades TK-5, established a comprehensive scope and sequence for grades 5-12, and purchased over $300,000 dollars in performing and visual arts supplies. Pulse Arts was instrumental in the coordination of 3 day professional learning summit where 75 elementary teachers were trained in arts integration strategies across all arts disciplines.
From February 2019 until September 2019, Pulse Arts worked in collaboration with Big Idea Arts and Education consulting and Windsor Unified School District to oversee implementation of the iAspire arts integration project and strategic arts plan. WUSD received a 1.7 million dollar Student Support and Enrichment grant from the California Department of Education which accelerated the district's strategic arts plan by providing ongoing support to all teachers in the district. The district purchased approximately 450 iPads, obtained a fully arts integrated customized curriculum and assessment program for grades TK-5, established a comprehensive scope and sequence for grades 5-12, and purchased over $300,000 dollars in performing and visual arts supplies. Pulse Arts was instrumental in the coordination of 3 day professional learning summit where 75 elementary teachers were trained in arts integration strategies across all arts disciplines.