Integrated Visual Arts Program

ASCEND, San Antonio & Fruitvale District (2012)

The Integrated Visual Arts Program will continue its partnership with Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA). All students will participate in art projects with collaborating artists. During this process all students receive high quality, in-class visual art instruction. Two, part-time coaching artists collaborate with ASCEND teachers and classes to incorporate visual art into the core curriculum. The artists work with ASCEND for 18 weeks and lead the semester-long, arts-integrated program. At the end of each semester (in January and June), students and teachers display the work at the school’s public Exposition of Student Learning, which all parents attend. Students act as docents at these events and guide their parents and peers through their creative thought processes, so that all members of the ASCEND community are engaged with and informed about the school’s curriculum and mission.

All ASCEND students in grades K – 8 will participate in visual arts training for one hour a week over a period of 18 weeks.  These students can then master a variety of arts skills and practices and gain confidence in understanding how visual art is a form of expression. All ASCEND students will create their own visual art projects to express themselves and to reinforce their understanding of the core curriculum (science, math, history and literacy). Through this process our students, teachers, families and ASCEND community members will continue to comprehend the importance of the Arts in advancing educational equity.

To learn more about ASCEND click here.