HEADER PHOTO BY RAFAEL HERNANDEZTeacher Professional Development
VAPAE supports our community of TK-12 teachers by offering teacher professional development. See below for past teacher professional development events. For workshop inquiries, please contact vapae@arts.ucla.edu.
Imagine If: Powering Learning through Creativity and the Arts
This free, one-day convening was inspired by the teachings of Sir Ken Robinson and the promise of Proposition 28. Imagine If brought together K-12 teachers, arts educators, principals, district leaders, and museum and community arts partners to learn together, make connections, and co-construct actionable ways to make the promise of Proposition 28.
MARCH 2, 2024Culturally Sustaining Visual and Performing Arts
Culturally sustaining teaching prompts imaginative exploration of cultural identities, justice, and joy. VAPAE offered two workshops for attendees to practice and experience culturally sustaining practices through (1) elementary visual arts; and (2) secondary performing arts.
The elementary visual arts workshop invited educators to reimagine elementary-level visual arts lessons to align with the culturally sustaining principles introduced in the session. Educators were offered a deepened understanding of culturally sustaining classroom practices, along with a few lesson plans adaptable for their own classrooms and communities.
The secondary performing arts workshop invited educators to explore a conceptual introduction to culturally sustaining pedagogy, followed by an interactive application of performing arts methods and activities (theatre arts, dance, poetry, music, etc.) appropriate to all classrooms, especially geared towards middle and high school ages. Participants were invited to suggest, share, or lead lessons and activities of their own that align with and/or can be adapted to align with culturally sustaining principles.
photo by vapae staffArtsMatter Professional Development Symposium
Presented by LA Promise Fund and their distinguished host community, this teacher professional development symposium offered Los Angeles middle and high school educators information and resources to support robust arts instruction in their classrooms.
AUGUST 9-10, 2023Culturally Sustaining Social Emotional Learning: Autobiography through Visual Art and Dance
This standards-aligned workshop integrated the concepts and practices of culturally sustaining pedagogy and transformative social emotional learning. Participating teachers reflected on individual and collective autobiographies through visual art and explored classroom routines to support social emotional learning in the culturally sustaining classroom.
photo by vapae staffUCLA Community School
VAPAE’s teacher professional development offerings at the UCLA Community School build on VAPAE’s long-time partnership with the Center for Community Schooling.
APRIL 6, 2022Foregrounding Creativity: Teaching and Learning through (Art)making
VAPAE was delighted to work with 40 teachers in a professional development workshop held at the UCLA Community School at the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus. Director Kevin Kane, Community Engagement Coordinator Raymundo Baltazar, and Research & Evaluation Specialist Lindsey Kunisaki gave teachers a glimpse of the creative processes of MASA, sharing theories and research-based strategies for promoting creative agency in classrooms of all grade levels and subjects.
Hammer Museum
JULY 12-16, 2021Teaching for Healing and Transformation through the Arts: An Institute for 4th–8th Grade Teachers
In this free program, teachers explored arts-based strategies for processing a year of individual and collective trauma. With speakers, art and poetry workshops, and facilitated discussions, this Teachers Institute offered opportunities for reflection and tools for healing, recovery, and transformation through the arts. The first two days of the program occurred online via Zoom, and the third day took place at the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden on the UCLA campus.
This Institute was organized by the Hammer Museum and the VAPAE Program in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
Guest speakers
Dr. Andrea Aebersold, Director, Faculty Instructional Development, University of California, Irvine
Tanya Aguiñiga, artist and activist
Dr. Veronica Alvarez, Wallis Annenberg Director, Community Arts Partnership, California Institute of the Arts
Dr. Jessica Bianchi, Senior Lecturer of Art Therapy and Art Education, Loyola Marymount University
Gabriel Cortez, Poet
PHOTO BY VAPAE STAFFApril 30, 2022Teachers Reception
Classroom teachers connected with other teachers and learned arts-integration techniques with educators from the Hammer Museum and UCLA VAPAE. Though the program was designed for generalist, art, and English language arts teachers of grades 4–12, all teachers were welcome to attend and participate.
In this one-day program, teachers were offered:
Drop-in arts-integration lessons in visual art, music, and movement facilitated by VAPAE teaching artists Gabriela Acosta, Blaze Bautista, Jolene Fernandez, and Lindsay Lindberg
A 10% discount for classroom teachers at Lulu, the Hammer’s new restaurant
Gift cards to a local art supply store for a limited number of participants
PHOTO BY VAPAE STAFFjuly 25, 2022Talking It Out: Using Arts-Integration Techniques to Cultivate Community in the Classroom
Teachers learned strategies for fostering connection and productive dialogue in the classroom through facilitated conversations about works of art and creative art making and poetry writing workshops. Presenters included:
Jolene Fernandez, VAPAE teaching artist
Tara Burns, Specialist, Family & K-12 Audiences, Hammer Museum
Kevin Kane, Director, Visual and Performing Arts Education Program, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture
Raul Herrera, Programs Manager, Get Lit - Words Ignite
This free program took place in person at the Hammer Museum.
PHOTO BY RAFAEL HERNANDEZ2020
During the pivot to remote learning and instruction in March 2020, VAPAE and the Hammer Museum continued to provide professional development opportunities for classroom teachers and arts educators. In Summer 2020, Teaching for Social Change through Art: Strategies for Enhancing Media Literacy in 2020 was offered as a three-day professional development. Please see past recordings of this event below:
Session 1—Monday, July 27Strategies for Integrating Media Literacy and the Arts
UCLA professor Jeff Share provides an overview of media literacy, museum educators share strategies for analyzing art and media, and teaching artist Felix Quintana demonstrates a digital art activity that juxtaposes personal archives and popular media.
Session 2—Wednesday, July 29Responding to Current Events through Theatre and Literary Arts
Poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney discusses his practice, museum educator Tara Burns shares interactive strategies for engaging with art, and teaching artist Kimiko Warner-Turner leads a performance workshop grounded in the concept of communal dreaming in an unjust world.