Create, Present, Respond, Connect. Workshop opportunities for teachers to implement Delaware Standards for Visual & Performing Arts with innovative hands-on arts experiences led by our professional teaching artists.
These sessions introduce teachers to a residency experience, helping them further develop their classroom practice, explore the use of various art forms to bring into their classroom, and enhance their curricula. Options include hands-on workshops in drama, dance, poetry/spoken work, music, and visual arts. Participants will receive professional development credit for their participation. Professional development workshops costs: 90-minute virtual, ½ day $1500.00, Full day $2500.00.
“I just wanted to once again thank you for our awesome dance professional development yesterday at MPE (Mount Pleasant Elementary School). Your passion for what you do truly shines and it was so awesome going step by step how to introduce this to our students.”
~Matt Farina, Elementary Physical Education Teacher, Brandywine School District
Professional Development Offerings 2020-2021
Something Old, New, Borrowed & … :
Exploring Music Sampling as a Way to Create and Innovate in the Classroom
A Professional Development Workshop for Music, Choral, and Band
Educators will explore music sampling, layering and looping as a way to bring innovation and creativity into the middle and high school music curriculum. Participants will discuss the history and future of music sampling from its backbone of worldwide hits, block parties in the 70’s and club dance floors, EDM, hip hop, rap and more. This audio equivalent of visual collages will encourage participants to use their instrument (voice, percussion, string, reed, etc) to work in small groups to discover ways they can bring innovation, collaboration and creativity into the classroom.
(Music, Choral, Band, Technology, Social Studies)
Recycling & Transforming our Stories:
Incorporating Personal Narratives into Handmade Paper
A Professional Development Workshop for English/Language Arts and Visual Art
Papermaking is a process that can be low tech and has a high success rate for all ages and all abilities. It can also be applied across the curriculum with applications for STEAM and literacy. In this workshop, handmade paper will be a tool for sharing stories and gaining a deeper understanding of our perception of ourselves and the world around us. Participants will reflect and record their thoughts and feelings from personal memories on paper products. These musings will then be torn apart and recycled into paper pulp to create their own sheets of beautiful handmade paper with a story of their own.
(English/Language Art, Visual Art, Poetry, Science, Recycling)
Looking Back to Move Forward:
Reflecting on Historical Change through Multidisciplinary Arts
A Professional Development Workshop for English/Language Arts, Social Studies, and the Arts
Participants will transport themselves visually into a historic cultural movement of the 20th and 21st Century. Beginning with a study of photographs from the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the 1968 Wilmington Uprising and Occupation, Occupy Wall Street, and the Tea Party Movement, we will reflect and react through visual art, music, poetry, prose, and dance. This collaborative and multidisciplinary workshop will encourage exchange and interaction across various artforms. Through our creative process, we will ultimately share artistically our vision for the future.
(Social Studies, English/Language Arts, Visual Art, Drama, Dance, Music, Photography, Technology)
Say What?:
Exploring Printmaking as a Visual Language
A Professional Development Workshop for English/Language Arts, Social Studies, and Visual Art
The goal of this workshop is to explore the history of printmaking as a tool for propaganda and communication. By studying prints from the past, participants will consider the importance of communicating ideas through a visual language and begin to engage in visual thinking strategies. Participants will create an original template or matrix to be used throughout the session. As participants work through the design process, they will use inks and various hand-printing techniques. The final composition will contain multiple prints created to present their final artistic goal.
(Social Studies, English/Language Arts, Visual Art, Technology)
Movement and Muses—Art in Motion:
Exploring the Intersection of Movement and Visual Art
A Professional Development Workshop for Visual Art and Dance
This workshop for visual art and dance educators focuses on the ways in which these two art forms complement and support the other. Educators will discuss and create art based around the shared vocabulary of these sight-focused art genres. We will look at ways in which both art forms can inspire and inform the other, referencing literal and figurative creative stimulation. This visual art and dance core can be expanded into a variety of studies in core subject areas.
- English/Language Arts: TAs will lead educators through this workshop using language and the written word as a starting and/or ending point for the visual study. We will use a variety of writing styles, including Poetry, Short Stories, and Creative Writing.
- Social Studies: The visual and movement focus will feature a specific historical time period, such as a study of Medieval art and dance. The workshop can also be a comparative study between two different cultures, such Egyptian hieroglyphs and Hindu tapestries.
- STEM: Educators will explore the evidence of math and the sciences in works of visual art and dance. A math focus would include a study of the various geometric shapes created through the aesthetic process and write equations to demonstrate these designs mathematically. Within the sciences, we would analyze the force of physics and the role of architecture evident in the artwork and choreography.
(English/Language Arts, Social Studies, STEM, Visual Art, Dance, Music, Photography, Technology)
All workshops are available for either full day (6 hours) or half day (3 hours) sessions, and can be fully customized to suit the needs of your educators. Please contact us for more information and to schedule your professional development day.
Professional Development workshops are supported in part by the State of Delaware, and the Delaware Division of the Arts in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts. Typically this program requires a contribution from the school or school district. Factors in determining the cost of a workshop are the length of the workshop and the number of teaching artists required to lead the workshop.