Arts Learning
ACHF Arts Education
Kairos will adapt our dance, music and story theater programs to fully involve each arts learner in participatory art making activities physically, cognitively, and creatively. We will continue to explore the artistic frontier where our model of radical inclusion in participatory performing art making values deep diversity, facilitating learning and creating art works meaningful to all participants. We will track numbers of participants and their staff and rely on on-going feedback from staff and active participation of arts learners to evaluate ongoing success of creating meaningful experiences. Teaching Artists’ reflection evaluates each residency session for participant mastery (integrated skill development and increased mastery in dance, improvisation and storytelling) and socialization, also focusing on highlighting dances and stories that can be developed into performance pieces for the Intergenerational Dance Hall Finale. Kairos Alive! Teaching artists create a dialogue with staff to create on-going evaluation of artistic engagement and direction of thematic material depending on the interests and response of participants. Following each staff Introduction to Moving Well training, each participant will complete a survey to track new learning. At the conclusion of the Residency/Intergenerational Dance Hall Finale, Kairos teaching artist staff will meet with MSS Lauren Hughes and core staff to evaluate the success in mastering stated project goals and outcomes.
Again, we met all goals of this project. We successfully reached our intended community, giving benefit to the intended population. Diversity goals were met of involving people of contrasting ages and physical and cognitive abilities in the dancing/music/story/theater circle. Midwest Special Services, at their venues and with their practices, specialize in provide accessible services to their clients and families. The Minnehaha Park site was accessible to people of all ages and abilities. We used our inclusive accessible interactive participatory involvement methods. Midwest Special Services bused people from their sites to the culminating Minnehaha Park Intergenerational Dance Hall event, as did Walker Methodist Assisted Living in Minneapolis. Included in the event was a group of 8-9 year old day camp children, who were actively involved. In addition, members of Kairos Alive!’s volunteer cohort attended and participated. The Minnehaha event included 160+ participants, half of whom had developmental disabilities. 50 were children below the age of 18. We felt honored to hear this reaction to our Minnehaha event from Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Program Director Kelly Affeldt: “This celebration was just a ton of fun and I was so inspired by your organization’s work. To sit back and observe the absolute JOY that poured out of each person there was food for my soul. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your work as a community member. I have three children, one of whom is the same age as the young students who joined in yesterday. The emotional intelligence of these preteens is quickly developing and I find they are very perceptive to the vibes surrounding them. I really appreciated the fact that you included these kids and provided them with an experience to learn compassion and sensitivity. And in terms of the residents of Walker Methodist Assisted Living and Midwest Special Services - wow! Words and metrics simply cannot do justice to what was experienced yesterday. I watched guarded people open up and I saw people jump out of their wheelchairs and joyfully dance. It was plain to see how fulfilling this day was for each and every one of them! I was so impressed by the way Kairos connected with this community. You were not putting on an event for them - you WERE one of them. So, I wanted to thank you all, not just as someone from Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, but as a community member. Each one of you at Kairos is doing extraordinary work and I am crazy about all of you!” Midwest Special Services project manager Lauren Hughes says of this arts learning project with them, “It was amazing to see what dance could bring out in people. Participants enjoyed the music and the direct engagement of dancing one on one with someone else. Kairos’ genuine desire to connect with each participant is so apparent and the participants pick up on that too. This was our second time working with Kairos and everyone was very excited to have them back.” 12 Dancing Heart sessions were conducted with 13-24 client participants and 3-6 staff/volunteers. The Intergenerational Dance Hall had 160 participants, plus 25 Midwest Special Services staff/volunteers. Evaluations of Dancing Heart sessions, training and Dance Hall indicated high levels of enthusiasm and new arts learning.
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