The HeArt Project: A Partnership Takes Flight
The initial step in the Departures Youth Voices partnership with The HeArt Project and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes has been taken with the first of a two-part training session with the teaching artist who will be working directly with students at selected schools. The artist, selected by the HeArt Project, will be placed in one of the 25 alternative high schools served by the project, in three local school districts: L.A. Unified School District, Los Angeles County Office of Education, and the Culver City Unified School District.
The training for the collaboration, entitled "Mapping the Metropolis: Finding the Heart of our City," took place at the historic Vickrey -Brunswig Building, which now houses LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte. Participants were welcomed by Margit Edwards, Artistic Director of the HeArt Project, and introduced to the education partners. Both Departures Youth Voices and La Plaza de Cultura y Arte provided the participants with an overview of the multimedia content and curriculum available to them, and emphasized how the personal stories included within both provide a critical perspective on the history of Los Angeles and encourage a dialogue on the fundamental nature of the city.
What emerges from these processes is a multi-faceted interaction between the individual, their community and their place in history.
The presentations offered the teaching artists resources, ideas and inspiration as they develop their own class projects. They come from a variety of creative disciplines (photography, painting, poetry/performance, mixed media, digital storytelling, and dance) and each offers their own creative and unique vision to the students. We look forward to working with them as they develop, implement and document their work with their students.
Stay tuned to Departures Youth Voices to follow the progress of this rich collaboration.
