East Side Arts Council Program Detail

East Side Arts Council uses funds granted by the McNeely Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, National Endowment for the Arts and the Target Corporation to continue and expand its Arts InFusion work with school on the East Side of St. Paul.

Arts InFusion is an education program that builds learning through the arts in schools on the East Side of St. Paul by linking the arts to core subjects.

Program Goals:

To build children’s creative and self-expressive skills while linking to core subjects

To work with challenged East Side schools that are struggling to keep the arts in their curriculums

To celebrate the accomplishments of participants

To provide free, accessible, high-quality arts education for East Side youth

To engage young people in making art together with professional artists and other community members

To work with teachers to feel comfortable teaching art in their classrooms

East Side St. Paul Schools interested in Artist Residencies with ESAC should contact the Program Coordinator at 651-774-5422 or esac@visi.com

During 2007-2008 School Year ESAC brought 21 professional artists into the classrooms of partner schools: Academia Cesar Chavez School, Bruce F. Vento Elementary, Dayton's Bluff Achievement Plus Elementary, Farnsworth Aerospace Elementary School, Highwood Hills Elementary, John A. Johnson Elementary and Phalen Lake Elementary to develop arts programming that builds on the schools' strengths and supports its needs. The projects at each school take on a unique shape based on the focus of the school and the make-up of the student population.

Some examples include:

Mark Safford, from Barebones Productions, worked with 4th grade Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet Elementary School students to dramatize poems with movement, puppets, masks and props. The performance was held on January 28th at 2PM in conjunction with our Poetry Contest Award Ceremony. The 4th, 5th and 6th grades submitted original poetry for our annual poetry contest. Winners will be awarded prizes and have their poetry posted on ourPoets’ Post from April 1st - August 1st. Click on Phalen Poetry Park in our Program section for more details.

Each grade level (preK-6th) Phalen Lake Elementary will work with professional artists to develop arts projects that directly connect to their Core Knowledge Curriculum. This will be the 11th year ESAC has partnered with Phalen Lake Elementary.

The 5th grade students worked with two principal dancers, Mary Anne Quiroz and Ketzaliztli E. Estrada-Hernandez, from Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli (Warriors of the First Cactus Flower). They spent four days learning traditional dances, creating music, singing traditional songs, and learning to speak phrases in Nahuatl language. As descendants of the indigenous people of this continent; these artists promote the practices of these traditions in their travels and presentations with the objective of encouraging listeners to learn about their own indigenous roots. This increases the students' understanding of the history and culture that they had been reading about. This also helps them realize how much effect all cultures have on people in the United States.

ESAC has continued our arts programming at Highwood Hills Elementary. Malia Burkhart, an artist from Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre, will be returning May 12th – 23rd to work with the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades for two weeks to create a giant INSECT puppet performance. Children and families are invited to participate in the Ordway Center's Flint Hills International Children's Festival during the ARTmoves Parade on May 31st.

Visual artist Kathy Coulter will also return to teach a one-week residency with 3rd and 4th grades, integrating bookmaking, collage and literacy. She will also work with the classroom teacher for one session to integrate her discipline into their classroom curriculum.

At John A. Johnson Elementary, Kathy Coulter has extended the drawing curriculum in every grade level to include drawing lessons and special projects that integrate the arts with the school's curriculum. Kathy has proven to be a successful mentor, as the teachers are now implementing the lessons on their own and are prepared to enrich their lessons with art in the years to come.

NEW partnerships!!

East Side Visual Artist, Sara Langworthy worked with the 2nd grade at Bruce F. Vento Elementary to create animal puppets from the rain forest and a weaving project with the Bruce Vento Learning Center.

Francis Kofi, African Drummer and Dancer worked with 4th and 6th grade students at Dayton's Bluff Achievement Plus Elementary together they put on a final performance for the school, parents and community at the Dayton's Bluff Recreation Center theater.

In addition, ESAC participated in two Family Literacy Nights. At Bruce Vento Elementary, Book Artist, Jenea Rewertz-Targui, worked with children and families to create an accordion-style book illustrating their own family stories and at Battle Creek Environmental Magnet Elementary School, actress, Silvia Pontaza, from Teatro del Pueblo, a Latino Theatre Company, worked with children and families to create characters to put on a short performance.

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