Professional Development
[Top L-R] Jason Moran, Step Afrika! [Botton L-R] Niv Ashkenazi, Susie Garcia
The Arts Education Partnership states unequivocally, “Every young person in America deserves a complete and competitive education that includes the arts.” A thriving arts education has proven in study after study to increase academic performance, improve school culture and peer engagement, and drive the creativity and innovation necessary for 21st Century learners.
The Soraya endeavors to ensure that arts education is in every classroom by hosting an annual teacher professional development program—The Soraya Summer Arts Institute. Every institute operates under the theme of “Arts Across the Curriculum” to address the vital issue of limited access to comprehensive arts education in local San Fernando Valley schools. Approximately 30 – 50 educators each year acquire arts integration strategies to blend in with their lesson plans to stimulate active learning and create a dynamic classroom environment. This cross-curricular, arts-infused institute helps promote sustainable arts integration curricula to ensure that every student can benefit from the proven outcomes of a robust arts education.
To date, The Soraya has hosted nearly 300 educators in this program. Each educator teaches an average of 100 students, so by extension, this program has served nearly 30,000 students. Furthermore, approximately 70% of the educators each year represent Title 1 schools.
The current COVID-19 circumstances have allowed us the opportunity to innovate and explore how our summer program can thrive in a remote learning environment. Therefore, in the summer of 2020, we plan to continue this important work and offer customized digital content to bring high-quality, professional arts and music education that can be seamlessly integrated with the rest of the curriculum. We will explore, assess, and implement best practices in video instruction that will apply the necessary expertise to face the numerous challenges of remote learning.
For more information, please contact Dr. Anthony Cantrell, The Soraya's Director of Arts Education: Email: anthony.cantrell@csun.edu
2020 Soraya Summer Arts Institute (Live Online)
Download flyer »August 10-12, 2020, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 2PM – 4PM
Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, CSU Northridge