Help your students to expand their cultural repertoire with these featured resources centered on music, society, and culture. Register for full access to the free service.
Stephen Kent: Music Grades 6-13+ | Video | Musical Creation & Performance
Meet a composer and musician who has been playing the didgeridoo - a traditional aboriginal instrument - for more than 25 years. In that time, Stephen Kent has created a unique, contemporary style of execution influenced more by his travels than by a desire to continue within the Australian aboriginal musical tradition. Continue reading »
Rashidi Omari is a performance artist, writer and educator at Destiny Arts Center, a violence prevention and arts education organization in Oakland. Growing up, hip-hop was an outlet that helped Rashidi deal with life's challenges, and he works to provide today's Bay Area youth with the same creative opportunities. We stopped by his dance studio to learn more about this dynamic Oakland artist, and find what hip-hop means to him and his students.
After introducing Rashidi to your students, check out these two videos where he teaches us how to beatbox and breakdance. Follow along and add your own b-boy flavor.
Are you taking your students on a museum field trip this year? Today, we are happy to present the perfect piece of media to help prepare students for a visit to an art museum.
This film project was produced in partnership with the de Young Museum and their teen ambassador program, and expertly shot and edited by the youth production company at the Bay Area Video Coalition, The Factory.
In the Bay Area, there are many arts organizations that welcome student groups and often provide free admission and tours, including the de Young Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Museum, the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Cartoon Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara, the San Jose Museum of Art, and many more.
For the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, Spark-featured artist Stephanie Syjuco created an expansive shop of souvenirs produced in a monochrome palette: the memorable orange hue of the Golden Gate Bridge. Working with the same paint used to keep the bridge looking fresh, Syjuco's installation features all things reddish-orange: teacups, jewelry, postcards and tchotchkes that are surprisingly not for sale, but presented together as a conceptual art installation. This project contributes to the artist's oeuvre, which instigates dialogue about consumerism and our natural desire for objects and mementos.
How do artists interpret personal histories and cultural traditions to create a point of inquiry into current events and contemporary life? How do you create common experiences for all students in a diverse classroom? Is it possible to sail a Spanish galleon made of manila folders to Hog Island? These questions and more will be discussed at an upcoming KQED Arts Education workshop hosted in partnership with Teaching Artists Organized in Oakland.
Educators are invited to join us on January 21 for a day of art, dance and discovery. We'll explore the work of local artists including Ala Ebtekar and Michael Arcega (check out his his manila folder Spanish galleon in the video below).
We'll also develop collaborative lesson plans and learn a few Bhangra dance moves. Bhangra is an Indian folk dance, and many young dance teams are keeping the tradition alive in the Bay Area with the yearly Dhol di Awaz competition.
Read more about this exciting workshop and sign up on the Teaching Artists Organized website. There is a fee but scholarships are available from KQED. Send an email to ArtsEd@KQED.org to learn more.
Since 2009, KQED Arts Education has held workshops in stop-motion animation for both students and teachers. Inspired by Spark artist M.Dot Strange, and partnering with our friends at the Disposable Film Festival, the San Francisco Film Society, and Zeum, we’ve seen filmmakers of all ages produce their own digital animation projects. Stop-motion projects are low-tech and can be used for classroom projects focused on a range of topics.
KQED workshop participant and Rooftop Arts Coordinator Amy Blasbaugh took stop-motion into a 4th grade art classroom and tried another form of animation using celluloid film strips, thumbtacks, Sharpie markers, and an old-school projector. This camera-less technique was the perfect way to illuminate students’ interest in analog and digital film projects. As you’ll hear in Amy’s In the Classroom interview, there were a lot of “Oohs and aahs.”
Rooftop School is known for their year-long creative themes and part of their current focus is on “Illumination.”
Celebrate the Opera this September! KQED will air four performances by the San Francisco Opera, beginning with Puccini's La Bohème on September 1 at 8pm. Visit our program page for more details and air dates.
19th Century opera composer Richard Wagner described opera as "Gesamtkunstwerk," or "total artwork," in which music is combined with theater and visual arts to produce a complete multi-sensory experience. But few people realize that even a great master like Wagner required assistance from stage directors, conductors, costume and set designers, choreographers, technicians, singers, musicians, dancers and actors to create his “Gesamtkunstwerk.” In short, artists and artisans from several different disciplines must effectively collaborate in order to create a great operatic work.
Studying opera, both contemporary and historical, Eastern and Western, will give your students a better understanding of how collaboration is integral to the creation of this rich form of performing arts. The SF Opera's YouTube channel provides countless options for media introductions to the organizations, including previews of Tosca and La Bohème, and interviews with opera staff including directors and the wig and make-up shop masters.
The San Francisco Opera offers resources for educators including professional development, curriculum guides, and DVDs for your classroom such as a video production of the student-friendly opera, The Magic Flute, which is a highly accessible performance for younger students. If you are a Bay Area educator, please contact the San Francisco Opera at education@sfopera.com to obtain a free copy of the Magic Flute DVD.
Older students can compare San Francisco Opera's more traditional productions with one of its most recent, The Bonesetter's Daughter, based on the novel by Amy Tan. KQED produced a documentary about the making of the opera, which entailed years of research including trips to China to discover cultural music and art forms. Watch the Spark video about the making of The Bonesetter's Daughter on our website, and discover related web extras on YouTube such as a interviews with Chinese Circus Art performers.
The Spark video about Amy Tan's opera is available for streaming online, and will also air on KQED 9 and KQED Life August 31-September 4. Check the Spark schedule for air dates and times.
If you want to explore circus arts as an offshoot of your operatic lessons and activities, check out Spark's video and educator guide about Lu Yi's Circus Center in San Francisco.
Leave a comment below and let us know how you and your students engage with opera and other forms of performing arts. And remember to catch four exemplary San Francisco Opera performances from the comfort of your own living room this September on KQED 9. Don't forget your opera glasses!
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
