One of ArtsBridge’s two high school partnerships this year was with David Starr Jordan High School (JHS). In 2005, JHS teachers initiated a small learning community (SLC) within the school that focused on the visual and performing arts. Beginning this year in the tenth grade, and then continuing on through graduation, the classroom teacher partners asked ArtsBridge to support their efforts as they began implementing their vision for a small learning community in the arts. In 2005-2006, ArtsBridge worked with the Starr Academy SLC at JHS in the areas of design/ media arts, and architecture. In addition, the art instruction was further supported by field trips to UCLA that included workshops in animation at the Hammer Musuem, mask making at the Fowler Museum, and capoeira instruction in the World Arts and Cultures Department’s new Garden Theater. Also, two design students from JHS were offered scholarships to attend UCLA’s Design/Media Arts Summer Institute in 2006.
Interestingly, JHS is located within walking distance from one of the country’s premiere historical art sites: the world renowned Watts Towers created by Simon Rodia. In order to better collaborate with local arts resources, ArtsBridge has also made an important connection to the Watts Towers Arts Center’s education program that will be further developed in the years ahead. ArtsBridge has also strengthened reinvigorated an important connection to LAUSD’s high school efforts in arts education with an emphasis on District 7.
An architecture project titled “Arty-Facts” was conducted by Jennifer Dillon (Architecture) in collaboration Jordan High School’s 10th grade history instructor Osvaldo Tapia. Mr. Tapia is a dedicated history teacher at JHS. Students connected their studies of history with visual culture and communication. Dillon explains, “My residency explores several ways in which art has been used in most cultures throughout history … as a means of communication, beautification, and symbolic thought. The class projects incorporate the use of graphite, watercolor and clay, while emphasizing elements of line, value, composition, color and form.” A design project taught by Erin Jacobs (Design|Media Arts) and Audrey Ma (Design|Media Arts) focused on computer literacy and basic media techniques with two of Billie Branscomb’s 10th grade classrooms. Branscomb’s students designed and produced their own media collages and logos that reflected on the their lives, families, friends, and neighborhood.
