Abstract

As a result of a Learn and Serve America grant and the key partnerships that were developed with the Alameda County Office of Education, the East Bay Community Foundation's Arts Partnerships for Educational Excellence (APEX) Initiative, and the Oakland Unified School District, the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and San Francisco was able to extend art education to a wide range of students. This program was highlighted in the National Service News, Issue No. 174, December 19, 2002, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

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Issue

Creating partnerships to extend art programs in schools and communities.

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Action

The California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) in Oakland and San Francisco established a Center for Art and Public Life (the Center). With the support of a Learn and Serve America grant and key partnerships with the Alameda County (Oakland area) Education Office and the Oakland Unified School District, the Center integrates service-learning into CCAC programs and curricula that bring the arts to youth and neighborhoods near CCAC's two campuses.

• Staff from the Center for Art and Public Life take a leadership role in the integration of service-learning into the total college experience.
• Faculty members receive training to develop service-learning courses and materials and participate in service-learning workshops.
• Federal work-study students at CCAC increasingly participate in the Center's community service activities.
• At Rock La Fleche High School, in Oakland, CCAC service-learning students created a Media Arts Center. CCAC alumni Michael Craig, who started in 2001 as a Community Student Fellow with the Center, now serves as artist in residence, conducting video editing workshops. Rock La Fleche students learn skills in graphics, video, and self-expression serving as production assistants in after-school video projects.
• Other CCAC students worked with the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco designing and building a playground learning garden. The gardening project evolved into a community improvement project with many partners.
• About 64 CCAC freshman work with 64 fourth and fifth graders at Arts Far West School (AFW) in Oakland, serving as mentors and engaging the elementary school students in art-making activities through drawing and English.
• The Center also works with Arts Far West, a K-12 magnet school, to help educators develop a curriculum centered on learning through arts practice and social justice.
• Teams of faculty and teachers from the CCAC and Arts Far West work together to plan how service-learning and citizenship development can be achieved at both the secondary school and the college.

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Context

The California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC) was founded in 1907 by Frederick Meyer to provide an education for artists and designers that would integrate both theory and practice in the arts. CCAC provides an interdisciplinary curricula that balances tradition with innovation; combines theory and practice; and connects art, design, and architecture with each other and with important issues of society.

The neighborhoods of the Bay Area are among the most culturally diverse in the nation. Students have an opportunity to learn from, and contribute to, the communities immediately surrounding CCAC's two campuses through the college's Center for Art and Public Life.

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Outcome

As a liaison between CCAC and Bay Area communities, the Center for Art and Public Life has created several long-term partnerships related to arts education and health and human services.
Its community development programs have included work with:

• Arts School and Far West High School
• ArtSpark
• Fremont High
• GirlStart at Lockwood Elementary School
• Potrero Hill Middle School for the Arts
• Rock La Fleche School
• West Oakland Youth Empowerment Planning Project

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Evidence

The Center reports that students want more community engagement from CCAC and find the Center is the place where that need is met.

Each year, approximately 50-70 college students participate in bringing the arts to schools and the communities in which they live.

During 2000-2003, the mentorship program has served the following:
Drawing mentorships:75 CCAC students and 79 AFW students
English mentorships: 85 CCAC students and 105 AFW students

During 2001 through 2003, the mentorship program has served the following:
Reading buddies: 20 CCAC students and 20 AFW students
Painting in/within communities: 26 CCAC students and 27 AFW students

The total number of students served to June 2003 includes: 206 CCAC students and 231 AFW students

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For More Information

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Related Practices

• Using poetry workshops to encourage literacy
• Holding a poetry contest to educate youth about watershed ecology

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Related sites

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

Learn and Serve America

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