by Andre Clayton 

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is the most famous of Aesop’s fables, which uses simple language to teach children the moral lesson that slow and steady wins the race.    

Progressive Arts Alliance artist-educator Jen Craun is teaching Charles Lake Elementary preschoolers and kindergartners twelve of Aesop’s fables, including “The Tortoise and the Hare,” through a more colorful technique than just reading their simple language to them. Craun, who is a professional artist, said since March she has been teaching Charles Lake preschoolers and kindergartners printmaking to create the characters of the twelve Aesop’s fables.  

According to Craun, Charles Lake preschoolers and kindergarteners have been using stencils, brayers, inks, and a printing press to create the fables’ characters, which will be used as a backdrop for a play performed by older students that will be about the fables they have learned. Three additional PAA arts-educators are teaching other Charles Lake Elementary students music, script writing, and acting for the play, which they will perform in front of their classmates and parents at the end of the program in May. (more…)

by Andre Clayton  

On May Day in Canterbury Elementary School’s gymnasium, half of its fourth grade class danced in front of their parents and peers instead of around a maypole and the rest of the fourth grade class rapped, creating a festive new twist to the centuries old tradition.  

Canterbury’s rap and break dance performances were a part of a PAA arts-in-education residency program in Cleveland Heights schools that the Ohio Arts Council helped fund with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.  (more…)

by Andre Clayton  

After George Washington Carver Elementary School third grade teacher Susan O’Donnell worked with Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA) for the first time this year, she said she got more than she expected when one of her students began a geometry project at home just for fun.  

PAA has been providing schools both in and outside the Cleveland Metropolitan School District with arts-in-education programming since 2002, striving to give students meaningful experiences in the contemporary arts that stimulate critical thinking and promote progressive thought.  

PAA artist-educators worked with O’Donnell’s third grade class for over two months, combining printmaking with her math curriculum and rap with her language arts curriculum.   (more…)

Story by Andre Clayton

What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andrew Carnegie, and Charlie Chaplin have in common? School students in Cleveland answered that question in their 35-minute documentary about immigration and migration, “From There to Here: Discovering Immigration and Migration,” in front of an audience of parents and students on April 7 in their school cafeteria; the three men had immigrated to America.

The cafeteria-turned-auditorium, displayed what the students had been cooking up for the past 10 weeks during a residency with Progressive Arts Alliance artist-educators and filmmakers Cindy Penter and Tom Kondilas. The students, fourth through sixth graders, used photography, voiceovers, and stop motion video film techniques, which they had learned from Penter and Kondilas, to describe the miserable experiences 19th and early 20th century impoverished immigrants had to go through during their journey to America, such as being crammed with hundreds of other immigrants in the lower decks of a ship for months and eating rotten food. The audience remained silent as they were drawn in by the students’ vivid film footage.  (more…)

Photo by Patrick Fenner

Text by Andre Clayton

Luiz Muñoz Marin School (LMMS) was named after Puerto Rico’s first elected governor, one of many facts LMMS students learned while making their historical documentary film about the Clark-Fulton and Tremont neighborhoods of  Cleveland.

LMMS fourth, fifth, and sixth graders spent three months as documentary filmmakers, under the supervision of Progressive Arts Alliance artist-educators, Joshua Johnston and Patrick Fenner, as they interviewed prominent Clark-Fulton and Tremont history experts and filmed the historical places that make Clark-Fulton and Tremont unique places to live.

LMMS students showed their final work on April 2 in front of their classmates, teachers, and community members in the Lincoln West High School Auditorium. The West Side Market, Cleveland City Hospital, which is now a MetroHealth Hospital, the house used in the movie “A Christmas Story,” St. Michael’s Church, Carnegie Libraries, and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo were chosen topics for the documentary. The LMMS students also filmed their school and the history of immigration in Clark-Fulton and Tremont.

(more…)

Jason Hebert, PAA video editing intern, teaches a student about video editing.

by Andre Clayton

After three months of creating and editing videos of hip-hop artists spreading positive messages to Cleveland youths, such as the importance of staying in school, Progressive Arts Alliance video editing intern Jason Hebert said it was a “cool” experience.

Progressive Arts Alliance, a nonprofit organization, has been exciting students with dynamic arts-in-education programming since 2002 through school programs, summer camps, professional development workshops and community outreach programs.

Hebert, a 20-year-old French college student, said he got excited about PAA’s video editing internship when he discovered the internship posting while surfing the web in his hometown Dijon, France. (more…)

Progressive Arts Alliance is pleased to announce that the Eighth Annual RHAPSODY Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp will be held this year at the Idea Center at Playhouse Square, Monday-Friday, August 3-14, 2009, 9am-5pm.

During this two-week intensive camp, students will work with PAA’s professional artist-educators to learn more about the history and art forms of hip-hop culture and how hip-hop can be a positive form of creative self-expression.  Students will also learn more about professional careers in the arts.

Camp activities will include hands-on workshops in DJing, MCing (rapping), dance, and graffiti art.  For more information about the camp, click here.

Sample the Hip-Hop Camp for Free! 

Join PAA and Playhouse Square for FREE DJ workshops after-school from 4-6pm on the following Tuesdays and Thursdays:

February 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26

March 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26

No pre-registration is required for DJ classes – come to one or come to them all!

The Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp and After-School DJ Workshops are held at:

Idea Center at Playhouse Square

1375 Euclid Avenue (at E. 14th St)

Downtown Cleveland

Interested in helping a student in need attend summer camp this year? To make a tax-deductible donation to sponsor a student scholarship, click here to donate securely online. It costs just $200 to sponsor a student, but donations in any amount will be gladly accepted. Be sure to designate your donation for “Hip-Hop Camp Scholarship.” Donations can also be mailed to PAA, 2310 Superior Avenue Ste 280, Cleveland, OH 44114

To get the latest updates about this year’s hip-hop camp, join the PAA email list by clicking here.

Progressive Arts Alliance is pleased to be a partner with Get Hep Swing, led by award-winning dancer Valerie Salstrom, in the presentation of all-star student swing dancers from Denison School! Students Derrick Summerville, Siobhan Tompkins, Catalino Lopez, and Sasha Gross just returned from competing (and placing) in the first annual International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, DC.

Under the special guidance and instruction of dancers/teachers Valerie Salstrom and Matthew Mitchell, the students worked all summer preparing for this special event. See their winning performances below at the end of this entry.

As a result of the students’ hard work, they have been invited to compete in San Francisco in October and to perform in Houston, Texas in the spring. They will also travel to other cities throughout this school year. In order for the students to travel from Cleveland, Ohio and share their dynamic dance talent to audiences throughout the country, funds are needed to help cover the cost of traveling. To make a tax-deductible donation to help defray their travel expenses, click here to donate securely online. Be sure to designate your donation for “Denison Swing Dancers.” Donations can also be mailed to PAA, 2310 Superior Avenue Ste 280, Cleveland, OH 44114. (more…)

Don’t Miss the Excitement!

Progressive Arts Alliance is please to announce that registration is now open for the Seventh Annual RHAPSODY Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp, which will be held Monday-Friday, August 4-15, 2008 at the Idea Center at Playhouse Square in Downtown Cleveland.  The camp is open to students age 11 and up.

The RHAPSODY Hip-Hop Summer Arts Camp is truly an experience like no other.  Students engage in dynamic hands-on workshops in music, visual art, dance, and poetry while learning more about about how hip-hop can be a positive and productive form of creative self-expression.

For more information about registration, please download the camp brochure below.  If you are in need of financial assistance, please download the Financial Assistance Application below.

If your student is in need of transportation to/from camp each day, click here to send us an email and PLEASE indicate your transportation needs, including where you live and your nearest RTA bus or rapid stop.

Stay tuned for more news!  This year’s visiting guest artist will be announced soon.

To join the PAA email list, click here. 

Click Here to Download the Hip-Hop Camp Brochure and Registration Form.

Click here to Download the Hip-Hop Camp Financial Assistance Form.