Part 3
Griselda Suarez: On Arts Education, Advocacy and Community
PalacioMagazine.com finishes its conversation with Arts Council for Long Beach Executive Director Griselda Suarez. In this last part, Suarez discusses issues including Arts Education, Advocacy, Community Engagement and how her tenure at the Arts Council will be different than the last five or six Executive Directors in ten years.
Want to find out more about Arts Education and the Arts Council and the Long Beach Unified School District? See below.
Arts Council
- Arts Education Enrichment Grant: Through the generous support of Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, Fourth District and the Ruth and Joseph C. Reed Foundation for the Arts, the Arts Education Enrichment Grant provides financial support to Long Beach Unified School District students for arts education experiences. Grants support a professional development component for teachers, either a field trip to an arts event or an in-school arts program and a post-arts extension activity. Instructors and education professionals employed by Long Beach Unified School District K-12 public school are eligible to apply. The Fiscal Year 2016–2017 Applications will be available in the spring of 2016. Applications are due in the fall of 2016.
- Creative Long Beach Internship Program: Creative Long Beach is a semester-long paid internship program that matches upper division or graduate students at California State University, Long Beach’s College of the Arts with Long Beach arts organizations. Students develop a deeper understanding of nonprofit arts administration and the role of the arts in the community. Participating organizations help develop new arts leaders while gaining the assistance of motivated students. Creative Long Beach aids with expanding Long Beach’s internship capacity and local hiring goals. For more information, please read this recent press release or contact Amanda Matthews at amanda.matthews@artslb.org. 562.435.ARTS (2787) ext. 101.
- Eye On Design is a 15 week public art education program for third-graders that encourages civic involvement, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving through a customized residency program. Eye on Design guides students through the same process a public artist follows to develop a public art concept and seek an art commission. By the end of the 15 weeks, students have studied various forms of public art, researched their surrounding neighborhood and created a public art piece for their school. Eye on Design’s interdisciplinary approach incorporates language arts, history/social science and the visual arts. Students apply their learning to solve “real- life” problems and must actively utilize art theory, reading, writing, speaking, and math skills through the work they do. Eye on Design is a substantive and intricate program that empowers students to create positive change in their own community.The Fiscal Year 2016–2017 Applications will be available in the summer of 2016. Applications are due in the fall of 2016. See a video on Eye on Design HERE.
- Passport To The Arts is a six week experience for Long Beach third and fourth graders that teaches interdisciplinary arts education and cultural enrichment through dance, visual art, music, and theater. Passport to the Arts showcases the cultural and artistic traditions of Africa, Cambodia and Latin America, all prominent ethnic and cultural groups in Long Beach. Learning about these groups fosters student tolerance and appreciation of cultural diversity. Starting every fall, the teaching artist teaches six standards-based lessons. Lessons build upon one another as students learn to evaluate similarities and differences among traditional arts and their respective cultures. The students’ six- week experience will culminate in a performance or art exhibition at their school. Students’ own works can relate specifically to one of the cultures studied, or be comprised of a unique fusion of cultural ideas. Passport to the Arts has received considerable teacher and administrative praise and has become a tradition for many schools.The Fiscal Year 2016–2017 Applications will be available in the summer of 2016. Applications are due in the fall of 2016.
Photo by PraveenbenK 
Long Beach Unified School District
The mission of the Visual and Performing Arts Office is to ensure that every child has access to a balanced, comprehensive, and sequential program of study in the arts. Arts education, as part of the core curriculum, cultivates the whole child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. We provide support to arts teachers, classroom teachers and administrators so that every child will have the opportunity to experience the power and beauty of the arts and the joy, creativity, and intellectual, stimulation that arts education programs provide.
