It’s Essentially Elementary, My Dear

    Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern PA (YANJ/PA) has long been a leader in the national YA network of arts-in-education presenters. Their expertise has been well used in the development of new criteria for YA core services to be child centered, outcome driven and measurably effective. To bring all YA programs in line with this teacher-friendly approach, YANJ has been sponsoring artist training.  MDTC’s Producing Artistic Director Morgiana Celeste Varricchio attended a recent workshop on November 18, 2012 at YANJ’s Princeton facility, and gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up review. Under this initiative, all YA programs across the country will allow students to experience, understand, create, and connect  (the Four Essential Elements) the arts to their lives and other learning. The template, which YA artists are required to complete, allows the artists to deconstruct their programs to make sure that these elements are clearly defined. The 14 workshop participants, from varying disciplines of dance, theater, and visual arts, spent the morning learning about the Core services and began working on their own templates in the afternoon. The atmosphere in the conference room positively crackled with the sparks shooting off from all that creative thinking. Arts-in-education programs play an invaluable role in a child’s learning path.  MDTC has always realized this to be the way toward understanding and accepting cultural differences, and is proud to be a member of YANJ/PA’s family of artists.  For more information visit the website at http://www.yanj-yaep.org/.