Curricula (Partners in Art)

The Partners in Art Series – Mentoring Curricula
Music: Play by Heart
Visual Art: Draw on Experience

Our Partners in Art Series provides an effective platform for teaching skills while building a positive relationship based on another “language” and following the student’s emotional interest and personal expression. All are designed to be experientially relevant and many are culture-specific. While some are for use specifically for artists and musicians, others are great for parents, guardians, social workers, teachers, or child care workers with no artistic experience.

We offer music curriculum (Play by Heart) and visual arts curriculum (Draw on Experience).

Play by Heart — Currently Available!

Play by Heart: Volume I — Drumset. (Ages 10 – Adult) These units are designed for use by a drumset instructor or students with some previous experience. Their historical and cultural perspectives provide relevancy for students, ensuring their engagement. The examples build upon each other, with a step by step process, and as you use specific lessons in your daily instruction you will develop your ability to use other curriculum in a progressive and effective manner.

The units in this volume include: (1) Four Part Groove; (2) Hip Hop — the Experience; (3) New Orleans Second Line Drumming.

Also included are notes to teachers about:
✓ the importance of recording lessons for students’ use during daily at-home practice
✓ how to notate assignments
✓ how to effectively prepare for upcoming lessons.

An accompanying CD is in production – please email us to be notified when
the CD is available.

Draw on Experience – Coming Soon!

Our Draw on Experience curricula focuses on drawing or painting.

Draw on Experience: Volume I. (Ages 6 – Adult) The units in this curriculum focus on drawing. They begin very simply, developing into more complex exercises in a well ordered, easy to understand, fun way so they are equally well suited for people with no art training or an art instructor in a mentoring or classroom situation.

Unit 1 — Adinkra Symbols, begins with building a vocabulary of some of the basic shapes used in all visual art, through the creation of a number of traditional Adinkra symbols from Africa. Participants then create their own symbols, using the skills and orientations they’ve learned.

Unit 2 — Visual Emotion, focuses on Paul Goodnight and Vincent van Gogh, two of the innumerable artists for whom art has been/is critical to self-expression and communication. The artists’ short biographies are followed by a series of exercises that continue the students’ basic artistic development. These are then followed by a set of fun exercises that stimulate artists of all levels to share the adventure of exploring ways of putting their feelings to paper.

Please email us to be notified when this volume is available.