The Visual and Performing Arts Foundation, an independent nonprofit that supports the San Diego Unified School District’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) programs, funds arts enhancements not covered by a school’s budget. The VAPA Enhancement Program, or VEP, enables any San Diego Unified teacher to apply for funds to enhance the quality of and access to arts education in the classroom or school.

This year VEP will fund artist residencies in dance, theatre, visual arts, media arts, and music. Funding for arts equipment includes recording equipment, microphones, ukuleles, and restoring a baby grand piano. Each successful applicant linked the request to ongoing curriculum goals. Requests for funding ranged from $500 to $2,500.

Among the VEP recipients is Jason Berman at Millennial Tech Middle School, who will be able to fund students using various multimedia tools such as the Adobe suite to create onscreen graphics for videos, as well as to create illustrations to animate them. In the school’s computer lab, ten computers will be set up as drawing stations by attaching drawing tablets, allowing the students to be more creative in making digital art.

“In our school district the ‘non-rostered’ teachers (those without a set class list), such as P.E., Science and VAPA Prep teachers, are not allocated classroom technology like Boxlight/Promethean Boards, document cameras, and surround-sound speakers,” says Teresa Behnke, visual arts teacher at Hardy Elementary. “With the VEP funds I can purchase a projector, document camera, larger screen, and wireless speaker to enhance my teaching and bring my students’ art class experience into the 21st century. This equipment will support the whole school VAPA Program and allow me to conduct art night classes for families and the Hardy Elementary community.”

At Oak Park Elementary, an ongoing partnership with the David’s Harp Foundation teaches digital music production to at-risk fifth graders, imparting the skills of music composition and production and fostering relationships that encourage the most difficult and struggling students to re-engage with the school community. Their digital music program currently focuses on using cutting edge technology to teach students to compose, record, edit, and present original music. This year, the VEP grant of $500 will provide equipment to add teaching the skills of recording live instruments to their already successful program.

“Our students at Crown Point Junior Music Academy have a beautiful relationship with music, but due to our specific focus, our students have less exposure to the other art forms,” says Matthew Rhoades, visual arts teacher at Crown Point Junior Music Academy. “The program I will fund with this grant will allow our fourth graders to dive deeply into the visual arts with a collaborative residency with Erin Pennell of Art FORM, a local San Diego arts organization that is known for its unique approach to creative reuse in art-making. Three times throughout the school year, Ms. Pennell will visit our classroom and lead self-portrait workshops that are not about learning to draw. Instead, students will utilize recycled materials and found objects to create a self-portrait that reflects each student as they perceive themselves from the inside. After the series is complete, we will create a gallery showing and invite the other students, families, and the community to share in the evolution of their artwork.”

Michael Camacho, Executive Director of the VAPA Foundation, says, “We were excited to see such innovative ideas from our teachers and see them develop unique partnerships with arts and culture organizations including the David’s Harp Foundation, Villa Musica, Guitars in the Classroom, The Rosin Box Project, San Diego Ballet, Classics 4 Kids, and Art FORM San Diego.”

This year, the VAPA Foundation has awarded a total of more than $30,000 and nearly $130,000 in VEP awards since its inception in 2017. This funding was made possible in part by a sponsorship from UC San Diego. In addition, donors from the community have recognized the link between in-depth arts learning and gains in school attendance, graduation rates, college and workforce readiness, civic pride, and cultural awareness.

2021–22 VAPA Enhancement Program Recipients

• Art Banymandhub, Crawford High School - Restoration of a broken baby grand piano

• Matthew Lyons, Oak Park Elementary School - Partnership with David’s Harp Foundation to teach recording of digital music skills

• Sara Freese, Crown Point Junior Music Academy - Purchasing ukuleles for 4th and 5th grade students’ music instruction

• Julie Myer, Standley Middle School - Master classes, full ensemble, and small group coaching by Villa Musica for string orchestra students

• Jessica Curiel, San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts - Funding the Senior Dance Major Exhibition Showcase Project and Master Class Series Project

• Teresa Behnke, Hardy Elementary School - Funding for a projector, document camera, large screen and wireless speaker to enhance teaching art classes, including night classes for families and the Hardy Elementary community

• Amy Chagnon, Point Loma High School - After-school theatre program, in which students perform a fall play and a spring musical

• Sarah Ekedal, Grant TK-8 School - Support for the Art Kitchen, where students think creatively while learning technique and a hands-on approach to all materials in a converted cafeteria kitchen

• San San Blain, Wangenheim Middle School - Math + Music = Success, Guitar in the Classroom’s program to improve math learning and engagement while building community through music-making and songwriting

• William McClain, Carver Elementary School - The Ballet Machine, The Rosin Box Project’s arts integration program that combines Common Core Language standards and VAPA dance standards in a ballet setting

• Maria Cerda, Pacific View Leadership Elementary - The Ballet Machine, The Rosin Box Project’s arts integration program that combines Common Core Language standards and VAPA dance standards in a ballet setting

• Margaret Ballante, Jefferson Elementary School - The Ballet Machine, The Rosin Box Project’s arts integration program that combines Common Core Language standards and VAPA dance standards in a ballet setting

• Denise Carroll, Grant TK-8 School - Funding a San Diego Ballet teaching artist in the second-grade classroom to teach a series of Master Classes

• Jason Berman, Millennial Tech Middle School - Converting computers in the multimedia arts program into drawing stations by attaching drawing tablets

• Lisa Tessaro-Love, Crown Point Junior Music Academy - Bringing two Classics 4 Kids performances the students in two different in-school assemblies

• Matthew Rhoades, Crown Point Junior Music Academy - Collaborative residency with Erin Pennell of Art FORM, a local San Diego arts organization that is known for their unique approach to creative reuse in art making

• Jessica Rogawski, Morse High School - Creating a legacy at Morse through public art, starting with a student mural in the auditorium celebrating the diversity and talents of the student body

• Meera Ramanathan, Zamorano Fine Arts Academy - Funding a kinetic art project made from bicycle wheels and colored yarn