Our Commitment 

Education for the Arts aligns with Kalamazoo RESA’s commitment to being an anti-bias and anti-racism (ABAR) service organization. We strive to embody our core values of collaboration, innovation, compassion, trustworthiness, and respect; principles woven into all of EFA’s work, as outlined below.  

In pursuance of this goal, we are committed to personal and organizational growth.  We also recognize that in the learning process, we will make mistakes. As a learning community, we invite our staff, partners, and community stakeholders to graciously hold us accountable to further our collective growth.  

WORKS OF ART / REPERTOIRE

In an effort to provide rich and meaningful engagement with the arts for all K-12 students in Kalamazoo County, EFA purposefully seeks out and selects works of art for our annual repertoire that represent a broad range of human experiences across many different cultures with the belief that such engagement deepens students’ understanding of the world and fosters empathy and critical thinking.

TEACHING PEDAGOGY

EFA believes that a work of art is inseparable from the person(s) who created it.  We therefore acknowledge that:

• Works of art are created through a series of choices made by the artist(s) applying their craft;

• Works of art are therefore deeply intertwined with the identities and experiences of the artist(s), coupled with the historical context in which the work of art was created.

We encourage our Teaching Artists and partnering educators to lean into conversations about culture, heritage, and history that can sometimes be challenging and uncomfortable.  The process of dismantling oppressive structures.

AESTHETIC EDUCATION

The Aesthetic Education program: 

• aims to encourage students to think like the artist, to understand the creative process, and build empathy for others;

• strives to design an educational experience that allows students to deeply connect with the work of art by thoughtfully studying contextual information; 

• encourages educators to be inquisitive and intentional learners as well.

In this light, we embolden and challenge AE teaching artists and classroom teachers to carefully construct lessons and activities in ways that embrace and honor important information surrounding the work of art and the artist. 

Teaching artists and classroom teachers are not expected to be experts in the artists’ identities and context prior to exploring this work, nor are they expected to touch on all of the topics that may have influenced the artist. EFA is committed to supporting you in furthering your knowledge so that we can deepen student learning as they explore each work of art. 

WE WILL SUPPORT YOU

• The Window on the Work includes

  • historical context that influenced the artists and the techniques used

  • a list of books and other resources that could be used in the classroom

  • a reading list that gives more information on a topic from an adult lens 

• EFA will seek out experts that hold deep knowledge in these subject areas that will be accessible to TAs at brainstorming session(s).