Last week, West End House began the spring session of Extended Learning Time, an initiative funded by the Cabot Family Charitable Trust and the Edmund and Betsy Cabot Charitable Foundation, as well as funded in part by BPS Arts Expansion, a multi-year effort focusing on access, equity and quality arts learning for BPS students. The BPS Arts Expansion Fund, managed by EdVestors, is generously supported by the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Katie and Paul Buttenwieser, Connie and Lew Counts, Hunt Alternatives, Klarman Family Foundation, Linde Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rhonda S. ZInner Foundation. The Wallace Foundation supports the broaders work of BPS Arts Expansion.
This initiative enables West End House to host high-impact visual and performing arts classes during school time for students who attend Jackson Mann K-8 School, an Allston-based elementary and middle school that is underserved and underrepresented in the arts.
Through this partnership, over 250 Jackson Mann students engage in meaningful arts instruction classes weekly, taught on-site at West End House by a diverse group of highly-skilled teaching artists. Arts education offerings include Digital Arts with our Director of Performing Arts Emily Hofelich, Step with our Arts Program Specialist Carleen Colin, and Visual Arts with our Teen Arts Specialist Lee Beard. West End House also hosts dance and visual arts classes lead by teaching artists from Young Audiences and Eliot School.
In addition to instruction from the teaching artists, Jackson Mann faculty play a key collaborative role in class by lending creative support for each student. This unique structure provides the opportunity for Math, Science, and English teachers from Jackson Mann to interact with their students in a more creative, dynamic setting, which in turn helps foster meaningful relationships that directly impact youth academic success.
“West End House’s Extended Learning Time program exemplifies the positive impact that comprehensive arts education can have within a community,” says West End House Director of the Arts Nadine Martinez. “We provide a safe space for students, teachers, and teaching artists to come together and empower youth voice through a creative lens. Through the Extended Learning Time program, many of our youth develop artistic skills that help position them for long term artistic and personal advancement.”
West End House is committed to providing meaningful, high-impact arts instruction for young people in Boston, positioning them for a path towards arts mastery and a lifelong appreciation for the arts.
