Since 2008 The Great Arizona Puppet Theater has been partnering with Kenilworth Elementary School. Over the course of 3-4 weeks and many weeks of pre-planning culminating in a public performance of the kids work at the theater for the school, their friends and family. The Imagine This Project works with all students in Grades 2-8. Approximately 600 Kenilworth students annually are positively impacted by their work in developing a story, the chosen stories are then adapted into 14 shows. These shows are then created by the Kenilworth Peer afterschool program and GAPT puppeteers.
Why Imagine This Matters-
The Imagine this project provides means for students, teachers, and artists to collaborate and connect with each other in an inclusive environment as they create, prepare, and share artwork that brings communities together and elevates the core competency and social engagements of each student.
"Arts education has had a formal place in American schools at least since the early 1800s. The unique and essential contributions of the arts to every child’s growth and development were as clear to early Americans then as they are to us today. Unfortunately, children’s access to arts education as part of their core education continues to be uneven across our nation’s nearly 14,000 school districts. Some local education agencies currently offer a full, balanced education that includes rich and varied arts opportunities for their students. However, too many schools have succumbed to funding challenges or embraced a narrow focus on tested subjects, resulting in minimal, if any, arts experiences for the children they serve.
The arts have always served as the distinctive vehicle for discovering who we are. Providing ways of thinking as disciplined as science or math and as disparate as philosophy or literature, the arts are used by and have shaped every culture and individual on earth. They continue to infuse our lives on nearly all levels—generating a significant part of the creative and intellectual capital that drives our economy. The arts inform our lives with meaning every time we experience the joy of a well-remembered song, experience the flash of inspiration that comes with immersing ourselves in an artist’s sculpture, enjoying a sublime dance, learning from an exciting animation, or being moved by a captivating play. The fact that the arts provide important touchstones confirms their value to the development of every human being. Nurturing our children, then, necessarily means that we must provide all of them—not just those identified as “talented”—with a well-rounded education that includes the arts. By doing so, we are fulfilling the college and career readiness needs of our students, laying the foundations for the success of our schools and, ultimately, the success of our nation."- National Core Arts Standards
The Imagine this project provides means for students, teachers, and artists to collaborate and connect with each other in an inclusive environment as they create, prepare, and share artwork that brings communities together and elevates the core competency and social engagements of each student.
"Arts education has had a formal place in American schools at least since the early 1800s. The unique and essential contributions of the arts to every child’s growth and development were as clear to early Americans then as they are to us today. Unfortunately, children’s access to arts education as part of their core education continues to be uneven across our nation’s nearly 14,000 school districts. Some local education agencies currently offer a full, balanced education that includes rich and varied arts opportunities for their students. However, too many schools have succumbed to funding challenges or embraced a narrow focus on tested subjects, resulting in minimal, if any, arts experiences for the children they serve.
The arts have always served as the distinctive vehicle for discovering who we are. Providing ways of thinking as disciplined as science or math and as disparate as philosophy or literature, the arts are used by and have shaped every culture and individual on earth. They continue to infuse our lives on nearly all levels—generating a significant part of the creative and intellectual capital that drives our economy. The arts inform our lives with meaning every time we experience the joy of a well-remembered song, experience the flash of inspiration that comes with immersing ourselves in an artist’s sculpture, enjoying a sublime dance, learning from an exciting animation, or being moved by a captivating play. The fact that the arts provide important touchstones confirms their value to the development of every human being. Nurturing our children, then, necessarily means that we must provide all of them—not just those identified as “talented”—with a well-rounded education that includes the arts. By doing so, we are fulfilling the college and career readiness needs of our students, laying the foundations for the success of our schools and, ultimately, the success of our nation."- National Core Arts Standards