With support from the California Arts Council, Performing Arts Workshop will conduct a 45-week creative writing residency in partnership with Marin County Juvenile Hall / Office of Education. Our trained teaching artist will conduct weekly 90-minute classes; the residency will culminate in the publication of a written anthology. Young poets will have the opportunity to record readings of their poems to be played on stage at our 2020 annual Student Showcase.
-Artists-in-Residency. We currently engage nearly 1,500 Bay Area youth (PreK-12) at 25 sites annually in sequential dance, music, theater, poetry, and visual/media arts training through 15-30 week residencies, 1-2 hours weekly. We partner with preschools, majority Title 1 schools, transitional housing facilities, afterschool programs, and juvenile hall schools.
-Geneva Powerhouse. In 2017, Performing Arts Workshop was selected as the sole tenant and program provider of the Geneva Powerhouse. Here, we host seven youth classes annually, including Community Activism and Brazilian Dance, Spoken Word, Oral Traditions Movement and Herbal Medicine, and Mindful Munchkins, a class for toddlers and caregivers to practice an art form in collaboration with a teaching artist and peers. We also host the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), a paid cohort of students who provide organizational feedback, event leadership, and future program planning at the Powerhouse. Finally, we offer discounted and donated space to community partners in District 11, Lakeview, and OMI communities and to support Black, Indigenous, Queer, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Latine arts and artists in San Francisco.
-Student Publishing and Showcase: We curate and publish an annual student work anthology and present a yearly Student Showcase at the Geneva Powerhouse.
-Artist Commissioning Program: “Seismic Shift” – Our new artist commissioning program supports artists of color in creating and presenting transformative works in San Francisco.
-Professional Development and Anti-Racist Resource Sharing: We offer monthly Learning and Growth Sessions at the Powerhouse to provide staff with Anti-Racist training and mentorship. We regularly present and share our frameworks, expertise, and learnings with other organizations, such as the San Francisco Unified School District. Our organization most recently received invitations from Emerging Arts Professionals (2022), NYC Arts in Education Roundtable: Face-to-Face (2023), and the National Guild for Community Arts Education (2024) to facilitate workshops on our Anti-Racist Framework and Operations.

