Performing Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization established in 1965 with a mission to help young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and essential learning skills through the arts. Our organization creates more equitable access to robust arts education by prioritizing thoughtful arts programming with an anti-racist lens. Today, the Workshop brings sequential arts instruction grounded in inquiry and reflection to more than 1,500 students ages 3-18 each year at preschools, public schools, community centers, transitional housing facilities, and juvenile halls. Our teaching artists conduct 15-60 session residencies in dance, music, spoken word poetry, and theater arts. We work with communities with fewer arts education resources in San Francisco, prioritizing youth with the most constrained access to rigorous learning and development in the arts. Of the students we serve, 86% identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and our leadership and teaching artists proudly reflect these identities. External evaluations have found our program to help youth develop core thinking and social-emotional skills essential to healthy development: communication, creative risk-taking, emotional regulation, and self-expression are all benefits of our program. Our current programming focuses on community-building and forging personal connections with students to address the extended isolation and trauma students experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We support teaching quality and fidelity to the Workshop’s method across disciplines through a yearlong rigorous professional development program for artists, including mentorship, leadership development, and opportunities to advance. Since 2013, we have committed to offering salary and benefits packages to our core teaching artists.
Performing Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization established in 1965 with a mission to help young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and essential learning skills through the arts. Our organization creates more equitable access to robust arts education by prioritizing thoughtful arts programming with an anti-racist lens. Today, the Workshop brings sequential arts instruction grounded in inquiry and reflection to more than 1,500 students ages 3-18 each year at preschools, public schools, community centers, transitional housing facilities, and juvenile halls. Our teaching artists conduct 15-60 session residencies in dance, music, spoken word poetry, and theater arts. We work with communities with fewer arts education resources in San Francisco, prioritizing youth with the most constrained access to rigorous learning and development in the arts. Of the students we serve, 86% identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and our leadership and teaching artists proudly reflect these identities. External evaluations have found our program to help youth develop core thinking and social-emotional skills essential to healthy development: communication, creative risk-taking, emotional regulation, and self-expression are all benefits of our program. Our current programming focuses on community-building and forging personal connections with students to address the extended isolation and trauma students experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We support teaching quality and fidelity to the Workshop’s method across disciplines through a yearlong rigorous professional development program for artists, including mentorship, leadership development, and opportunities to advance. Since 2013, we have committed to offering salary and benefits packages to our core teaching artists.