Book Description

This book is full of true stories about performing artists at Living Arts, a small nonprofit in Detroit, Michigan, who formed a national affiliate of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts. That’s the early childhood outreach of the Wolf Trap Foundation, which is part of the world-renowned Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. In Detroit, this team of artists—dancers, actors, musicians, storytellers, puppeteers and more—developed training experiences with Wolf Trap’s guidance. Now, these teaching artists are bringing lessons to children aged 3 months to 5 years, many of them in low-income neighborhoods with few other opportunities to experience the arts. The Wolf Trap teaching artists also are training classroom teachers and opening doors for family involvement workshops as well. The stories in this book capture the excitement of those interactions. As you will learn in these pages, research is stacking up to demonstrate the dramatic contribution arts education can make in early childhood development—as well as specific skills in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) subjects. In these pages, you will meet all 12 of the 2016 teaching artists at Living Arts’ Detroit Wolf Trap affiliate. Each tells an inspiring—and often surprising—story about interactions with children and adults. By the end of the book, readers will have learned lots of creative ideas from these professionals. Readers also are left with further opportunities. The book includes videos of the artists at work, tips for establishing or expanding your own nonprofit and ways to connect with this Wolf Trap program. The book is intended for individual reading or group discussion with friends, parents, educators and community leaders anywhere across the U.S.