In November, PAFA’s School and Community Partnership Program received an enormous boost--a $300,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation. The grant will provide the Museum Education Department the opportunity to continue developing what has already become a robust educational program, both at the museum and in Philadelphia communities in need of art education. Moreover, the grant will strengthen bonds that have formed between PAFA and members of these communities, including teachers and administrators, students and their families.

Monica Zimmerman, PAFA’s Director of Museum Education, said, “The School and Community Partnership Program builds on PAFA’s history of doing outreach to underserved communities, but broadens and deepens that relationship and will, we hope, provide a model for other cultural institutions to think about how they can use their collections and expertise to strengthen whole communities, beyond the one-time field trip experience.”

The School and Community Partnership Program began in 2013, when PAFA partnered with Isaac A. Sheppard Elementary School in Philadelphia’s North Kensington neighborhood. With an initial grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the program has utilized art education to engage students creatively, and to overcome language barriers in schools with large Latino populations, such as the Sheppard Elementary and Julia de Burgos schools.

“Art is amazing in the sense that creativity can help fulfill so many of the things that we need,” said Diani Safdeye, PAFA’s School and Community Partnership Coordinator. “If you open that door to creativity, it can positively affect so many areas of your life.”

The program involves teaching students, both in the classroom and at PAFA, how to speak about a work of art, and to do related art-making activities. Each grade of students comes to PAFA once per semester. In addition, PAFA officially invites students’ families to the museum two or three times each semester, such as on Sundays for Family Arts Academy, which has established continuity.

The School and Community Partnership Program is not without challenges. Establishing relationships with designated community partners has meant working diligently to gain the trust and support from school administrators, teachers, and students, as well as parents. Still, according to Zimmerman, the program has given PAFA the unparalleled chance “to partner regularly with community organizations also working in the neighborhood, like cultural organizations, libraries and churches, in order to reach students and parents during out-of-school time.”

While PAFA has hosted school tours for years, the School and Community Partnership Program has added a major educational dimension. “This program is different because it works not just with students, but with teachers, with parents, with community organizers, and with artists in the neighborhood,” Zimmerman said. “It uses art as therapy for first generation immigrant parents and helps reinforce the development of English language skills. It trains teachers and administrators to build visual art into classroom curricula, and installs art supplies and visual arts lessons in schools without art.” In addition, the program has enabled PAFA and its community partners to create a permanent art installation at each school, so that “the neighborhood invests creatively in the architecture of their learning.”

According to Safdeye, the program has already seen a great deal of success. “Progress is seeing a kid who hasn’t been to a museum a second or third time around,” she said. “That’s when you see changes. You see details in their artwork, in how they behave in this space, how to draw a story, and you see a feeling of pride.”

As many Sheppard School students ultimately feed into Burgos School, the program is aiming to have profound, lasting effects on their arts education. “Many students visit PAFA as Sheppard students and then return to PAFA as Burgos students,” Safdeye concluded. “They now feel comfortable here.”

With the William Penn Foundation’s grant, the School and Community Partnership Program will continue flourishing, adding resources and partnering with more schools. As Safdeye said, it will enable the museum to continue building relationships with communities by asking, “How can PAFA be a resource to you?”

Written by ZP Heller

January 27, 2015

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