Shanti Foundation for Peace - After School Arts Education Programs that teach Peace and Nonviolence

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After School

REED ELEMENTARY

Students from Reed Elementary explored Instrument-making, Rhythm Games and Percussion. Under the direction of Shanti hip hop/spoken word poet Mars Caulton, students explored the relationship between Sound and Motion. They learned how to use their bodies to make group rhythms. They created simple instruments and experimented with how to create the best sound from them; and they used their voices as another instrument in both music and communicating. Mars sought to strengthen the students’ ability to “audiate” -- listen to their own inner voice and thoughts -- in spite of what is going on around them.

ALBANY PARK MULTICULTURAL ACADEMY

Students from the 7th and 8th grade ESL classes at Albany Park Multicultural Academy participated in the After School Shanti Club. The club met twice weekly for 10 weeks from January to March. Building on Art Teacher Katie Deegan’s in-school curriculum, students explored the Japanese comic Manga character drawing. As part of the Shanti methodology, they deconstructed some of the violent aspects of these characters and transformed them into peace and social justice characters. Shanti visual artist Diana Solis led them in the art of print making to execute their drawings. The characters were then printed on a fabric background on which the students created batik designs with the guidance of Shanti visual artist Alpha Breton.

WEST PARK ACADEMY

Students in the Family Focus Afterschool program at West Park Academy worked collaboratively for 10 weeks with the guidance of Shanti Visual Artist Monika Kimrey. The main focus of this project was to continually explore how we as individuals can respectfully fit in to a changing landscape of the busy inner city, while using our mindfulness and cooperation to embellish and inspire the environments we contact. Through collage techniques and the use of a variety of familiar and exotic elements such as textiles from India and Africa, images from magazines and vintage books, and found objects, they created a mural to represent their individuality and their community.