A Recap of The Creative Advantage’s Artful Solidarity for Arts Education

By Tina LaPadula
All Photos by Chloe Collyer

After 2 long, challenging years, The Creative Advantage hosted its first in-person event for Seattle Public School teachers and community arts partners on Saturday, April 30, at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM).

Artful Solidarity for Arts Education kicked off with a collective performance from 5 Youth Speaks Seattle poets who performed a piece with a justice-themed take on the Pledge of Allegiance.

Throughout the event, arts educators and community partners alike experienced: updates from The Creative Advantage team; words of encouragement and thanks from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s (ARTS) Acting Director, royal alley-barnes; a keynote by Donte Felder, Executive Director of South End Stories; art-making “solidarity tracks” responding to images from SAM’s current exhibition, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, led by Nabra Nelson, Director of Arts Engagement at Seattle Rep; music with Orlando Morales, Director of Arts Engagement at The 5^th Avenue Theatre; and visual art with Yaoyao Liu, Manager of School & Educator Programs at Seattle Art Museum.

After much time spent in virtual meetings and workshop spaces, it brought us collective joy to come together to celebrate our creative resilience, create art, and seed new possibilities that are yet to come.

Save the Date

The Creative Advantage Summer Institute will be held in person on August 18, 2022.

The Creative Advantage is a program of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) in partnership with Seattle Public Schools, the Seattle Foundation, and community arts partners.  For more information, please visit The Creative Advantage website or contact Arts Education Project Manager, Tina LaPadula, at tina.lapadula@seattle.gov.