ArtLink: International Arts Exchanges for Students

Exciting cross-cultural experiences that address education standards!

The Feast of the Flower,
Maroina Cela, Albania

ARTLINK
Deadline: May 31, 2007

International Classrooms wanted.

Artwork from 2003
Hanukkah,
Zachary, Rhode Island, USA

ArtLink and MusicLink are dynamic, international adventures in cross-cultural exchange brought to you by VSA arts and Creative Connections. In this program, students create art projects that reflect their lives and cultures, and then share their work with their international partners. The goal of the exchange is to ignite participating students’ creativity and curiosity while providing an opportunity to gain new insights into another culture and country. Through this process, students will also gain new perspectives on their own culture and communities.

The program is specifically designed to engage all students in the learning process while focusing on education goals by:

Weaving seamlessly into standards-based curricula for subjects such as visual arts, music, language arts, and social studies.
Lending itself to a variety of instructional approaches, such as differentiated, project-based, and multi-modal.
Providing resources through the teacher guide, such as “Tips for Including All Children.”

Students ages 7-14 years in classes that have students with disabilites are invited to participate. Previous participating countries include: Albania, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Kuwait, Panama, Peru, Philipines, St. Lucia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United States.

VSA arts provides fee waivers for a limited number of applicants. Classrooms not receiving a waiver must pay a $300 enrollment fee.

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Artlink

Students in participating classrooms create visual artwork based on a specific theme to exchange with their partnering classroom in another country. A step-by-step teacher guide provides suggestions for participating teachers on encorporating the activities into their programs. Classrooms prepare their ArtLink exchange packets consisting of the student artwork, student artwork descriptions, and an optional introductory video. Classrooms then receive their partner's exchange packet along with the ArtLink portfolio, which consists of selected artwork from a variety of participants. Selected pieces of art are showcased in both live and virtual exhibitions.

TIMELINE

May 31: Deadline for enrollment in ArtLink 2007.
September: Teachers receive the easy to follow Teacher Guide with step-by-step instructions on how to successfully incorporate ArtLink into their lesson plans.
September-November: Classrooms plan and make their art projects and descriptions sheets, and send them to Creative Connections.
November 16: Artwork must be received by Creative Connections.
Novmember-December: Once the artwork is received, selected pieces of art from each classroom are held back to form an international art exhibit, as well as a virtual exhibit on our Website for audiences around the world. The rest of the artwork will be exchanged with partner classrooms.
January: Classrooms receive their partner classrooms' artwork and exchange thank you letters with each other. Participating classrooms also receive a portfolio of color digital prints from a number of other ArtLink classrooms.
May: Virtual exhibit posted online at www.creativeconnections.org.
June: Annual art exhibit in Washington, D.C.

ENROLLMENT

Download your ArtLink enrollment form. 24 KB

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ArtLink is a products of Creative Connections and are brought to you in part through a contract with VSA arts under a grant from the United States Department of Education. The project does not necessarily represent the policy of the United States Department of Education, and no endorsement by the Federal Government should be assumed.