VSA Alaska
|
3800 DeBarr Road |
Scott Turner Schofield |
|
Tel.: (907) 279-8099 |
Website: |
Organizational Profile:
|
Full-time Staff: 3 |
 |
VSA Alaska connects art, community, and change throughout a state where culturally diverse communities are separated by vast distances. Now entering its 25th season, VSA Alaska finds and shares cultural explorers whose ideas challenge and inspire; raises up creative space where all generations gather and learn; and champions, through the arts and humanities, people marginalized in our times. VSA Alaska owns and operates its own facility, Out North.
Programming Partners and Other Funders:
Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation; Alaska Community Share; Alaska Community Foundation; Alaska State Council on the Arts; Arc of Anchorage; Anchorage International Film Festival; Anchorage Weavers and Spinners Guild; Bezek, Durst & Seiser; Begich Middle School; Bunnell Street Arts Center; BP Exploration, Carver Family Foundation; Classic Woman & Portfolio; Fairbanks Arts Association; KYES-TV 5; IBM; McLaughlin Youth Center; Steller Alternative School; Cook Inlet Tribal Council/Mediak; Municipality of Anchorage; National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network; Nick Begich Scholarship Fund; Rasmuson Foundation, Storytellers Guild of Anchorage; University of Alaska Anchorage Women’s Studies Department; University of Alaska Anchorage Fine Arts Department; Warhol Foundation; Western States Arts Federation; Petersburg, Denali, and Palmer Arts Councils.
Educational Programs and Artist Residencies
Images of Youth
VSA Alaska’s multidisciplinary youth arts program serve students with learning disabilities and other at-risk students in grades 6–12. Professional artists guide adolescents in creative writing, performance, visual, and media arts to develop their talents, language arts skills, knowledge of contemporary art forms, social and academic skills, confidence, and self-esteem. Youth-devised projects give teens a public forum to express their aspirations and concerns through the arts.
Local teaching artists are recruited by VSA Alaska to work in after-school programs at an Anchorage middle school, an alternative high school, and a youth detention facility with high concentrations of low-income, at-risk youth. These classes are augmented by visiting national performing artists.
This year VSA Alaska will add two new youth programs. The first will offer lessons in playing and dancing to the khean, a traditional Hmong wind instrument. Currently plans are being made to add a radio program where youth will program and operate a radio station from the Out North facility.
Professional Development and Technical Assistance
Onstage and Gallery Programs
Emerging artists with and without disabilities will be given opportunities to develop live performance skills through an annual solo performance showcase. Local theatre producers will present scripted works featuring casts and crews including people with and without disabilities. Visiting national performing artists will train local artists on how to effectively integrate the arts into the curriculum for students with disabilities in prekindergarten through 12th grade, and to use various art forms as tools to teach other academic subjects and life skills. Emerging visual artists will be given opportunities to exhibit their work through the community gallery program. Local poets with and without disabilities will get exposure for their work when they are featured performers in Poetry Parley, a monthly event.
Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services
No Artist Left Behind
Board, staff, artists, members, and local design professionals are investigating options for re-envisioning and upgrading existing facilities with the goal of creating an accessible environment for artists and audiences of all ages. VSA Alaska will feature several performances that will include sign language interpretation.
Public Awareness and Outreach
Disability Awareness
VSA Alaska will continue to work with other organizations around the state to increase programming in other areas. National Hmong performing artists will perform a show that brings awareness to issues of depression and suicide amongst Asian-American refugees.
(F) 202-429-0868