The second year of Myrna Loy’s Arts and Mental Health Initiative, in partnership with Helena Public Schools, is in full-swing! Designed to intentionally support student and teacher mental health by providing arts experiences that integrate the arts and age-appropriate social/emotional learning, our goal is to develop and implement a unique arts experience for each grade level K-5 by the end of the 2025/26 school year.
Last year, every kindergarten and fourth grade classroom had the opportunity to participate. This year, we’ve expanded our programming to include grades 2 and 5, and next year, we will have workshops for grades 1 and 3 as well!
Helena Public School kindergarteners are again thrilled by Kevin Casey and Ilgaz Ulusoy Casey’s original shadow puppet show, The Hedgehog and The Bear, in which they follow Hedgehog’s journey to meet her friend Bear and then explore emotion and puppetry skills through an interactive workshop.
Second graders are having a blast engaging with teaching artist Eric Dymit’s Mask Theater Workshop in which they explore movement and emotion and learn how a mask can hide or amplify those actions and emotions. Students participate in a mini-“performance” that expresses emotion through a guided scene.
Teaching artist Brandon Taylor is back at it this year in fourth grade with his Rhythm and Movement Workshop in which students develop rhythmic sequences that communicate specific emotions after being inspired by Brandon’s tap-dancing demo. Students practice reading body-language and movement to determine how someone might be feeling.
Fifth graders are enthralled by Retta Leaphart’s Partnering through Puppetry Workshop in which they learn the basics of Bunraku-style puppetry. Students work collaboratively to observe movement and emotional expression in a person and then find ways to replicate that expression through the choreography of newspaper-print puppets.
This three-year initiative also provides Helena Public School teachers with access to a variety of collaborative and uplifting arts workshops that enable the release of some of the stress of the classroom while inspiring them to bring new learning and creativity back to their students.
A handful of Helena Public School teachers attended a nature journaling workshop this past summer at Spring Meadow with artist Cindy Greiman and many were inspired to bring nature journaling into their classrooms to enhance science instruction this year. Other teachers participated in a pantomime workshop this November with mime and physical storyteller Bill Bowers and learned strategies for incorporating play and movement into the learning environment to promote active engagement with academic content for their students.
Teachers have yet another exciting workshop opportunity coming their way on February 12th – Storytelling: Remixing the Classics with teaching artists Kevin and Ilgaz Casey. If you’re a Helena Public School teacher, please check your online PD portal for more information and to register!
Questions? Please contact Mikell Fox, Myrna Loy Arts Education Coordinator, at [email protected].
Special thanks to the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation for making this initiative possible.
Photo credit: Retta Leaphart and Mikell Fox