After School Arts Program

The mission of the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities' After School Arts Program (ASAP) is to:

• provide high quality visual and performing arts education at no cost to under-served students in our community
• create rich teaching and learning experiences for both students and instructors
• improve student achievement and engagement by promoting strong linkages between the arts and more traditional academic areas
• advocate for the inclusion of rigorous arts instruction in every student's education
• serve as a national model for public school/university partnerships

Arts Partnership Benefits Local Youth

In the Spring of 2008, the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities After School Arts Program partnered with the Robert E. Brown Center for World Music to provide high quality visual and performing arts instruction at no cost to public Elementary and Middle school students in Champaign and Urbana. Now in its third year of service and research The Center for Education in Small Urban Communities After School Arts Program in conjunction with Robert E. Brown Center for World Music presents preliminary findings that indicate multiple ways that students benefit from expanded and enriched arts education both within the regular school day and during the after-school hours:

• Improvements in attendance, behavior, academic achievement
• Reduction of risky behaviors
• Increased sense of engagement in school as a result of opportunities for self-expression
• Positive social outcomes
• A sense of achievement and positive self-image

How are the classes ASAP provides different from traditional arts education?

Each ASAP unit is designed to meet the unique needs of the school in which it operates. The programming is highly flexible, and responsive to the changing needs of the students it serves. In addition, ASAP is interdisciplinary and collaborative in its approach to after school arts education. ASAP provides the opportunity for improved student learning and engagement by including a myriad of performing and visual arts educational experiences, as well as promoting a strong linkage between the arts and more traditional academic areas. This synthesis both within the arts curriculum and across the arts, sciences, and humanities areas, helps define and structure ASAP's distinctive, high quality programs.

ASAP also provides linkages to rich cultural opportunities within the campus and community. Students' horizons and understandings of the world are expanded via their access to the Colleges of Fine and Applied Arts, Education, Engineering, and Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as to campus-based resources such as Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Art Museum, Spurlock Museum, and the Center for World Music. ASAP also reaches out to community-based art initiatives, and encourages trips to theaters, exhibits and events outside the students' immediate neighborhood.

The ASAP team, in collaboration with school staff, endeavors to admit students that represent the inherent diversity of the student body with consideration made to each student's race, gender, physical ability, socioeconomic status, and language.

How can I get ASAP classes at my school?

We currently serve students in both Franklin and Urbana Middle Schools. Please contact Ritu Radhakrishnan, ASAP Program Coordinator, radhakr1@illinois.edu