Get detailed information about our Folk Arts School Residencies including program structure, program offerings, and how our residencies integrate with your school’s curriculum.
Interested in bringing a residency to your school? Fill out our inquiry form to connect with our team and discover how we can create a unique experience for your students.
Learn more about the talented teaching artists who bring our Folk Arts School Residencies to life. Explore their backgrounds and the artistic expertise they bring to your school community.
Discover the power of cultural music and dance through our Folk Arts School Residencies! Students immerse themselves in hands-on activities led by professional teaching artists, culminating in a unique presentation that celebrates their journey and creativity.
Our residencies feature student-led artistic work and are designed around enduring understandings and essential questions, informed by our Folk Arts Laboratory model.
Aligned with the Common Core State Standards and Illinois Arts Learning Standards, our programs foster collaboration, exploration, and integration into classroom learning. Teaching artists work closely with educators to connect arts learning with curriculum goals.
Interested in learning more about School Partnerships for your classroom?
Fill out this form or contact Kate Walsh | 773-751-3337
The Wiggleworms-in-Residence program is a long-standing successful partnership between Old Town School of Folk Music and Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago. Since 2000, Old Town School has collaborated with CRCL to remove barriers to early childhood music education and prepare infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and families for success in early life. Recently, Old Town School of Folk Music has expanded to additional Pre-school centers in North Lawndale, supported by the Steans and Vivo Foundation: Holy Family Ministries, North Lawndale YMCA, and Gads Hill.
As the program introduces young children to the joy of making music themselves, it fosters confidence, creativity and cooperation. Through the celebration of music and the sharing of cultural traditions, Old Town School strives to build strong bonds between children, teachers and families.
Interested in learning more about School Partnerships for your classroom?
Fill out this form or contact Kate Walsh | 773-751-3337
A fun and exciting opportunity to explore the vibrant culture of the Caribbean, students learn the fundamentals of West African and Caribbean dance moves, history, and song. Students develop an appreciation of roots and technique while building confidence, creativity, and teamwork skills.
Capoeira, originating from African slavery in Brazil, is a mix of self-defense, a game, and a beautiful physical art form. Capoeira encompasses music, martial arts, songs, dance, and history. Students will learn to play various musical instruments and sing traditional songs in Portuguese, as well as basic attack and defense movements, like kicks, escapes, and acrobatics. Through guided group discussions and stories, students learn about the history and culture of Brazil.
This Hip Hop Dance residency is a dynamic and energetic experience where students learn to move to music, helping them build creativity and positive self-expression. Students develop musicality, self-awareness, memory, and focus while improving physical flexibility, strength, and stamina. In addition to movement, students will learn about the five art forms that comprise hip hop culture.
Dance and move to a fun blend of Latin rhythms! Long before there was "Salsa on 2," "Salsa on the clave," or New York style salsa, Chicago dancers danced the Mambo. You will learn this lively dance along with Cha-Cha and Merengue. Students will learn about body awareness, movement, choreography, and composition, while bonding with others in a physically non-competitive environment.
Learn the 4-string ukulele in this hands-on program, incorporating instrument play, musical vocabulary, and cultural exploration. Students will learn about the origin of this unique instrument and its history in the South Pacific, along with experiencing how strumming fundamentals open doors to many other genres of music.
In this residency, students learn the basics of songwriting, focusing on ideas that matter to them. They will work on individual projects and a group song, developing fundamental music skills and self-expression through writing lyrics, rhythms, and melodies. This residency aims to bring out students' creative energy with the help of the classroom teacher and teaching artists.
Learn to sing the music of American and global traditions, from Celtic to Spanish; Native American to South African! Through this choir program, students strengthen their voices and musicality through ear training and vocal exercise. This choir program strengthens students’ voices and musicality through ear training and vocal exercises, celebrating performance, singing together, and the power of cultural traditions.
Students connect to the history and culture of this grassroots music form. Elements of music and instrument building are a starting point for an exploration of the basic genre of jug band music and the historical significance of the genre. Students listen to music and learn to identify the rhythmic and melodic parts, then recreate the music they hear with various homemade instruments and sounds.
Students experience the music of the Caribbean through a Latin Percussion ensemble! Students learn the history of Cuban and Caribbean culture and the influences of the music of West Africa, Caribbean and South American’s indigenous peoples, and Europe. Through drums and hand percussion instruments, including the conga, bongos, cajon, bata, clave, shekere, agogo, and cowbell, students learn percussion technique and create their own group rhythms.
Students work together to retell a story by identifying key elements and characters in one of their favorite stories. Through class discussion and group work, students interpret the story through songwriting, and develop it into a musical presentation. Students learn about verse, chorus, meter, and rhyme, using these elements to create an original song. Creating props, masks, costumes, and sets helps them connect as a classroom and work toward a shared goal.
Students study and experience the music of the West African djembe and dun dun drums and the cultures they come from, including history, language, geography, and communities. They create a performance piece with traditional rhythms, solos, costumes, choreography, and songs.
In this class, students will learn how to say, write, and play the language of the drum by exploring the rhythms and percussion instruments of North Africa and the Middle East. Through using the three sounds of the drum (doum, tek, es), students will learn to perform a variety of rhythms from Iraq to Morocco. Students will learn about geography and culture, how to play a variety of traditional rhythms, and will also develop their focus, confidence, group participation, and artistic expression
Anonymous
James G. Hart Foundation
Geraldine Keefe
Negaunee Foundation
Rob and Karen Ospalik
Tomford and Grossman Family
