Education Matters: Learning Virtually from the Van Wezel

By Ryan G. Van Cleave

November 2020—Unless you have a K-12 child in your life, you might not be aware that the Van Wezel has one of the most dynamic education programs in the area. Beyond being a world-class entertainment venue, the Van Wezel team firmly believes that engagement in the arts is essential to every student, teacher, and community member. With so much of their education programming dependent on live mainstage shows or actual classroom interactions, the arrival of COVID-19 created an unforeseen challenge.

While the arts teach us a host of valuable lessons, creativity and problem solving are right in the mix. This explains how Kelli Maldonado, the Director of Education & Community Engagement, and her team were able to pivot so well. They had a problem, and all along, they’ve been teaching how to problem solve. What luck!

Once they examined the situation, it became clear that the WHAT remained the same—assuring that each student receives a well-rounded education, each teacher has tools and resources to reach every student, and every community member has access to meaningful arts experiences. The only thing that was difference was the HOW. Enter the world of virtual education. From March on, the Van Wezel team embraced technology as a way to stay connected. 

One of their most popular programs has involved sending teaching artists into classrooms to interact with area students. To figure out how to shift that to an effective online venue, they piloted a virtual version this summer with all six sites of the Boys and Girls Club of Sarasota County. Their teaching artists also did 30-minute virtual visits for Girls Inc. summer programs, to good effect. 

Students watched the teaching artists demonstrate techniques. Then the students got hands-on and created their own art. And there was time for a useful question and answer period, too. In short, it all worked.

“Thanks to the generosity of the Allen Wirtz Nobbe and Jo Bowen Nobbe Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and our donors through the Van Wezel Foundation,” Maldonado says, “we’ll be able to continue these visits this coming year at no cost.” That’s huge, since the plan currently is to offer the entire season of education events virtually to ensure they’re serving our audiences the way they’ve come to expect. 

Even if the situation changed and the Van Wezel was able to put on regular performances with appropriate social distancing, transporting kids from their school to the venue would be an issue—busses aren’t really setup for proper social distancing, even if schools felt comfortable letting kids take a field trip. Virtual is the only viable choice for now. 

Prior to COVID, 30,000 students, teachers, and parents participated in their offerings. Without the limits of physical space, transportation, scheduling, and personnel, that number could rocket far higher this coming year. That’s the beauty of virtual education, after all.

“We’re fully prepared to deliver all of our content online for the entire school year,” says Maldonado. “So far, this has been quite successful. Once we’re able to resume live events, we’ll keep virtual lessons as part of our regular programming. Having free videos and resources at your fingertips is a real benefit.”

Since March, they’ve developed their YouTube channel, Artworks Anywhere, which now features 40 videos. Maldonado explains that it’s “visual arts based, movement based, and drama based, and the videos are designed to be used at home with a child as easily as shown in a classroom.” 

My favorites are the “Moving Through Space,” “Shadow Drawing Activity,” and “Found Poetry” lessons, though my own kids (one middle school and high school) were charmed by the “Deep Dive into Puppets” and “The Fractions Dance.” 

“Our Artworks videos help people see, create, and share art,” Maldonado reports. It allows classrooms to engage with professional productions virtually from a classroom or home.” Check them out and see for yourself what the teaching artists have done! It’s a real challenge to take a 45-minute presentation and compress it into an engaging 5- or 8-minute video. But that’s what they’ve done.

How effective has it all been? Maldonado is on the advisory committee for the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program, and her colleagues have been incredibly interested in what the Van Wezel is doing. In fact, some of the Van Wezel’s videos were highlighted and shared on a national level since other arts organizations are encountering the same COVID-related challenges of connecting with students who won’t be coming to their venues in person.

Since 1997, the Van Wezel and Sarasota County school district have partnered with the Kennedy Center, though this is the first time they’ve been able to say, “This is what we’re doing in terms of delivering digital content.” And it’s been extremely well received.

This summer, Maldonado led a virtual backstage tour for the Sarasota County Summer BOOST program. It was designed to both give students a behind-the-scenes look into areas of the building normally not seen by the public, while also tying it to summer school curriculum. This lesson was on setting, how set designers and actors show it, and how authors use words to describe setting. As they logged off the session, a young girl exclaimed, “That was the best thing EVER!” In follow-up surveys, her teacher was thrilled with how engaged the session was and that it “ties perfectly into what we were learning.”  

Through all the COVID-related challenges, Maldonado notes that the resilience of our community—teachers, students, teaching artists, and others—has been impressive. “That’s a good thing, because the arts are just as important now, if not more, than they were before,” Maldonado says. And the plan is for the Van Wezel to be there for us all, both now and in the future.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about on Van Wezel’s Education Programs,  please visit www.vanwezel.org or call 941.263.6799. 

To donate in support of these programs, please visit the Van Wezel Foundation at www.vwfoundation.org.