Musication 2015 informational package

sounds of the arts

WHO AND WHAT IS

Musication?

Musication is achieving phenomenal results by providing its students with education in the various aspects of performing, visual, and literary arts.

We also provide support services to promote academic

“it takes A Village to raise a child.”

and social development.

Together these methods act as a catalyst to improve each student’s academic performance, discipline, self-esteem, and teamwork, while building cultural knowledge

Think of us as the village people.

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and healthy social lives.

Our History Musication, Inc. is a nonprofit public benefit charity, created for charitable and educational purposes, incorporated in 2001 as an IRS recognized 501 c (3) organization, headquartered in Los Angeles California. The organization was co-founded by professional businesswoman, Angela McAfee, and prominent entertainer, Steveland Morris - A.K.A. - Stevie Wonder, to address the critical state of music and arts education in the public schools and communities, according to two essential principals:

The first is found in the African proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child,” where the concept of the “village” includes stakeholders: • • • •

Parents and extended family members, The formal and informal educators of the child Administrators and elected officials The community guiding the operation of the child’s school, as well as, precepts for social, cultural, moral integrity and fortitude.

The second guiding principal is: “Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.”

Art expands the mind; fosters cultural tolerance; cultivates aesthetic appreciation; “opens” the door of global awareness, appreciation, and sharing. But most importantly, art is the salve for the wounded spirit - that restorative factor with an individual, within a neighborhood, for a people, as a bridge connecting every one of us to our global community.

In more recent years, in response to, the data showing a direct-connection between growing up in the foster care system, adult homelessness, lower education, educational attainment, underemployment, unemployment, and incarceration, Musication saw the vast need to expand its initiatives to focus on the specific needs of At-Risk Youth, Foster Care Youth, Underserved Children and Youth and Children of Incarcerated Parents. As a result, Musication created a Brother/Sister Life Skills and Mentoring Program “Beauty N Motion and Young Men on the Move,” in an effort to awaken the hope within and level the playing field in the lives of these deserving young people.

Through this expansion, Musication updated its curricular and programs encompassing two interrelated strategies in collaboration with Kim Dreux-Kelly from The George Washington University, a Certified Program Planner, with expertise in curriculum development, professional certificate design and educational training.

Musication has been successfully mentoring and teaching life skills, via the arts, to underserved communities, school districts and youth since 2001. Our programs are designed to deliver effective, yet artistic life changing skills, training modules, and mentorship that inspire the imagination and enhance the development of the human spirit and determination. This ultimately produces positive life-long results. Musication’s programs give youth with limited opportunities the knowledge and skills they need to define their own limits, while co-designing and implementing healthy, productive, and successful solutions as future leaders of tomorrow.

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Our Vision Our Vision is… to serve as a national agency of change by bringing At-Risk Youth, Foster Care Youth, Children of Incarcerated Parents and Underserved Children and Youth into a nurturing and controlled environment, introducing them to education, via the arts, that promotes academic, cultural, health and social development for sustainable success.

We will accomplish this by: • Introducing children/youth to real-world opportunities embedded within Fundamental Life Skills and Mentorship Strategies. This will give them hope, self-confidence, competence, determination and independence.

• We will also provide children/youth with the necessary skills to compete in this global economy. These advantages will positively impact and empower them to set sound goals, incorporate life-enhancing changes and pursue relative opportunities, which will advance their life accomplish their life’s dreams, goals.

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Our MISSION The Mission of Musication, Inc. is to provide an education combining fundamental Life Skills Strategies and Mentorship, via the Creative Arts, that will nurture, inspire, enhance and empower children, youth and young adults in a setting that promotes wisdom, growth, and service contribution for the common good of humanity. Our specific focus is on “the forgotten” within the fabric of our society -- At-Risk Youth, Foster Care Youth, Children and Youth of Incarcerated Parents and Underserved Children and Youth. We will accomplish this with our two phase interrelated approach:

Phase I: Seven Core Initiatives:

1. Preparing youth for adulthood 2. Life Skills 3. Social Development 4. College and Career Preparation 5. Money Ma nagement 6. Permanence Life Long Connection 7. Mentorship Network

We also facilitate art education workshops and training as one universal culture.

Phase II: Five Interrelated Strategies:

1. Advocating and supporting educational attainment 2. Facilitating access to workforce development opportunities 3. Providing financial literacy education 4. Encouraging savings and asset development 5. Creating entrepreneurship opportunities

“An education to nurture, inspire and empower children, youth and young adults” 5

Why the Arts?

This is a powerful question… with a simple answer....

Stevie Wonder

&

Music

is the universal language of the world and

ART

is the world.

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“ Musication uses the most deeply expressive and touching form of societal communication - music and the arts - to stimulate the imagination and motivate youth to seek the greater good in life by exploring their own culture as well as other cultures, enhancing, and strengthening their Life Skills and embracing Mentorship, through the creative arts.

– Stevie Wonder

Disciplinary problems are reduced in school systems which have arts programs (Arts, Education and Americans 1980).

One of the main problems with educating our students of the 21st century is first getting their attention and secondly, keeping their attention. Utilizing the arts has proven to be both extremely effective and affective with increasing skills in Math, Science, Social Studies, English and much more. Teaching via the arts has an unusual way of striking a somber yet power cord within our students that magically compels them to want to excel.

The collection of research described in Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social

Development (2002) finds that learning in the arts may be uniquely able to boost learning and achievement for young children, students from economically disadvantaged circumstances, and students needing remedial instruction.

According to the Arts Education Partnership publication Champions of Change:

The Impact of the Arts on Learning (1999), a compilation of studies on the impact of arts on learning, students who participate in the arts outperform their peers on virtually every measure. Researchers found that “sustained learning” in music and theater correlates to greater success in math and reading, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds see the greatest benefits. In fact, “learning in and through the arts can help ‘level the playing field’ for youth from disadvantaged circumstances,” the researchers contended.

More students who had received high levels of arts instruction earned high scores on measures of creative

thinking than students with the lowest levels of arts instruction. Creative thinking includes various aspects of problem solving: how many ideas a student has in response to a problem, how original those ideas are, how detailed the ideas are, and the student’s ability to keep her mind open long enough for innovative ideas to surface. The results were, “more firmly tied to rich arts provision than to high economic status.” (source: Champions of Change, 1999; p. 38, p.

39, Figure 1; Teachers College/Columbia University study: Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications)

Cognitive neuroscientists at seven major universities

have found strong links between arts education and cognitive development (e.g. thinking, problem solving, concept understanding, information processing and overall intelligence). According to the Dana Consortium study, Learning, Arts, and the Brain (2008) children motivated in the arts develop attention skills and memory retrieval that also apply to other subject areas.

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“The arts are quietly disappearing from our schools” Unfortunately, even though our nation as a whole recognizes the positive and direct value that arts education add to our student’s academics and life skills as a whole, the study also showed:

➢• A ten-year study indicates that students who study music achieve higher test scores, regardless of socioeconomic background. - Dr. James Catterall, UCLA.

“The arts are quietly disappearing from our schools. In schools across the country, opportunities for students to participate in high-quality arts instruction and activities are diminishing, the result of shifting priorities and budget cuts. Poor, inner city and rural schools bear a disproportionate share of the losses.

•

Musication learning programs helps students to access their creativity and life experiences through all forms of the creative arts. Beyond tutoring and homework assistance, first and foremost, children and young adults are taught to believe in themselves. By teaching children to believe that they can succeed, they develop a love for life-long learning -- resulting in responsible, educated, and self-sufficient adults.

Learning to play a musical instrument helps students to develop faster physically, mentally, emotionally and socially (Mueller 1984).

➢• The College Board, in a publication about college admissions, states, “preparation in the arts will be valuable to college entrants whatever their intended field of study.”- Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need To Know and Be Able To Do, The College Board.

•

College admissions officers continue to cite participation in music as an important factor in making admissions decisions. They claim that music participation demonstrates time management, creativity, expression, and openmindedness. - Carl Hartman, “Arts May Improve Students’ Grades,” The Associated Press, October, 1999.

•

One in three of today’s school-aged children will hold an arts-related job at some time in his or her career. Education Commission on the States.

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The Statistics

According to the Critical Evidence report: “How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement” commissioned by The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) showed the benefits associated with the arts.

The Benefits associated with with the arts

The Skills needed for Foster youth and underserved to live productive lives

Reading and Language Skills

Phase I - College and Career Preparation Phase II - Supporting educational attainment

Mathematics Skills

Phase I - Money Management, Phase II - Providing financial literacy education; Phase II - Encouraging savings and asset development

Thinking Skills

Phase I - Life Skills, Phase I - Preparing youth for adulthood Phase II - Creating entrepreneurship opportunities.

Social Skills

Phase I - Social Development, Phase I - Permanence Life Long Connection

Motivation to Learn

Phase I - Mentorship Network Phase II - Facilitating access to Workforce Development Opportunities

Positive School Environment

Phase I - College and Career Preparation Phase II - Advocating

• Research has proven that Music and the Arts is a unifier for all people and cultures. Music and the Arts is the bridge across the great divide of differences and indifference, of race, politics, generation, and even gender. Music and art are the universal language that opens the door to knowledge and acceptance. Society is finally beginning to agree. Check it out…

• According to the Critical Evidence report: “How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement” commissioned by The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) showed that:

• “The art in its many forms—whether as a stand-alone subject or integrated into the school curriculum— is increasingly accepted as an essential part of achieving success in school, work, and life.”

• 83% believe that arts education helps teach children to communicate effectively with adults and peers • SOURCE: “New Harris Poll Reveals That 93% of Americans Believe That the Arts Are Vital to Providing a WellRounded Education

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OUR VILLAGE

Objectives

• Illustrate the evolution of art, music, dance, literature,

technology and production in a new and creative way.

• Develop programs that support literacy, entrepreneurial training and

increased self-discipline regarding work, utilizing the vehicle of the arts.

• Establish a platform to eliminate cultural and generational

gaps by developing an environment for creative expression that will foster positive dialog and deepen the understanding of cultural differences.

• Transform underserved children and youth into evolved

stewards of global change and to awakening the human desire to contribute to society.

• Inform our schools, parents, community and its leaders of the importance of arts education being an integral part of a Complete Education.

• Prepare students for the professional artistic environment

through industry lectures, hands on experiences, in-school and after school programs and weekend activities.

• Assist in the development of student’s analytical and logical positive life skills.

• Create an environment that will enhance student self-esteem and self-image and gain self-confidence through an increasing ability to make reasonable choices and to articulate and defend those choices from a positive perspective.

• Provide a Musication mentor to work with each student

individually to assist in the implementation of our curriculum, programs and provide scholarship opportunities and continued support through high school, college and job placement.

• Narrow the gap in achievement among students, regardless of their ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

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OUR VILLAGE

CURRICULUM Our newly developed curriculum is aligned with state and national standards.

It encompasses the teachings of the Theory of Music and the Arts; History and the Masters of Music and the Arts; Distinctions of Musical and Art Forms; Impact of Technology on Music and the Arts; Production of Music and the Arts; Critical Thinking; and Developing Self Discipline and Self-Esteem though Music and the Visual Arts.

Our curriculum consists of the following: Success in Society: The reason that every child should have an education in music and the arts because

it is an essential part of the fabric of our society. The intrinsic value of music and the arts is widely recognized — indeed, every human culture uses music and the arts to carry forward its ideas and ideals.

Success in School: Success in society is largely predicated on success in school. The study of arts can help

a child become a better student. Skills learned through the discipline of music and the arts transfer to improved study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills useful in every part of a student’s curriculum.

Success in Developing Intelligence: Success in school and in society depends on an array of abilities.

Some measures of a child’s intelligence are increased music and art instruction. A combination of tightly-controlled behavioral studies and groundbreaking neurological research shows how music and the arts study can actively contribute to brain development.

Success in Life: We want our children to achieve success in school, in employment, and in society, but we also want our children to experience “success” on a broader scale. Participation in music and the Arts, often based on grounding in art education during formative school years, brings countless benefits throughout life. These benefits may be psychological or spiritual, and they may be physical as well.

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How does Musication

Benefit

THE

Community?

Musication helps students and families.

Students and families can be brought closer together through the sharing of musical styles and tastes. Generation gaps are bridged when a student can discuss jazz with a grandfather or swing music with his mother. Not to mention the confidence that comes from knowing your child is getting a well-rounded arts education.

Musication helps the community.

Musication enables members of the community to volunteer their time and talents to a worthwhile educational experience for children and youth. Not everyone can teach an American history class, but nearly everyone can share an experience about their favorite musician, share their record collection, artist and oversee a dance or music class. Musication of course offers the community a chance to lend financial support to arts funding where it so sorely needed.

School Districts will benefit from Musication.

Cuts in funding for arts programs have not only hit at the student/teacher level, but also in-house curriculum and program development.

Also with cuts in school budgets, most schools have teachers with multiple competencies in several subjects from a general or limited base. Musication draws on its uniquely integrative, holistic/comprehensive vantage point. Art and music becomes a tool for expanding, healing, and creating. As school districts begin to re-introduce arts back into the schools, Musication is a comprehensive, pre-packaged program that can be implemented quickly without the delay of formation committees to develop a curriculum.

Musication helps suppliers of goods and services.

By lending or discounting merchandise to Musication student programs, merchants are involved in creating customers for years. If our young community members develop a love for music, they will become the customers of the future for musical instruments, sheet music, tapes, and CD’s. Merchants are well served in contributing to Musication from a long-term customer loyalty perspective.

Musication helps the general public by introducing well-rounded, appreciative students to society.

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“The power of Musication lies within its spirit, supreme principles, individually rejuvenating, and inspired truth in the arts.�

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THE FINAL

Evaluation Student’s knowledge and understanding of Musication program will be evaluated through formative and summative assessments imbedded in the curriculum. They will also be evaluated by curriculum based projects and portfolios; as well as, works presented through various creative expressions.

The final evaluation brings the unification of every aspect of our program.

Unity The unity of the Body, Mind and Spirit is Musications way of uniting and utilizing the wholistic approach, bringing all things together.

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The Tribal Circle Before one is able to understand someone else, they must first understand themselves, therefore; the Tribal circle is a designated area for each culture, so that our students can learn more about theirs and other cultures of theA world through the arts. The tribal areas will embrace the atmosphere of that particular culture.

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What’s in the Musication

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sounds of the arts

CONTACT

1055 W. 7th Street Suite 2140, Los Angeles, CA 90010

(562) 230-0960 acog333@gmail.com www.musication.org