SEPTEMBER 2020
Progress and Milestones
As a new normal emerges, ShareWell is rising to meet new needs. With so much uncertainty still in the way of mapping out concrete plans, the ShareWell team is moving ahead and starting to shape strategy around what our community will need—with or without an operating museum. While the pandemic has created new challenges for our organization, we also recognize the challenges it has created for the children, youth and families we exist for. And we have never been more ready to adapt. (READ ON)
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With school going online and typical socialization disrupted, families need support. Children need creative outlets, social connection and stimulation to cope with our ever-changing world. Nowhere is this felt more than in our under-resourced neighborhoods where children already face adversity in achieving their academic and life goals. But as COVID-19 puts more hard-working parents out of work and sets youth back academically, increasing their chances of turning to the streets for financial stability, we will see detrimental setbacks if we don’t introduce creative interventions when they could provide the most benefit. In recent months, we have been surveying and engaging our members and visitors to get a better sense of their evolving needs and perspectives as we all become more accustomed to life changes. This has helped us recognize new ways to serve our community. In the past month, we have launched two new virtual content programs, launched our signature outdoor art experiences, shifted our field trips and youTHink programs to virtual “live” instruction, and moved our longest running and most significant annual fundraiser, the Discovery Awards, to a virtual format for the event’s 20th anniversary. While this “change in plans” can at first feel like we have been left with no other choice, we also see the potential in discovering new ways that we might inspire young people creatively even beyond our recovery.
Read on to learn more in the September 2020 update of our ShareWell 20/20 Progress Report.
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ANIMAL APT
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Introducing: Cayton at Home Highlights
• “Cayton Recess” evolves into “Cayton at Home” as we continue to navigate the pandemic. • Cayton at Home will include more virtual content curated for babies and toddlers and programs for families in lowincome parts of LA
Since its launch in March, our virtual museum program—Cayton at Home—has been bringing play and creativity into families’ homes through story time, art projects, reflection exercises, movement and so much more. In August, we added two new original content programs to the series: Animal Apt and Making Art with Teonna. Both can be found along with the rest of our Cayton at Home content on our Youtube channel or visit our website at Caytonmuseum.org.
ART MAKING WITH TEONNA
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Animal APT Animal APT is an adapted puppet show that is centered around a wide cast of animals who all live in the same urban apartment complex. Every other week, we follow Tabs, Chizzle, Buddy, Yoli and more as they learn valuable lessons and collaborate to solve problems. The series also explores real world issues—like the United States Postal Service crisis and its societal impact—to help children better understand and process conflicts and injustices in our world today. The props and set pieces used in the puppet show are also constructed using simple D.I.Y. and recyclable materials, reinforcing the idea that the only thing you truly need to create your own world and tell a story is your imagination.
For more information or to view our Cayton at Home virtual resource library, visit us at Bit.ly/CaytonatHome.
ART MAKING WITH TEONNA
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ANIMAL APT
Making Art with Teonna Another recent addition to our virtual programming, Making Art with Teonna teaches little artists how to use art to advocate for something they care about. Every week, Teonna leads a step-by-step tutorial focused on an art project that is aligned with our featured Artivist (a name dubbed by the Cayton for artists who use their art as a form of activism). Recently, we highlighted Artivists Shepard Fairey and Maria De Los Angeles, the latter of which whose bold watercolor paintings ask viewers to reflect on how they feel about societal and humanitarian issues, such as immigration. Inspired by Maria’s paintings, Teonna prompted Cayton artists to paint an image and its reflection, one dark and one light, creating perspective and showing the duality of our emotions.
cayton creators outdoor community program
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The Cayton Launches Outdoor Arts Experiences
To pre-register for upcoming dates or see our health and safety protocols, visit Caytonmuseum.org/caytoncreators.
Highlights
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• Cayton Creators debuted on September 2 at Santa Monica Place, with registration quickly filling up online Program offers guided art-making in a socially distanced setting every Wednesday & Saturday
As COVID-19 cases reached a new low in early September, the Cayton finally met its criteria to debut its first outdoor arts experience! Dubbed Cayton Creators, the new public program is offered two times per week—Wednesdays and Saturdays— from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. for two one-hour timed blocks in front of the museum on Level 3 at Santa Monica Place. The program accommodates roughly 12 families per one-hour session upholding strict social distancing guidelines and safety measures. Each session, our program team leads families in an art activity, conversation and movement exercise—all calling on the Cayton’s core values. The program is offered free to the general public for the time being, though pre-registration is required and has been filling up quickly online. The response from families has been overwhelmingly positive. Many have shared that they are overjoyed to have a safe and engaging activity to do with their children outside of the house. Some that visited were excited to recognize some familiar faces (even in their face masks!). Cayton Creators provides a safe and welcoming space for families to interact with one another and for the Cayton to connect with families—even if from a distance. 5
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The Cayton Launches Virtual Field Trips Highlights
• Virtual program being designed with teacher feedback and input • With generous support from Kevin & Chelsea Washington, the Cayton created the “Kevin & Chelsea Washington Arts Scholarship Fund” to underwrite at least 50% of field trips for Title 1 schools and Starting this fall, the Cayton is taking its field trip curriculum virtual for guided field trips that explore Cayton values through interactive virtual lessons, art making and discussion designed for children ages 5 to 8. The program will be in partnership with LAUSD educators, offering virtual experiences for up to 40 students that bring enthusiasm, imagination and value-based learning into students’ classrooms-at-home. Teachers will choose from a number of lesson plans, while working collaboratively with Cayton staff to host each trip so themes can later be explored “in the classroom.” Lessons like “Community Maps” will give students the opportunity to design artistic neighborhood models that serve the need of their communities, nurturing positive, community-oriented values that prioritize the needs of all. Fields trips will be offered for free to Title I schools as part of the Kevin & Chelsea Washington Arts Scholarship Fund and at a reduced cost for all others.
Parents, you can pass along information on our virtual field trips to your child’s teacher. For interest in participating, contact education@caytonmuseum.org. 6
With LAUSD schools going exclusively online this fall, life will look dramatically different for teens. But our youTHink staff has been working hard to build an impactful and responsive program that will aim to support them through this change, starting with the Student Ambassadors program and our Filmmaking Fellowship.
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youTHink Prepares to Launch Fall Programming Highlights
• Student Ambassadors will gather virtually to envision social change through art, with receiving college readiness training and mentorship • Our Filmmaking Fellowship will be offered in partnership with California’s Career Technical Education system (CTE) to give students the skills needed to reach their academic and career goals
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Student Ambassadors Program For the duration of the 2020-21 academic year, youTHink will host a cohort of 20 to 25 students online each week for nine months as part of its new module-focused curriculum. Students will work through three different phases: building an understanding of social issues, envisioning change through art, and becoming an “Artivist” in action. Earlier this month, students completed their virtual orientation and catch-up and will now learn to work collaboratively to develop a broader awareness of the social justice issues that affect them, their families and their communities in the coming weeks. Next, the students will cultivate their creative skills through Theatre Arts, Photography and Creative Writing/Spoken Word as forms of expression and activism. For the culmination, participants will further explore their social justice cause to prepare a final photo documentary, putting into action their experiences and ideas. Final projects will be showcased and shared virtually for the rest of the cohort and publicly on the Youthink. org website, unless health guidelines allow otherwise. Throughout the year, Student Ambassadors will not only learn concrete leadership skills, but they will also receive individualized college readiness mentorship and guidance to set them up for long-term success.
Filmmaking Fellowship After the successful transition to a virtual platform this past spring when LAUSD shut down due to shelter-in-place restrictions, our Filmmaking Fellowship will build off its learnings to again go virtual this fall. The 12-week program will reach 60-120 students and will again be facilitated by Elizabeth Gray Bayne, a professional indie filmmaker who has experience working in underserved communities. The program will work in tandem with Career Technical Education (CTE)—a California program that provides students in public schools with a pathway to postsecondary education and careers by placing them on a multiyear track of courses that integrate core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge. Elizabeth will work with the teachers of two to four CTE classrooms to build on the skills students have already gained through courses in the arts, media and entertainment. Students will begin by investigating how art inspires social change both globally and in their communities, before learning the basic techniques of filmmaking—all in preparation for a final narrative film that will be showcased at an online film festival at the end of the semester.
For more information and updates on the students’ work, visit Youthink.org. 8
Here’s what a day in Jami’s life during COVID-19 looks like: 8AM - Rise & Shine with morning meditation. 9AM - Start my morning daily check-ins with the program and executive team. Walk through my to-do list and prioritize. Get out my most important emails for the day. 10AM - Call with YMCA to discuss partnering potential for afternoon outdoor youth programming around the creative arts in the Fall 11AM - Join Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) weekly video call to hear industry insights for reopening
3PM - Zoom with Shirley, our youTHink program manager, to recap next steps with LAUSD and discuss updates to the virtual Fall curriculum 4PM - Bi-weekly video conference with our Museum Exhibit Task Force calls 5PM - Wrap up my notes and to-do’s for the day; send any summation emails 6PM - Play with the pup in the grass and then water it (the grass) Wind-down bike ride with Marlee EVENING - Play with the pup in the grass and then water it (the grass :)) Wind-down bike ride with Marlee.
12PM - Make lunch for Marlee and I. Review/check her schoolwork for the day. 1PM - Jump on Blue Jeans with the marketing and facilities team at Santa Monica Place to walk-thru health and safety protocols for CAYTON CREATORS Outdoor programming 2PM - Program Team Huddle: discuss plans for virtual program content and talk through scheduling and health procedures for staffing outdoor programming
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#Squadgoals
Meet the heart & soul behind the reimagination of ShareWell during the pandemic
Since we transitioned to remote work in mid-March, ShareWell has been forced to lay-off more than 70-percent of its staff to cut our burn rate for longterm stability. We are now down to a core team of 11 staff, all working collectively to rethink the way we program, engage, operate and fundraise. We thought you should know who these people are that are working tirelessly behind the scenes to steward your dollar and reimagine the role we play in community. This month, we would like you to meet Jami. As ShareWell’s Senior Director of Programming, Jami carries out the organization’s program strategy with most of her focus these days on meaningful community engagement in an era of social distancing. Prior to ShareWell, Jami served as the Senior Community Development Director at the YMCA of Orange County and the Associate Executive Director at the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles. Jami has her MBA in Organizational Management and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Cal State University, Long Beach. She is currently working remotely at home in Long Beach with her wife and 10-year-old daughter Marlee. 9
2o2o DISCOVERY AWARDS HONORING SUSAN & ROBERT ROVNER KEVIN & CHELSEA WASHINGTON NOVEMBER 12 @ 6:30PM
Discovery Award Dinner Goes Virtual Highlights • ShareWell’s most significant annual fundraiser is going virtual on November 12 • Help us continue to offer virtual and outdoor public arts programming and make critical COVID-related improvements to the museum space by supporting the event
On November 12, ShareWell’s longest running and most significant fundraiser, the Discovery Awards, will go virtual in light of the pandemic. For the event’s 20th Anniversary year, we have the great privilege of honoring Susan and Robert Rovner and Kevin and Chelsea Washington with Emcee and entertainment to soon be announced. The Awards are more critical than ever this year as we strive to make up gaps in funding caused by the pandemic. Our ability to offer virtual and outdoor arts programming during the pandemic, and reopen our doors with confidence and safety, are dependent on the success of this event this year.
Help show that PLAY AND CREATIVITY MATTER, especially in these times as children crave connection and mechanisms for trying to understand what’s happening in the world around them. Tables start at $5,000 for a virtual table of 10 people. If you cannot attend, you can still support our nonprofit work by making a donation or underwriting a “doodle” in our Digital Doodle book, a virtual coloring book that will live on the Cayton Children’s Museum website for the year following the event with underwriting acknowledgment on each page. All contributions will be matched 1:1 by our named donors through the end of September, up to $250,000.
For more information or to purchase a table sponsorship, underwrite a doodle or make a donation, visit ShareWell.org/DAD20.