Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation School and Public Programs Brochure 2026–27

school & public programs Fall 2026–Spring 2027

Artistic Skill Development

For more information or to book any of these programs, please visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org, call us at 480-499-8587, or email us at Learning@ScottsdaleArts.org.

Arts Integration

Our programs ignite the creative spark in every individual, making the arts a vital part of both education and daily life.

We believe that when creativity flourishes, people thrive, and when people thrive, communities are transformed.

Performing Arts

Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation is a vibrant hub for collective impact, uniting more than 40 community partners, 80 teaching artists, 70 schools, dedicated funders, and the wider community each year through powerful, arts-driven programming.

Visual Arts

how to book

programs at-a-glance Field Trips

Grade / Age

SMoCA Discovery Program (page 2)

Grades 3–12

Cultural Connections Dance (page 3)

Grades 9–12

Visions (page 3)

Grades 9–12

In Schools

Grade / Age

Alli Ortega Empty Bowls (page 10)

Grades 4–8

Activate Learning (page 6)

Grades 1+

Arizona Wolf Trap (page 6)

Preschool–1

Composer in the Classroom (page 6)

Grades 3+

Hope Chest (page 8)

Grades 7–10

Hold on to Hope (page 9)

Grades 7–10

Picturing Story (page 6)

Grades 3+

Poetry: Personal to Performance (page 7)

Grades 6+

In the Community Grade / Age Memory Studio (page 11)

Adults

Library Creatives (page 10)

All ages

Club Creatives (page 10)

Ages 8+

field trips Cultural Connections Dance Cultural Connections Dance gives high school and post-secondary dance students the opportunity to work with touring professional companies and their dancers.

This multifaceted dance program helps students become more aware of their bodies and minds through masterclasses, performances, and workshops.

∙ Grades: high school and post-secondary ∙ Cost: $500 per school

Cultural Connections Dance sponsored by Betty Hum and Alan Yudell, Nationwide Foundation, and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Background photo: Betty L Hum Photography

SMoCA Discovery Program Visions

The Discovery Program combines a classroom workshop with a museum field trip. In the classroom, students participate in a studio-style, hands-on lesson that introduces key themes through active artmaking and discussion. At the museum, a guided tour of SMoCA’s exhibitions deepens this learning through inquiry-based dialogue and interactive in-gallery activities.

Photo: Betty L Hum Photography

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∙ Length: the classroom visit is 1 hour; the museum visit is 2 hours ∙ Grades: 3 and up ∙ Capacity: three classrooms, 75 students total ∙ Cost: free for schools

For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

Visions is a year-long visual arts program provided to Valley teens. In collaboration with six high schools, advanced art students paricipate in art workshops with professional artists in painting, digital photography, video, sound, and sculptural techniques. Students visit artist studios and create work for an annual exhibition.

Photo: Betty L Hum Photography

∙ Grades: high school ∙ Cost: $700 per school Visions is supported by City of Scottsdale, Nationwide, and Betty L Hum Photography.

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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smart integration SmART Integration is all about mixing the magic of the arts, like painting, music, movement, and drama, into everyday classroom learning. Through exciting, standards-based residencies and workshops, educators pick up strategies they can easily weave into their lessons. The result? Curious, engaged students who think deeply, get creative, and connect with what they’re learning in totally new ways. Learning has never been this fun or this SmART! SmART Integration is accomplished through a collaboration with more than 20 teaching artists, multiple school districts, and national partners, including the Kennedy Center, Focus 5, and Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts.

Background photo: Betty L Hum Photography

Teacher Workshops These hands-on workshops focus on arts integration, a flexible approach that blends visual arts, music, movement, and drama into academic instruction to deepen learning. Led by expert teaching artists, they provide practical, evidencebased strategies teachers can easily incorporate into existing curriculum, with flexible scheduling to fit any professional development plan.

∙ Length: workshop length varies depending on school or district needs ∙ Grade: great for any grade ∙ Cost: $500 and up

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For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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smart integration Residencies These immersive, standards-aligned residencies support student engagement with academic content to develop critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problemsolving skills. Educators gain hands-on training and mentoring to confidently integrate the arts into their curriculum.

Background photo: Scottsdale Arts

Wolf Trap Early Learning Residencies Teaching artists collaborate with classroom teachers to immerse students in learning through an art form. Our teaching artists are trained in active learning through music, movement, storytelling, and puppetry.

∙ Length: available in 5 or 11 sessions ∙ Grades: preschool–1 ∙ Cost: $500 and up

Activate Learning Using kinesthetic learning strategies, such as tableau and movement, students engage with classroom content to demonstrate understanding in science, English language arts, and social studies.

∙ Length: five 50-minute sessions ∙ Grades: 1 and up ∙ Cost: $500

Composer in the Classroom Students deepen literary understanding by turning texts into music, building confidence as composers. Guided by professional musicians, they explore how sound tells stories, culminating in performances of original pieces inspired by classroom texts.

∙ Length: five 50-minute sessions ∙ Grades: 3 and up ∙ Cost: $500

Picturing Story

Poetry: Personal to Performance

Pictures come to life as students read illustrations, deciphering narratives conveyed through composition, images, and colors. By the conclusion of this five-day residency, each student will create a picture dictionary storyboard to inspire recall and retell of a classroom text.

Professional poetry and spoken word artists engage students in writing that supports positive self-image and builds a strong classroom community. Students will connect with poetry by identifying literary devices in pop music lyrics and uplifting words of contemporary writers.

∙ Length: five 50-minute sessions ∙ Grades: 3 and up ∙ Cost: $500

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For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

∙ Length: five 50-minute sessions ∙ Grades: 6 and up ∙ Cost: $500

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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holocaust education kits Hope Chest and Hold on to Hope are designed to inspire community through Arizona-based Holocaust survivor Oskar Knoblauch’s memoir. Oskar’s story of survival and the relevant themes of hope and respect shine a light on living life not as a bystander but as an “upstander” and on the tragic consequences of intolerance.

These programs are supported by the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix and the Center for Jewish Philanthropy Youth Board.

Hold on to Hope Hope Chest: Remembering the Holocaust Hope Chest is a comprehensive curriculum and kit of teaching resources, including a class set of books, authentic and replica artifacts for hands-on exploration, student journals with arts-integrated activities, journal prompts, critical-thinking questions, and “Upstander” certificates with memento keys to success for students to keep.

∙ Length: six weeks ∙ Grades: 7–10 ∙ Cost: free with pick-up and drop-off at Scottsdale Arts; delivery available for a fee

Background photo: Scottsdale Unified School District

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For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

This traveling exhibition fits into any school, library, or community center and includes free-standing exhibition panels, featuring compelling text and dynamic images, engaging hands-on and digital interactives, a collection of unique period and replica artifacts and newspapers, and customizable teacher and student guides for classroom lesson extensions.

∙ Length: reservations can be made in one-week increments for up to four consecutive weeks ∙ Grades: 7–10 ∙ Cost: free with pick-up and drop-off at Scottsdale Arts; delivery available for a fee Hold on to Hope is supported The Molly Blank Fund.

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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workshops and events Alli Ortega Empty Bowls

Canal Convergence

The Alli Ortega Empty Bowls program blends art and civic service, teaching students to create handcrafted bowls while learning about giving back. The bowls are sold at Scottsdale Family ArtsFest, with proceeds supporting local programs that help youth, families, and seniors in crisis.

November 6–15, 2026 Scottsdale Waterfront

∙ Grades: 4 and up ∙ Cost: free to Scottsdale schools

Canal Convergence is a free, 10-night public art event that features large-scale artworks along the Scottsdale Waterfront. Join Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation for drop-in and ticketed workshops at the Nationwide Innovation Zone and Scottsdale Arts Roundabout.

Canal Convergence is supported by City of Scottsdale, SRP, Nationwide, and Christine and Richard Kovach.

Empty Bowls is supported by Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Scottsdale Family ArtsFest Saturday, March 6, 2027 Scottsdale Civic Center Scottsdale Family ArtsFest is a free, one-day festival of creativity that includes performances, interactive demonstrations, creative interventions, and culinary delights from local food trucks throughout Scottsdale Civic Center.

Scottsdale Family ArtsFest is supported by City of Scottsdale and Scottsdale Unified School District.

Club Creatives Club Creatives is an after-school program for youth organizations that provides art workshops led by professional artists and museum tours. Students explore a wide range of artistic techniques while discovering their unique creative voices.

Library Creatives Library Creatives offers exhibitions and workshops for all ages to engage with the arts at the Scottsdale Public Library.

Memory Studio Memory Studio is a program for people with mild to moderate memory loss and their care partners, featuring workshops led by professional artists that inspire creative engagement and meaningful shared experiences.

Memory Studio is supported by Arizona Republic Season for Sharing, and HonorHealth.

Background photo: Betty L Hum Photography

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For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock LIVE Saturday, Nov. 28, 2026, 4 p.m.

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Perfect for first-time theatergoers and fans who remain young at heart, Fraggle Rock is a hilarious and heartwarming live experience from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

∙ Cost: tickets start at $35

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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center space Center Space is a gallery devoted to spotlighting the creativity of local artists by presenting exhibitions that invite visitors to not only experience new artwork but also learn about the ideas, stories, and processes behind it, sparking curiosity, understanding, and creativity.

Behind the Scenes: 25 Years of Detour Company Theatre

Center Space is located inside Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. It is open to the public Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday, noon–5 p.m., and during evening performances.

For 25 years, Detour Company Theatre, a theatre company with and for adults with disabilities, has reimagined what musical theatre can be and who it belongs to. This exhibition pulls back the curtain and celebrates the artists, the work, and the impact of a company that does more than put on shows; it expands the stage itself.

Center Space is supported by Sternberg 3.

Background photo: Betty L Hum Photography

ArtSpark #1 September 25, 2026–January 24, 2027 Opening event: Friday, September 25, 2026, at 5 p.m.

ArtSpark #1 features work created by the artists in the first program cohort.

These artists were provided funding to engage the local community and participate in career development workshops that connected them to the professional arts community.

ArtSpark #1 is supported by Krumwiede Lewis Family Foundation, Karen & John Voris, National Endowment for the Arts, and SOAR FOUNDATION.

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For more information, scan a QR code with your mobile device

February 5–April 25, 2027 Opening event: Friday, February 5, 2027, at 5 p.m.

Visions ’27 May 7–September 19, 2027 Opening event: Friday, May 7, 2027, at 5 p.m.

Visions ’27 gives voice to the next generation of artists from across the Valley.

Featuring works by advanced high school art students, this exhibition is the culmination of a year-long mentorship program that connects young creatives with professional Arizona-based artists.

Visions is supported by City of Scottsdale, Nationwide, Betty L Hum Photography.

To book, visit ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org or call 480-499-8587

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thank you to our sponsors and partners

BETTY HUM AND ALAN YUDELL

KAREN AND JOHN VORIS

KRUMWIEDE LEWIS FAMILY FOUNDATION

ticket discounts

We value our teachers and students and want to make it even easier for you to see incredible artists from around the world! In the 2026–27 season, we offer a limited number of discounted tickets to many shows at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.

To take advantage of this discount, call us at 480-499-8587 or scan the QR code with your mobile device.

ScottsdaleArtsLearning.org

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Box Office: 480-499-8587