Riverside County Office of Education
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Louisa Higgins
Visual and Performing Arts Administrator
lhiggins@rcoe.us
(951) 826-6304
Amplifying the Arts Newsletter
The Amplifying the Arts newsletter features incredible arts programs happening around Riverside County. Check out the award-winning work that is happening here!
Volume 33, September 2024
The Arts at RCOE is pleased to announce their partnership with the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. We are particularly excited for teachers to know about their SEARCH THE POMONA COLLEGE COLLECTION, which is a free service available to teachers. What a great way to incorporate free online images for study or lesson plans!
CURRENTLY ON VIEW: Thursday, August 15, 2024, to Sunday, January 5, 2025
Open Sky
Open Sky presents the work of three contemporary artists— Xin Liu, Agnieszka Polska, and Marcus Zúñiga —who take on light and space as both material and subject to encourage us to reconsider our place in the universe.
Roy Thurston: Recent Work
Bringing together examples of Thurston’s sculptures as part of a larger institutional conversation about the limits and legacies of the Light and Space movement, this exhibition will feature new work, including a monumental 10-foot by 5-foot installation for the Benton’s double-height south atrium, as well as several other examples from recent years that exemplify his experimentation with
form, color, and texture.
The Instrumental Image: Aerial Photography as Problem and Possibility
This exhibition brings together a range of aerial photographs from the Benton’s collection alongside artists’ creative questions about what it means to take a photograph from the air. Dating from the nineteenth century, aerial photography evolved as a way of seeing through mechanical, rather than human, means. Instrumentalized during war and state surveillance systems, such photography also has its alternative histories, explored in this exhibition.
About the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Housed in a purpose-built facility designed by Machado Silvetti and Gensler, the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College explores the role of museums in society through creative collaborations with students, faculty, and community partners. The museum serves as a steward for nearly 20,000 objects, with particularly deep representation in the history of photography, traditional Native American cultural items, early modern European art, and works in various media produced in Southern California in the twentieth century. In keeping with Pomona College’s reputation as a leading center of the visual arts, the collection also includes works by such esteemed alumni as Chris Burden ’69, Marcia Hafif ’51, Helen Pashgian ’56, Peter Shelton ’73, and James Turrell ’65. As a teaching museum, the Benton offers an average of ten exhibitions and more than 100 programs per year while encouraging active learning and intellectual exploration across all disciplines of study within the liberal arts context.
Search the Pomona College Collection by Artists, Subjects, or by Geography. For more information about lessons derived from the collection, please contact benton@pomona.edu.
Benton Museum of Art Pomona College
120 West Bonita Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Admission is free and open to the public.
NEW Museum Hours starting
Thursday, August 15, 2024:
Thursday, 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Friday–Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Additional hours and programs while exhibitions are on view:
Gallery Talks:
Most Fridays 2:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m.
Claremont Art Walk:
1st Saturday of the month,
6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 1
Innovative approaches for equitable and exciting opportunities in the visual and performing arts for students during school closures from Riverside County Arts leads.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 2
Meridy Volz's "Art with Heart" program at Indio Juvenile Hall was an instant success, and she was determined to continue teaching even as COVID-19 prevented her from entering the facility.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 3
The Our Town Cultural Arts Program brings the cultural arts into elementary school classrooms in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, engaging students in the traditions and cultures of the citizens who make up our community and the students who sit in our classrooms.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 4
Lady Lead (LL) was founded five years ago by Louisa Higgins, Visual and Performing Arts, and Sarah Scheideman, Artist from Palm Springs Unified School District as a way for middle school girls of promise to interact with female art mentors while doing an arts and crafts project.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 5
Riverside Unified School District's performing arts students join in a partnership project with the community.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 6
In the spring of 2020 the Val Verde Unified School District initiated a Student Quarantine Art Contest, inspired by the Getty Challenge. Students were asked to select a piece of artwork from Google Arts and Culture and re-create it.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 7
The Moreno Valley Unified School District’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program was reinvented in 2015 as an investment for all students and has proven to be an exceptional program with its recent Golden Bell Award designation.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 8
In this month’s edition of Amplifying the Arts, we would like to celebrate the California School Board Association Golden Bell Award received by Murrieta Valley Unified School District’s VAPA program called Horizons Unlimited.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 9
Riverside County Office of Education, Visual and Performing Arts, is proud to partner with the McCallum Theatre Education to present its online series.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 10
Riverside County Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) is pleased to partner with Desert X to announce its student and family resources for the 2021 Exhibition.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 11
Riverside County Office of Education is proud to support Mono County Office of Education, which is one of the four collaborative counties in the Region 10 service region of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 12
As we start a new school year, RCOE VAPA would like to share several noteworthy arts recognitions in Riverside County from the spring and summer, as well as a few new events just around the corner.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 13
Riverside County Office of Education Visual and Performing Arts partnered with Inlandia Institute to create the inaugural Riverside County Teen Poet Laureate event.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 14
In the Spring of 2021, Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator, and Peggy Burt, Arts Consultant, began an in-depth study of the new Arts Framework, which was published in 2020.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 15
Riverside County Office of Education Visual and Performing Arts is pleased to partner with the Palm Springs Art Museum to promote their new online program.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 16
RCOE VAPA is partnering with CSSSA to get the word out about their Summer School for the Arts!
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 17
The past two years have seen our share of individual and collective trauma based on the effects of the worldwide pandemic.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 18
Riverside County Office of Education is partnering with The Redlands Symphony to promote this year’s OrKIDstra music education program to you and your students; an original animated video of a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s immortal Peter and the Wolf.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 19
Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator and Jeannine Flores, Los Angeles County Office of Education Arts & STEAM Coordinator have just wrapped up their yearlong project on behalf of CCSESA. Their revised unit of the Creativity at the Core Module 12 is entitled Leadership in Arts Education.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 20
We would like to introduce to a broader audience is the PowerPoint entitled “Cultural Responsiveness in Arts Education.” Written and presented by Dr. Charles Brown, who is the Director of the Equity and Access unit at the Riverside County Office of Education.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 21
The Arts at Riverside County Office of Education is very pleased to be able to partner with KQED in sharing some free and valuable resources for Riverside County teachers.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 22
Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator and Jeannine Flores, Los Angeles County Office of Education Arts & STEAM Coordinator have just wrapped up their yearlong project on behalf of CCSESA.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 23
Arts as Life! is very low cost (only $23.00 per teacher/class) and open to all TK–12 teachers, administration, staff, and counselors.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 24
Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator and Jeannine Flores, Los Angeles County Office of Education Arts & STEAM Coordinator are continuing to promote their yearlong project on behalf of CCSESA.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 25
Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator and Jeannine Flores, Los Angeles County Office of Education Arts & STEAM Coordinator are continuing to promote their yearlong project on behalf of CCSESA.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 26
New for 2023 is the RCOE Get Your Style On Fashion + Art Competition. This contest gave the opportunity to link the worlds of art and fashion
through a creation while showing off one’s creativity and design prowess!
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 27
Louisa Higgins, Arts Administrator and Jeannine Flores, Los Angeles County Office of Education Arts & STEAM Coordinator undertook a yearlong project on behalf of the California County Superintendents. Their revised unit of the Creativity at the Core Module 12 is entitled Leadership in Arts Education.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 28
This edition of Amplifying the Arts highlights the RCOE partnership with the Palm
Springs Young Playwrights Festival (PSYPF). PSYPF promotes and encourages theatrical creative writing to all elementary, middle, and high school students within Riverside County.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 29
Each year, The Arts at Riverside County Office of Education holds two competitions that center on poetry; “If I Speak, Will You Listen?” Spoken Word Invitational and the Teen Poet Laureate competition.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 30
In the five years that the Arts at RCOE has been in existence, we have been striving to promote and expand the arts for the over 430,000 students in Riverside County.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 31
The Arts at Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) has many Students Arts Showcases available each year for parents and teachers to submit student artwork in art, music, poetry, film, theater, dance, and fashion.
Amplifying the Arts, Volume 32
The Arts at RCOE has some free new arts resources to offer as we open the 2024–2025 school year!