Riverside County Office of Education Visual and Performing Arts partnered with Inlandia Institute to create the inaugural Riverside County Teen Poet Laureate event. This annual event was sponsored by the city of Riverside, who hosted the Awards Reception at Grier Pavilion on November 5, 2021. It was also sponsored by the Riverside County Library System, who will be putting a copy of the special edition chapbook (small book of poetry) into the nearest county library of each of the finalists.

This first year of competition had 74 poets submitting 318 poems. Out of those entries, 26 were selected as finalists and were published in the chapbook and recognized with a certificate from the county. Three of those finalists were additionally recognized as Honorable Mentions for their body of work, and the Teen Poet Laureate was named for the 2021–2022 school year. She is Miss Katie Xin of Palm Desert High School, and she will be presenting her work at several events throughout the county in the coming year.

Special thanks go out to all of the teachers who supported the event by sharing the information with their students. We would also like to thank the proud parents who attended the reception with their student poets. It was a remarkable evening, and each of us that was part of putting together this new event are already looking forward to next year! “Listen to these young poets and you’ll discover the voice of the present and hear the voice of the future before the future is even here.” -Phillip Levine

For more information on this program, please see the Teen Poet Laureate event page.

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

The Riverside County Office of Education is proud to support Mono County Office of Education (MCOE), which is one of the four collaborative counties in the Region 10 service region of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA).

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.