VALA - Visual Arts/Language Arts for Kids in the Public Schools

VALA's challenging programs bring public elementary school students and teachers into intimate contact with the worlds of visual and performing arts and, in each case, creative writing. Our inclusion of writing in the artistic process distinguishes VALA from other arts education organizations and provides a concrete opportunity to improve literacy through creativity within the public school system. We hire a wide range of artists from all cultural backgrounds. Our projects involve the children with each other and provide them with a means to overcoming cultural divisions, by allowing them to understand other people through exposure to the arts and literature of different cultures. We believe that making art, looking at art, and listening to art are essential to understanding other people, their cultures, and ways of perceiving the world, as well as for learning possibilities for creative participation in our own lives.