AUM for Schools
AUM works with students of all ages from K-8, High School, and Undergrad to deliver art-based programs that Educate, Enrich, and Enlighten.
Our programs cover a wide range of topics such as exploring bias, how to cultivate your body mind soul connection, and education through expressive movement. All of our programs incorporate multimedia; movement and somatic based activities.
Our facilitators provide safe environments for students to freely explore important topics, discuss with their peers, and respond through guided art-based activities. These immersive and participatory experiences create lasting impressions and touch on all aspects of student development - emotional, cognitive, and social.
IMPACT STORY:
The Colorism Project at Discovery School
The Participants
Discovery Charter School in San Jose is a K-8 school dedicated to creating lifelong learners that are prepared to meet the challenges of the future by educating the whole child through family involvement, project-based learning, and respect for individual learning styles and developmental readiness. They chose to work with AUM as our art-based programs closely with their mission to the holistic development of young minds.
The Program
“The Colorism Project,” teaches students about the history and implications of systemic racism and biases in society, as a means to help grow their ability to empathize and think critically about humanity. Our facilitators, Gary Santos and Coleen Lorenz, are both performing arts educators in the Bay Area, with a focus in social justice education and psychology. Each topic section incorporated multi-media, discussion, and somatic activities. As an opportunity for art response, students were asked to create bumper stickers that represent their solutions to such topics they learned about that day.
The Impact
This program left impressive and long lasting results with students. 99% of the students who participated shared in a survey that they left the program feeling “Empowered with knowledge,” “Hopeful,” “Satisfied,” and “Happy.”
"I would say that even if someone has a totally different life then you, you can still have empathy because we are all human and we will have things in common even if it's not your race or skin color. I think that love, admiration, and compassion can come from knowledge, I think that when you don't know much about something you tend to make stereotypes about it, but when you know about someone or something you can admire and love it.”
- Student at Discovery School