ARTS & MINDS

 The Riverside Arts Council’s Arts and Minds arts education program is comprised of artist/teacher partnerships as well as workshops, assemblies and less structured residences. With California Arts Council funding, partnerships have been formed in a number of  county schools and communities, such as Lake Elsinore, Perris, Mead  Valley, Indio, Nuevo, Corona-Norco, Coachella and Riverside over the  last 19 years. The Riverside Arts Council designs each residency  project to meet the specific needs of the school or community site being served. To emphasize literacy and other curricular skills,  professional artist work as trainers and partners with teachers and site  directors, incorporating the California Department of Education’s  Framework for the Visual and Performing Arts and Content Standards as they integrate the arts in K-8 curricula. When the California Arts  Council suspended grants in 2003, the Riverside Arts Council continued to provide standards-based arts education in after-school programs. Mead Valley Unified School District is home to Manuel Real Elementary, which credits the Riverside Arts Council’s arts education program with contributing to the historically low-performing school’s 147-point jump in its Academic Performance Index scores and positive changes in school and neighborhood culture.