SMARTS Premier Programs
SMARTS Community Programming
SMARTS partnerships occur in over 40 locations in the community, serving over 2,500 students and adults each year. These partnerships support our Mission by connecting to schools and youth organizations through programming and community events, helping us to reach more students who may not otherwise have access to us. Some partners contract SMARTS for our services helping also to generate revenue to support our mission. Our goal is that SMARTS Teachers work seamlessly within our partnerships to meet the goals of our partners and adapt to each organization’s culture of learning through a long-lasting relationship.
SMARTS has established relationships with many different businesses to bring opportunities to SMARTS students, such as creating a mobile piece of collaborative student art on a new vehicle from Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC or coaching interior design students to create a remodeling plan for Goodwill Industries staff work room.
SMARTS also appears at community events with hands-on arts activities for children of all ages to support organizations and to connect with families who may be interested in bringing their children to SMARTS after school or joining Virtual SMARTS.
How does an organization become a SMARTS Community Partner?
Organizations such as schools, youth organizations, businesses, government entities, non-profits, and churches may request programming in the community or programming at SMARTS by making contact in person, by phone, or by completing the Programming and Event Request form below. The SMARTS President manages these relationships and requests for services, and together with the Education Director, a proposal for services is created, customized, and implemented to meet the goals of the organization.
SMARTS Premier Programs
In some cases, SMARTS is the visual art and music teacher year-round. In addition to providing a part-time teacher in the arts, SMARTS provides four premier programs to schools to engage students in the arts and help reach underachieving students. Any school or organization can partner with SMARTS to bring these programs to their students.
SMARTS Arts Integration
Arts Integration is the process of teaching where state standards in both the arts discipline and a core subject are met simultaneously. Arts Integration teaches the ‘whole child’ by helping students combat learning loss, increase long-term retention of knowledge, and give alternative and underachieving learners core content instruction through a creative process. The SMARTS Arts Integration model also serves as a collaborative, ongoing professional development model that provides classroom teachers with new strategies to reach their students and reinvigorate their passion for teaching as they work with the SMARTS Teacher.
Early SMARTS
SMARTS has developed "7 Early Arts Skills" to provide early training in the arts for children ages 18 months - 5 years-old so that any child can choose to pursue an arts discipline as early as Kindergarten. Early SMARTS is an arts-integrated approach to teaching children the arts, literacy, and math skills they need in order to be ready to read (American Library Association), ready to learn math (Zero to Three), and ready to be an artist (SMARTS) by age 5. This learning happens through a creative process inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, providing students an opportunity to create art by “playing” with art.
SMARTS Beats and Empowers
SMARTS Beats is a percussion-based learning program for PK-12 (and up to the age of 21) students with developmental and behavioral challenges. SMARTS Beats uses hand drums and other percussion instruments to engage students in lessons that emphasize social emotional learning, fine motor development, and arts integration approaches. SMARTS Empowers extends the learning of SMARTS Beats to additional arts disciplines - visual art, dance, and theater - and was piloted in 2019. These programs are offered for free to partners in Mahoning County through the support of the Youngstown Community Foundation.
Arts in Non-Arts Spaces (AINS)
Discover an artist at work in a place you wouldn’t expect! In this program, SMARTS Teachers will come to your school or organization as an artist and will demonstrate their art live to expose students to careers in the arts, see an artist at work in real time, have an opportunity to ask them questions about their art, and learn about SMARTS free public classes. During the demonstration, the teacher may be visited by classrooms of students and teachers, administrators, students passing by in the hallway, or eating lunch. This is an interactive demonstration for students, not an artist performance!
Sign up for Classes
Becky Keck, SMARTS President.
SMARTS Circle Members: Diane Palmer, President; Jonathon Fauvie, Vice President; Melissa Crowley, Treasurer; Myra Vitto, Paul Garchar, Denise Holt, Bergen Giordani, John A. McNally, IV, John Orsini, Megan Jones, Stacia Erdos, and Nick Chretien.
CONTACT US
SMARTS at Ohio One
25 East Boardman Street, First Floor
Youngstown, OH 44503
330-574-2787 (ARTS)
info@smartsartschool.org