Two months into her new job, Metro Arts Alliance Executive Director Angela Ossian is hitting the ground running with an initiative to bring a new level of integrated arts education to some of Greater Des Moines’ youngest students. 

During an interview last week with Ossian, I learned that the nonprofit is working to become an affiliate of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts (bit.ly/1D5ggQA). Through that program, Metro Arts would sponsor local performing artist residencies at elementary schools to provide teachers with new strategies for incorporating the arts into their academic curricula. 

“Arts education is probably one of our main platforms,” Ossian said. “In the past, we’ve had teaching artists who would go into the schools and do one-day programs, but it’s not as effective as a program such as Wolf Trap.” 

Des Moines would join 17 other cities as affiliates of the nationwide arts institute, which is named for the creek that runs through the area of Virginia where it was originally established in 1966 on what is now the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. Wolf Trap has been involved in early learning initiatives since 1981, when it established an early childhood learning branch through a federal Head Start grant. 

The Des Moines Public Schools — which recommended that Wolf Trap approach Metro Arts Alliance as a potential affiliate — last month hosted an observation week for Des Moines teachers to experience an abbreviated format of the artist residencies, which normally last eight to 12 weeks. 

“We knew that Metro Arts Alliance was looking for ways to rethink its arts education programming,” said Sarah Dougherty,  visual arts curriculum coordinator for Des Moines Public Schools. “Certainly one thing we would hope to get out of the partnership would be to incorporate the programing into the schools.” 

For the past five years, Dougherty has coordinated the district’s involvement in Turnaround Arts, an arts-integrated teaching program at Harding Middle School and its four feeder elementary schools. Wolf Trap is a partner in that national program, which has brought well-known national artists, among them Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, to the schools as mentors to show students and teachers new ways to integrate the arts into traditional subjects such as reading, science and math. Turnaround Arts is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment of the Arts and private and corporate donors. 

Because of its experience with Turnaround Arts, “we have a sort of ready-made community of schools that are interested in this kind of partnership,” Dougherty said. The four Turnaround Arts elementary schools — Findley, Cattell, Madison and Oak Park — would be a natural place to begin, she said. Down the road, “the goal would be access for any school that wishes to reach their students this way.” 

Ossian estimates that Metro Arts Alliance will need to raise about $25,000 initially to get the affiliation off the ground. 

Beginning in January, Metro Arts Alliance will begin seeking grants and donations for the initiative, which will also be funded by all the money raised at its annual fundraising event in April, Ossian said. Initially, Metro Arts plans to use its current program coordinator to head up the local program. 

“We want to start off small and do it well and do it right and then incorporate more teaching artists into the schools,” she said. 

For Ossian, a program that supports local performing artists while promoting early engagement in the arts is a great combination. 

“We’re supporting our artists in our community, and we’re training them with effective learning styles to support the development of children through the arts. I’m really excited about how that works perfectly, and we’ll be one of the few cities in the United States doing it, so I’m really excited about that.” 

Read our recent “Closer Look” interview with Angela Ossian: http://bit.ly/2hfyT4j