Bridging the Performing Arts Gap with Enhanced Field Trips

K-12 STEAM education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

SRI Education’s study, “Creativity Challenge: The State of Arts Education in California,” commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, reveals that a majority of California schools continue to fail to meet the state’s arts education mandate of offering all California students dance, music, theater, and visual arts instruction. State law requires all students receive sequential, standards-based visual and performing arts education, but only 11 percent of schools are meeting that requirement. The arts are an essential academic subject, but new data finds that only 3% of students are enrolled in theater classes. We also know this is an equity issue. Only 14% of schools with mostly low-income students offered all 4 arts disciplines, compared to 32% of schools with mostly affluent students. Despite increased funds via Prop 28, schools are struggling to navigate the complexities of the funding requirements. This is where BBMT can meet the need.

During the 2023-24 seasons, BBMT increased our field trips by 300% and offered artist-led art workshops for Title 1 schools. Expanding this program will allow us to invest in dedicated expertise and capacity for our educational programs for the 2025 season, and offer art workshops and curricula across three of our shows during the year–– Crow About, Circus and Choo Choo Revue. The enhanced educational workshops will be offered to Title 1 schools attending field trips, focusing on music as a foundation of puppetry performance. For example, for our first entirely new show in 40 years, Choo Choo Revue, field trip art workshops will be led by Japanese-Chicano artist and musician Money Mark. The former Beastie Boys band member, now artist and arts educator, will lead students on an exploration of making beats and rhythms on everyday instruments such as boxes and coffee cans. We will work with LAUSD art and social justice educator Allisón Chalco to develop curricula for each show, as we did for the 2023-24 school year. The curriculum is offered to teachers in advance of field trips, as well as to parents and families via show programs and our website and social media. We believe that we are uniquely positioned to provide an educational experience that is not readily accessible to most students in LA County–– a show that is often their first experience with performing arts, paired with the opportunity to learn from, and create with an artist/educator in response to the performance.

Having moved from a struggling performing arts theater to a community based non-profit organization focused on performing arts, education, and community access in 2018, we now reach over 140,000 Angelenos annually through field trips, dozens of free community events, our touring company, Bob Baker Day free community festival, residencies, and in-theater shows. Growing our field trip and art workshop program will allow us to expand our reach further, exposing many thousands of children to their first performing arts experience. Participating students may then bring their experience home, encouraging extended family to attend BBMT events in the community, thus creating more opportunities for vital arts exposure in LA County. Participation in the arts is proven to improve student and community outcomes, particularly in the areas of mental health and wellbeing, and BBMT has the ability to fill in the gaps in access that are so badly impacting the Los Angeles community.

We assess our impact through surveys and direct feedback from teachers and students. During the run of !Fiesta!, 80% of students reported that the performance was their first experience with performing arts, and 87% reported that it was their first experience with a screen printing workshop. 94% of teachers surveyed reported that our art workshops are engaging for students and 100% report that students were learning new material in the performing and visual arts. We also know we are delivering social and emotional learning through reflecting and connecting to students' sense of identity. 95% of teachers surveyed felt the students saw themselves in our work. In a post-show letter from one student, they wrote, “ Dear Bob Baker team, I loved the little boy with the horse. That was my favorite part because it looked like he was Mexican like my father. And this was my first time here." We will continue to survey our community to ensure we deliver the best programming possible.