Arts Education
Meet the Artists Who Teach Our Students
Nina Crampton, Art Teacher
Nina joined the ASB faculty in 2021 as Art Teacher to 3rd through 8th grade. A lifelong artist and educator, Nina gained her Fine Arts degree and Postgraduate Certificate of Education in the UK. Since moving to America in 2002, Nina has taught Art to students of all ages in the greater Seattle area and also worked as scenic painter for The Pacific Northwest Ballet. A passionate Mountaineer and outdoor adventurer, Nina frequently uses nature as inspiration for student projects, bringing environmental and climatic awareness to the art room as well as communication and focus. A practicing artist, Nina strongly believes that all can thrive artistically and loves the enriching environment at ASB.
Julie Olsen, Drama Teacher
Julie has led the Drama program at ASB since 2015 and speaks of our students as “just remarkable.” She has an MFA from the University of Washington School of Drama’s Professional Actor Training program and is also a graduate of Oberlin College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. An Executive Board member of the Washington State Educational Theatre Association, Ms. Olsen chairs the Washington State Junior Thespian Conference. She has taught performance skills in a wide variety of settings, including NCAS skills-based workshops at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu and at the Washington State Thespian Festival. Most recently, Ms. Olsen’s theatre curriculum was selected by the National Educational Theatre Association for its “high-quality examples of skill in setting instructional objectives, designing coherent instruction, and designing student assessment.” Her work is included in the National Educational Theatre Associations’ library of professional development resources, which illustrates best practice for theatre educators.
Matt Turner, Music Teacher & Choir Director
Matt has been teaching music for over 20 years and has been at ASB since 2016. He holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a Master of Teaching degree from Seattle Pacific University. Matt brings an enthusiasm for creating and performing through singing, movement response, playing instruments, and connecting music to its cultural and historical heritages. In addition to teaching music classes, Matt directs the ASB choir, serves as music director of the annual school musical, and plays piano for liturgical services during the school year. He is a published composer of choral and instrumental music. Matt is a firm believer that every student has a unique story to tell through creative exploration and artistic expression.
Bryan Van Pelt, Music Teacher & Band Director
Bryan has degrees in Jazz Studies and Music Education from the University of Washington and has been at ASB since 2015. His main teaching philosophy is simply put as "person first, student second". He is dedicated to forming honest and respectful relationships with the students on a personal and human level first. If these bonds are not formed, then the learning process will not flourish. Mr. Van Pelt truly sees the ASB students as people with feelings, emotions, stories, and backgrounds. One of his favorite accomplishments is holding the 4th grade "Music Performance" for families. This event allows 4th grade parents and family members to attend a music class and watch their child learn in real time. Families are always blown away by the countless skills their child demonstrates in a typical music class.
Drama
Drama is a vital part of our arts curriculum and is offered to all students from Pre-K through 8th grade. Our goal is to give students a positive experience while building self confidence and craftsmanship for life-long learning. Drama engages the imagination, develops conceptual, kinesthetic, emotional and social skills, and allows students to discover their own creative potential. By utilizing the National Core Arts Standards as the basis for our Drama curriculum at ASB, we ensure that students are receiving the highest quality standards based arts education we can offer.
Drama has a dedicated space housed in the Performing Arts Center on campus. It offers students learning stations for creative play, space for rehearsal and small performances, and new and expanded instructional space for intermediate and middle school drama activities. Students in Pre-K through 5th grade have Drama class once each week. Middle school students attend Drama classes during one trimester as part of their middle school arts rotation. Middle School students also have the opportunity to participate in two fully staged productions each school year as the ASB Theatre Ensemble and join the ASB Junior Thespians.
Goals
- Enables students to discover their creative abilities.
- Inspires students to strive for excellence.
- Exposes students to a variety of artistic mediums that challenge them to discover new ideas and perspectives.
- Enhances other areas of learning.
- Enriches creativity and artistic collaboration.
Curriculum
Discovery with Drama: Grades PK-2
Stories allow students to use their imagination while teaching children about our world, its people, cultures, and traditions. Stories in Drama inspire creative play and motivate students to explore ethical, social, and community issues. Students love to bring stories to life by recreating characters and favorite moments, so we utilize process drama, story drama, and creative play to teach performance skills that foster both creativity and self-awareness.
Explorations through Drama: Grades 3-5
Drama uses a variety of artistic skills in the creative process including: mime, improvisation, voice, movement, character development, directing and performance. These skills are learned and developed in a variety of ways including games, activities and various performances. With its emphasis on 21st century learning skills, Drama is integrated into school-wide learning goals and expectations: Reader’s Theatre and Story Structure (3rd grade), Collaborating to Create Imaginary Worlds (4th grade), and Exploring Social Justice Issues through Drama (5th grade).
Theatre Arts: Grades 6-8
Middle school students focus on the theatrical process of taking an idea, character and/or story, and bringing it to life on stage using a variety of techniques and methods. We continually build on our performance skills working on various activities and projects throughout the trimester: Middle School Theatre Arts courses, in compliance with National Core Arts Standards, are designed to give students a secure understanding of fundamental theatre concepts, skills, and vocabulary and multiple opportunities to apply theatre skills and techniques to performance. To accomplish this, students will engage in a learning process that emphasizes the following 21st Century Learning Skills: collaboration, communication, and growth mind-set. By collaborating to hypothesize, examine, analyze and connect ideas and their applications to performance processes, students will establish common goals and work together to achieve them.
About the National Core Arts Standards:
The National Core Arts Standards emphasize the process-oriented nature of the arts and arts learning that guide the continuous and systematic operations of instructional improvement by:
- Defining “artistic literacy” through a set of overarching philosophical foundations and lifelong goals that clarify long term expectations for arts learning.
- Placing Artistic Process and Anchor Standards in the forefront of the work
- Identifying Creative Practices as the bridge for the application of the Artistic Processes across all learning.
- Specifying “Enduring Understandings” and “Essential Questions” that provide conceptual through-lines and articulate value and meaning within and across arts disciplines.
- Providing Model Cornerstone Assessments of Student Learning aligned to Artistic Processes.
NCAS Artistic Process:
- Create: Conceive and Develop new artistic ideas and work
- Perform: Realize artistic ideas and work through interpretation and presentation
- Respond: Understand and evaluate how the arts convey meaning.
- Connect: Relate artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context
Music
Visual Arts
Local Art Museums | |
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Seattle Art Museum | www.seattleartmuseum.org |
The Frye Museum | www.fryemuseum.org |
Henry Art Gallery | www.henryart.org |
Bellevue Arts Museum | www.bellevueart.org |
Tacoma Art Museum | www.tacomaartmuseum.org |
Museum of Glass, Tacoma | www.museumofglass.org |
Museum of Northwest Art, La Connor | www.museumofnwart.org |
National Art Museums | |
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | www.metmuseum.org |
Museum of Modern Art, New York | www.moma.org |
The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC | www.nga.gov |
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC | www.nmai.si.edu |
The Smithsonian, Washington DC | www.smithsonian.org |
The Art Institute of Chicago | www.artic.edu |
Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis | www.walkerart.org |
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles | www.getty.edu/museum |
Los Angeles County Museum of Art | www.lacma.org |
International Art Museums | |
The Louvre, Paris | www.louvre.org |
The Tate Museums – Tate Britain and Modern, in London & other UK cities | www.tate.org.uk |
The Guggenheim Museums – New York, Bilbao, Venice | www.guggenheim.org |
The Museum of Fine Arts Berne, Switzerland | www.museen-bern.ch |