View the Programs At a Glance" brochure in PDF Format (En Español)
Creative Connections is a non-profit international cultural exchange organization that sets up class-to-class exchanges between American schools and their counterparts around the world teaching awareness, understanding, and appreciation of other cultures to young people around the world.
We connect students globally * Classes exchange art for understanding * Students discover underlying ideas and values * Classes dialogue across continents and communicate directly with global peers * Students learn cultural literacy * Our programs work towards building cultural understanding
We believe that cultural awareness is an essential element of every child’s education in an increasingly interconnected world. Our programs build bridges between students in the USA and their international peers through the exchange of arts and ideas. These exchanges teach cultural literacy and promote appreciation for other cultures, customs and traditions.
A unique international exchange program designed primarily for 3rd - 12th grade art classes. Students create art projects that reflect their life and culture, and exchange their work with a partner class in another country. Students then examine and enjoy the art from their partners, gaining new insights into their cultures.
This program is an expanded version of ArtLink, designed to be a unique inter-disciplinary study in art and social studies, requiring students to explore the connection between visual and cultural literacy in greater depth. After creating and exchanging art with their partners, students share their insights with one another through thoughtful postings, dialogue, and sometimes live videoconferencing. Teachers are given additional workshop material that helps them prepare students to analyze their partner’s art for cultural content, as well as the tools to dialogue with their partners.
An interdisciplinary program designed for 3rd - 8th grade art, science, social studies and Spanish language classrooms, this innovative program features the formation of unique classroom partnerships between students from the United States and countries in the rainforest regions of the world. Rainforest ArtLink asks students to create art that expresses their cultures and daily lives. In the unique dialogue that follows students explore how the environment affects one’s culture. Partner classes are given the opportunity to establish dialogue with their partners in a live video- or tele-conference.
This cutting-edge, video-conference based program designed for 5th -12th grade social studies, language arts, art and photography classes, pairs classes in the U.S. and abroad to explore meaningful aspects of daily life by taking digital photos of various aspects of their cultures. Students gain new insights into their own cultures and share/compare them with their partner class during two facilitated, live video-conferences.
This ArtLink Plus program is specifically designed for 7th-12th graders in the US and Arab students living in the Middle East. It involves the creation and exchange of art projects, and subsequent written, audio, and/or video dialoguing. This program requires program participants to both reflect on their own way of life and to open their minds to learn about the too-often misunderstood culture of their partners.
Our Program Goals
Creative Connections strives to help all exchange participants become “culturally literate” world citizens. All of its programs are designed to provide partner students with:
- A greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of other cultures by establishing meaningful connections between young people around the world.
- A healthy and often empowering perspective as they examine their own cultures and attempt to describe them.
- The means to share relevant facts about their cultures as they delve deeper into the values that underlie those cultures.
- The opportunity and challenge of sharing meaningful aspects of their cultures by creating real projects, not just words. The arts are used as the most effective tool for communicating cultural exchange for both the creators and the recipients.
- The opportunity to dialogue with one another about their creative projects, and bring cultures alive through focused communication.
Creative Connections strives to support all participating teachers by facilitating connections by:
Identifying and connecting classes according to grade, age and teacher specifications and providing full details of the partner class
Providing materials. Our ArtLink Teacher Handbook includes clear guidelines on what is expected of both exchange partners, deadlines, lesson plans, a theme for the art, suggestions for art projects and approaches to the teaching process when dealing with culture.
Introductory workshop packages for the teachers to help open the students’ minds to the excitement of cultural exploration.
Teacher training videos on our website provide guidance on how to help students build intercultural competencies.
Providing additional artwork to share. Each teacher receives our International Children’s art portfolio with sample art from all participating countries.
Building a virtual community through online global communication, enabling teachers and students to exchange ideas and best practices.
Facilitating the exchange process to support our partner teachers’ every step. We keep in regular communication with teachers and manage shipping, ensuring that artwork reaches it’s destination intact and on time.
Supporting classes in financial need through scholarships and absorbing shipping cost when needed.
In Classroom Workshops
Creative Connections gives art workshops right in local classrooms, featuring selected art from its extensive archive. In these workshops, students become “cultural detectives”, using the children’s art to gain a fuller appreciation of different cultures.
Rainforest regions of the world come alive at elementary and middle schools by handling and analyzing artifacts, photographs, watching video clips, and reading letters from students who live in the rainforest. In the Rainforest workshop, students gain an understanding of what life in a rainforest is like.
International Young Performers’ Tour
Creative Connections brings talented youngsters from around the world to meet with and perform for children and students in our area, sharing their culture through music, song and/or dance. Young audiences also get a feel for the personal lives of the performers, since each show leads off with a video that takes the audience “back home” to see the performers’ schools, homes, and rehearsals. An important component of each tour is interaction between the performers and their American peers. Groups give “hands-on” workshops, visit classrooms, share meals, and stay in the homes of local families.
In October 2009, the award winning Rossijanochka Youth Folk Dance from St. Petersburg, Russia will be returning for their fourth tour with us.
