SEQARTKIDS workshops often culminate
in student exhibitions held in professional art
galleries like the one described on the poster below.

SEQARTKIDS’ programming is created in support of the federal Common Core State Standards, the Common Core State Standards, the New York State Learning Standards, and the New York City Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts. While each SEQARTKIDS workshop is based on the criteria of these curricula, our programs offer an alternative to standard art education programs by using time-based art forms. In addition to incorporating the specific curricula and teaching methods of government agencies and partnering schools, SEQARTKIDS specializes in "peripheral thinking" as defined by William Kentridge, the South African interdisciplinary artist. By encouraging children and their teachers to combine contextual data from all five of their senses to derive a well-rounded base of knowledge, SEQARTKIDS develops cross-curricular literacy. Franklin Furnace’s teaching artists use avant-garde art forms to accommodate different learning styles and promote creative and critical thinking through projects that prepare children to succeed in school, career, and life. Because SEQARTKIDS teaching artists want their students to benefit from the challenge of assuming control of their creative processes, they do not present masterpieces like Da Vinci's Mona Lisa; rather, they deploy a variety of variable works of art which are instructive and less daunting.

I. SEQARTKIDS and The Common Core
SEQARTKIDS workshops utilize elements from The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects as well as The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

SEQARTKIDS uses folktales, myths, graphic novels, and other genres to develop critical thinking and visual literacy skills that correlate directly to the Common Core State Standards.

SEQARTKIDS directly aligns with most Common Core standards, including the following:



II. SEQARTKIDS and the New York State Learning Standards
SEQARTKIDS lesson plans are not scripted but carefully planned to nurture the unexpected. SEQARTKIDS artist/educators encourage free expression to widen student options and allow for results that can exceed expectations. Outlined below are four of the New York State Standards, and how SEQARTKIDS matches and moves beyond them.

Standard 1: Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Arts

Students create their own artworks in all classes, visual and performative, allowing the students to express things that matter to them. For example, SEQARTKIDS artist/educator Mary Suk literally and figuratively rolls the dice with her DANCE & DANCE-MAKING students by presenting variations of Merce Cunningham's Chance Operations based on John Cage’s exploration of Eastern philosophy; performing her own dances; and above all, highlighting student work. With exposure to such variable master works and their teacher and classmate’s creations, children are empowered to generate their own discovery-driven art. In her recent SEQARTKIDS workshop at PS20K The Clinton Hill School, 4th graders practiced the four pillars of Hip Hop: breaking, rapping, tagging, and dj’ing. The children unanimously selected their classmate Amira’s rap for the grand finale, and she stole the show. That was fun but what was most telling to her teachers and principal is that Amira is the same girl who froze with stage fright at the previous year’s culminating performance. Enabling children of all abilities to stretch their limits is at the heart of SEQARTKIDS.

Standard 2: Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources

Students in all SEQARTKIDS classes learn how to work with new mediums. SEQARTKIDS students are taught by experts in filmmaking, graphic novels, utopian architecture and other time-based art forms. This technical expertise supports students’ conceptual development; for example, children in Patricia Miranda’s MAKING & USING YOUR OWN ART SUPPLIES actually create the tools and materials that they work with, learning how to make their own make their own paint, dyes, and brushes and freely experimenting with these tools of the trade. The same can be said for Ken Butler’s BUILDING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS workshops, in which students learn to design, build, and play their own instruments.

Standard 3: Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art

SEQ ART KIDS artist/educators present their students with important examples from across art history; share their own practices, and encourage feedback. Students work with the teaching artist to develop descriptive and analytical vocabulary and are trained in providing and receiving empathetic and constructive critique. Whenever possible, SEQARTKIDS arranges student tours of local museums and cultural organizations, where learned skills are reinforced in situ. After gaining experience in analyzing adult works, students are encouraged to experiment with their own work, creating and revising pieces of art with an eye toward creating their own unique masterpieces.

Standard 4: Understanding the Cultural Contributions of the Arts

What sets SEQARTKIDS apart from other arts-in-education programs is that students are shown how artistic expression can be an outlet for their joy, anger, frustration, sadness, and other personal truths. They are led to understand that arts are a necessary part of education as well as life. By discovering how creating their own art can effect themselves and others, they begin to see the difference that art can make outside the classroom, not only in museums and galleries, but in all parts of the public realm.


III. SEQARTKIDS and The NYC Department of Education Curriculum

All SEQARTKIDS lesson plans are based on The New York City Department of Education Curriculum and the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.

Beginning with the main goal of having students create their own unique visual art, SEQARTKIDS lessons are designed to help students develop an understanding of the principles of art and the elements of design. SEQARTKIDS lessons deepen expressive and critical faculties, hone art skills, and cultivate imaginations. In addition, SEQARTKIDS provides manifold opportunities for elementary school students to become literate in art; make cultural, historical and social connections; engage in learning and art practice beyond the classroom; take a stake in their communities; become active participants in, and advocates for, the arts; and develop lifelong persistence in pursuit of knowledge.

SEQARTKIDS instructors strive to have their students exceed the benchmarks highlighted in the Blueprint and to develop their multiple intelligences. SEQARTKIDS instructors create opportunities for suitable personal expression through interactive projects which support creative problem-solving and cognitive skills. In addition, the linguistic intelligence prized by the New York City Department of Education's core English and Language Arts curriculum is enhanced and supported by SEQARTKIDS work in filmmaking, graphics, animation, music, museum studies, storytelling, and website design.

SEQARTKIDS begin sequential unit projects; extend knowledge of art media and compositional and design elements; choose new ways of using familiar tools and materials; and deepen imaginative capacities, observational and expressive skills.

SEQARTKIDS hone observation skills and discuss works of art; develop visual arts vocabulary to describe art making, the tools and techniques used to produce art, and the elements and principles of design; read and write about art to reinforce literacy skills; interpret artwork by providing evidence to support assertions; reflect on the process of making art.

SEQARTKIDS recognize the societal, cultural, and historical significance of art; connect the visual arts to other disciplines; apply the skills and knowledge learned in visual arts to interpreting the world.

By working with a variety of school staff, SEQARTKIDS access primary resources in the community, the borough, and the city to extend their learning beyond the classroom.

SEQARTKIDS gain an awareness of careers in visual arts; recognize personal, social and professional goals; develop a career plan; learn to work independently and in teams; and gain an appreciation of art as a source of enjoyment and lifelong learning.