UCLA welcomes students from Grand Arts High School to collaborate with its teaching artist program, VAPAE

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program transformed the Untitled Gallery in UCLA’s Broad Art Center into a black box theater.

VAPAE, situated in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts), provides undergraduates with the option to minor in arts education. Its mission is to prepare the next generation of culturally equitable arts educators, bringing inclusive arts education to Los Angeles schools and communities.

For the day, they invited music, theater, and dance students from Grand Arts High School, a public arts high school in Downtown Los Angeles, to UCLA Arts.

The students toured the campus, seeing the Sunken Gardens, Royce Hall, and the UCLA Department of Art undergraduate scholarship award exhibition at New Wight Gallery. The visiting students received firsthand insight into the college experience from VAPAE student guides.

In the evening, the high school students presented scenes from the classic musical Cabaret. The students deftly handled the musical’s nuanced subject matter and performed several iconic songs like “It Couldn't Please Me More (A Pineapple)” and “I Don’t Care Much” to a rapt audience. 

In return, the VAPAE students of Arts Education 108: Performing Arts Methods for the Teaching Artist shared the multidisciplinary performance project they had been developing over the quarter. The course, taught by VAPAE Director Kevin Kane, equipped the students with strategies and skills to design and implement original performing arts lessons.

“VAPAE takes seriously the idea that community engagement should work two ways: our UCLA students going into local communities to study and practice teaching artistry, and local K-12 schools coming to our campus for meaningful experiences and exchanges,” said Kane. “A night like this fulfills that vision.”