Upstream Arts

School programs - in 23-24, we carried out 49, semester or year-long school programs in special education/ inclusive classrooms, reaching 557 students ages birth to 21 with a range of disabilities in Minnesota. In our school programs, teams of local professional artists lead multidisciplinary Arts activities in theatre, dance, music, poetry and visual Arts designed to build social/emotional, healthy relationships and communication skills. We work in school districts around the metro area, with our biggest presence in minneapolis public schools where we ran 34 residencies in the 23-24 school year.

Community/out of state/milwaukee - Upstream Arts carries out community programs with parks and recreation, libraries, churches and other community organizations. We also do touring community programming and training outside of the state of Minnesota. We have an ongoing presence in milwaukee, wi, where we carry out school, adult and community programming as well as professional development annually. We carry out regular programming with milwaukee public schools, and harry & rose samson family jewish community center. In 23-24, we reached 161 individuals through 14 different programs, including residencies in milwaukee public schools special education classrooms, and a robust professional development training series for milwaukee public schools special education educators.

Adult - in 23-24, we carried out 16 adult programs reaching 205 adults with disabilities. In these programs, teams of local professional artists lead multidisciplinary Arts activities in theatre, dance, music, poetry and visual Arts designed to develop soft skills specific to self advocacy, the workplace, healthy relationships, and meaningful community participation for individuals with disabilities ages 21-75+. These programs also benefit support staff in disability organizations and parents/ guardians/ support staff, who receive training on creative strategies to support the voice and choice of individuals with disabilities. Some of our adult programs are run in collaboration with adult day programsorganizations where adults with disabilities receive social and vocational services. We also offer open enrollment self advocacy classes for adults with disabilities where the Arts offer a way to nurture self-expression and self-determination; adults with disabilities can use their mn state waivered dollars to attend these classes.

Artist training - because we believe that artists are the catalysts of social change, each year we invest in training our roster of 30+ teaching artists who teach our programs. We provide trainings on Upstream Arts' approach to accessible arts-infused instruction for individuals with disabilities, and bring in external trainers on disability, Arts or education related topics. In 23-24 we provided 36 hours of training.

Professional development - we share creative tools for advancing inclusion through professional development and trainings on access, universal design and art based instructional strategies for diverse learners. In 23-24, we carried out 22 trainings/ professional development for educators, school districts, Arts organizations and community organizations, reaching 305 people.