Patriot Preparatory Academy Partnership

By Alumna Lyndsey Vader (Ph.D in Dance Studies, 2020)

During the 2021-2022 academic year, the Department of Dance kicked off a two-year community partnership with Patriot Preparatory Academy (PPA)—a K-12 charter school located near Whitehall. Professor Crystal Perkins, Ph.D. Candidate Alesondra (Alex) Christmas, Alumna and Lecturer Kathryn Logan and Alumna Dr. Lyndsey Vader collaborated with PPA Community Liaisons Mrs. Yolanda Briggs and Mrs. Del-Jean Steele to co-create a range of visual and performing arts programs that supported a collective vision for youth empowerment and civic engagement. After a six-month planning period with PPA, the partnership team implemented a student-led mural, art-based community-building workshops, school performances by undergraduate BFA dance majors, a field trip to Ohio State and a series of Ghanaian storytelling sessions that utilized movement and music. Programming engaged 140 high school students, 178 middle school students, 131 elementary school students, 40 PPA teachers and administrators and over 31 Ohio State affiliates.  

Before COVID-19 shutdowns, a cohort of PPA high school students—led by Dekontee Zokruah—designed and submitted for approval a school mural. The campus-community partnership enabled these young artists to bring their vision to life after the mural was paused due to the pandemic. Students collaborated with Aurelia Javier, an incredible visual artist and Ph.D. student in Multicultural Education at Ohio State. Together, Zokruah and Javier lead a group of high school students, staff and Ohio State team members through every step of the creative process. In recognition of her contributions to the mural project, Zokruah was the inaugural recipient of the Youth Citizen Artist Award. This award celebrates outstanding leadership amongst K-12 students who use their talents, knowledge and personal strengths to enrich the school culture. The Youth Citizen Artist Award offers a cash prize of $1,000 to an exemplary young artist who positively impacts their community through creative acts, motivating others to recognize the power of the arts.  

Ohio State undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in Dance 5505S “Citizen Artists: Cultivating Community-Engaged Arts Partnerships” collaborated with PPA’s 6^th-grade class, using visual and performing arts methods for group storytelling. Workshops engaged community-building through theater games and movement-based activities, poetic explorations of the self, and collage activities rooted in identity, to name a few approaches. The course is part of the forthcoming Race, Equity and Social Justice for the Arts Certificate Program and centrally considers how artists enter, engage and exit community-based projects ethically.  

The partnership hosted a series of elementary workshops with interdisciplinary Ghanaian artist and MFA in Dance Candidate Ishmael Konney. His 2^nd and 4^th-grade workshops focused on Ghanaian storytelling traditions as they intersect with dance and music. Students learned part of a traditional Ghanaian dance called “Kpatsa” and shined as they took center stage to perform for each other.  

Led by Professor Eddie Taketa, Ohio State BFA dance majors performed for middle school and high school students as part of the dance department’s School Tour Group. The performance featured works by dance faculty and students—each assembly received thunderous applause.  

Finally, the junior and senior classes from PPA undertook a field trip to Ohio State to experience the arts on campus. During the trip, students received a university admissions and funding talk, explored the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, visited the Wexner Center galleries, watched a dance department performance and engaged in a Q&A with current Ohio State students about life as an undergraduate. We all learned a little something about what “adulting” is like from undergraduate student perspectives.  

The PPA-OSU community partnership received support from Patriot Preparatory Academy, Ohio State’s Department of Dance, the Barbara and Sheldon Pinchuk Community Engagement Award, Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme Racial Justice and Community Engagement Grant and GAA Professional Development Fund as well as the Seed Fund for Racial Justice. This partnership is connected to Ohio State’s Race, Equity, and Social Justice in the Arts Certificate. The forthcoming certificate program will build cultural competence through coursework that teaches anti-oppression, arts-integrated approaches to social justice education. Course studies focus on interdisciplinary perspectives to understand historical and contemporary contexts that perpetuate cultural inequalities impacting artistic fields and practices. The certificate program provides learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom, offering ethical strategies for building sustainable community-engaged partnerships that support public programming at the intersection of social justice education, artmaking and activism.  

The PPA-OSU partnership team looks forward to the third year of robust visual and performing arts programming during the 2023-2024 academic year! If you are interested in getting involved or learning more about the certificate program, please contact Professor Crystal Perkins at perkins.642@osu.edu.