Length: 8/30 Minute
Rights: Annual Lease
Internet:  http://www.ket.org

Art To Heart explores the importance of the arts to children from birth through age 8. Aimed at parents, caregivers, and teachers, the series explores how developmentally appropriate activities in visual arts, dance, drama, and music contribute to learning and growth; shows exciting model arts programs in schools, day-care centers, and museums; and offers practical ideas for art activities that are both fun and educational. The series is hosted by actress Ana Ortiz.

Each program explores a specific area of the arts and early childhood. The programs are in a segmented documentary format, with interviews and footage at a variety of locations in each program. Early childhood teachers and caregivers, university researchers, museum educators, parents, and artists who work with young children are among those interviewed and featured. Locations included are the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts; the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia; the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis; The Speed Art Museum in Louisville; the Center of Excellence in Early Childhood Learning and Development at East Tennessee State University; the New Hampshire Child and Family Development Center; Stage One children’s theater; and numerous child care centers, Head Start programs, schools, and private homes.

1.) Children’s First Language - 9/21/08

An overview of the series, this program shows engaging arts activities in the types of settings the series will visit. Children and parents explore movement and music in Wolf Trap’s Baby ArtsPlay class; a mother and child create art together at home; a school system discovers that keyboarding stimulates math and science learning; babies get creative with paint at a model child care center; and families explore The Speed Art Museum’s child-friendly Art Sparks interactive gallery. A variety of experts offer thoughts on the importance of the arts, and Harvard researcher Howard Gardner discusses his Multiple Intelligences theory.

2.) Visual Arts - 10/5/08

Visual arts can be a doorway to literacy, self-esteem, problem-solving, and parent-child bonding, as the segments in this program illustrate. Fathers and children create steppingstones at a Head Start Center; books inspire art activities at the Philadelphia Art Museum and Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center; and inner city preschoolers explore the world in terms of a visual alphabet. The program visits several schools in the St. Louis area based on the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. 
 

3.) Music - 10/12/08

This program explores music as a powerful personal and social force in the lives of young children. Documentary segments explore the importance of singing to motor and language development; how an artist-in-residence guides young students to express themselves through songwriting; music as therapy; and a professional violinist’s mission to bring classical musicianship to inner-city youngsters.

4.) Movement & Dance - 10/19/08

Why does guided movement education in early childhood give youngsters a healthy start? How does dance foster connections to cultural diversity? This program explores these and other topics related to dance and movement through visits to the Center of Creative Art in St. Louis; an interview with New Hampshire-based movement specialist Rae Pica; and school and community dance activities in Philadelphia and Kentucky. 
 

5.) Drama & The Literary Arts - 11/2/08

Drama, storytelling, and literature are focal points of this program. A painting inspires third graders’ improvisations of encounters between Lewis and Clark and Native Americans; Wolf Trap teaching artists help young children bring books to life with music, dance, and puppets; and a neuroscientist discusses the importance of reading to children.

6.) The Artful Environment - 11/9/08

What kind of environment nurtures and supports creative activities and development? This program visits the Key Learning Community, an Indianapolis public school based on Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences; two museums created especially for children; and a father and daughter who draw each other.

7.) Arts For Learning - 11/11/08

This program visits a classroom in Louisville, Kentucky, where Stage One children’s theater turns the study of science into a dramatic experience; show how touch and gesture-based computer software helps young children explore art works in museums; discusses the connection between the arts and early brain development through an interview with Lise Eliot, author of What’s Going on in There?; and explores the importance of teachers experiencing art themselves. Sunday, May 20; Thursday, May 10

8.) Arts Every Day- 12/14/08

As this program shows, arts activities allow each child to express ideas and explore individual potential. Segments focus on inclusive arts activities for children of differing abilities; the importance of parents spending time with young children; two programs – one led by singer Dolly Parton, another by a New Hampshire pediatrician—designed to make books a part of each child’s life; and neighborhood library program that brings cultures together.

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