Madrona Panther Partners

Madrona is an arts-infused school.

Our faculty, staff, PTSA, and school community recognize that when students are engaged in the arts they develop pathways for greater understanding of new and difficult concepts and content across the curriculum; they demonstrate self-discipline, motivation, and perseverance; they engage in creative problem solving; they feel empathy and reflect on the human experience; and they develop into life-long learners.

Madrona is committed to partnering with local artists and arts organizations to provide in-school residencies in music, dance, theater and visual arts. We have a full time visual art teacher and participate in Disney Musicals in Schools to produce a musical each spring. Our students go on several arts-related field trips every year, including to the ballet, Seattle Children's Theater, the 5th Avenue, and the Seattle Art Museum. After-school enrichment classes in music, dance and creative drama are available for interested students, including Seattle Music Partners, Jazz Ed, Stone Soup Theater, and African drumming classes.

In the 2016/2017 school year, using Creative Advantage funds, we hosted resident artists Aaron Walker-Loud and Mikaela Romero of Big World Breaks. Students in K-5 learned to sing, move, and drum, putting on an incredible performance where kindergarteners sang the blues, first graders sang in Portuguese, fifth graders accompanied younger students, and our community came together.

Building on these experiences, Madrona seeks to create a community that offers arts-learning for ALL students. We are building a program to begin in September 2017 that will provide an broad, arts-infused education for our students, including quarterly artist residencies and related feild trips, supported through grants, PTSA funds, private fundraising, and Creative Advantage.

Our programs for youth empower students toward confident self-expression as well as celebrate students’ unique backgrounds and experiences. We provide safe and supportive learning environments that foster creative and critical thinking, allow youth to take risks and develop new skills, and foster healthy and productive relationships with each other and a community of arts professionals.