Community Arts & Service Learning

When Jon Dandurand's ('05 sculpture) summer school plans fell through in 2005, he went to the Academic Resource Center for help finding a way to earn the remaining three credit hours he needed to graduate. KCAI's community partner, Mattie Rhodes Counseling & Art Center, needed an intern for their summer art camp, and Jon was a perfect fit. The Community Arts and Service Learning program at KCAI was initiated and continues to pair talented students with KCAI's community partners.

Pictured: John Dandurand interning at the Mattie Rhodes Counseling & Art Center during the summer of 2005.

The CASL program encompasses a rigorous 15 credit hour academic curriculum noted for its three credit hour service learning internship. Students who complete the program will be eligible for a certificate in community arts.

Participating students will be required to take "The Artist's Role in Society," a liberal arts course; "Collaborative Art Practices," a studio elective; two additional studio classes and an internship.

Semester-long internships place students in community agencies as volunteers to develop skills they will need to become active, contributing members of their community -- skills that include planning, resource management, communication, evaluation and working independently and as a member of a team.

Just as their work supports the mission and goals of their community partner, the students' experiences expand and deepen their classroom and studio education. In a service learning internship, the students represent the college and may seek the resources of the Kansas City Art Institute -- facilities, faculty and programs -- to address the issues facing the community agency.

Students may become a service learning intern with a KCAI community partner in one of three ways: as a student enrolled in the CASL certificate program; as a service learning volunteer independent of the academic program; or through a service learning work-study assignment.

Ryan LaFerney works with his students during his internship at UMKC School of Education's Edgar L. and Rheta A. Berkley Child and Family Development Center.

KCAI's community partners include:

• 816 Bike Collective
• Accessible Arts
• Arts in Prison
• Boiler Room
• Berkley Child Development Center (UMKC)
• De LaSalle Education Center
• Kansas City, Kansas School District
• Mattie Rhodes
• Operation Breakthrough
• Rose Brooks Center

For more information about the CASL certificate, contact Julie Metzler, director of special programs, at 816-802-3357 or jmetzler@kcai.edu.

CASL certificate requirement sheet

The CASL certificate requirement sheet is available here (PDF).