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About: Welcome
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Mission

ACES School of Creative Expression where we meet people where they are,

encourage creative risk-taking and create opportunities to discover their expressive outlets.

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VISION

  • Provide students, 4-104, the opportunity to assess, examine, and explore self and others to increase positive coping skills, creatively solve problems, and improve overall psychological well-being using artistic expressions.

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  • Use visual, performing, and language arts as the vehicle to social-emotional intelligence allowing the student to advance their understanding, skills and strategies to adaptively cope with the stressors impacting their life.

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  • Connect students to a diverse group of skilled local artists wide range of expressive styles and mediums.

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  • Create and maintain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment inspired by kindness, compassion, and creativity.

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  • Cultivate collaborative relationships with local community organizations, school districts, employers, libraries, senior centers, students, and artists to create artwork and performances increasing personal and community wellness.

About: About Us

ACES Philosophy

ACES School of Creative eXpression is a unique school where local artists serve as skilled collaborators who create opportunities for others to discover their unique voice through a wide range of mediums, styles, and platforms.

 

It is a basic human right to express ourselves

 

Artistic Expression

Art is a fundamental way to create change. 

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Art helps create symbolic representations of our internal thoughts and ideas, making what seems impossible to express possible.

 

Artistic Expression is about play, innovation, research, trial and error, mess making, excellence, dreaming, vulnerability, acceptance, movement, connection, relationship, failing apart and recreating. 

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By examining and creating abstract expression, art becomes a tool. With guidance provided through ACES, we change worldviews:

 

  • Explore Personal Development

  • Strengthening Self-Advocacy

  • Art is Your Voice

  • Sharpen Reasoning Skills

  • Innovative Thinking Skills

  • Develop Problem-Solving Alternatives through Creativity and Imagination

  • Allows for vulnerability

  • Art is for Everyone

  • Explore the Value of diversity, promotes equity, expands opportunity

  • Exploration and acknowledgment of Cultural Differences

 

Social-Emotional Development 

“Social and Emotional development is a process through which people acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” (Berman, Chaffee & Sarmiento, 2018)

 

Struggling with coping and stress is common in our modern world and daily lives. Here at ACES, our programs are designed to address specific manifestations for individuals to develop coping strategies and mitigate personal crisis. At ACES we emphasize harm reduction through creation. These strategies are effective helping with:

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  • Depression

  • Isolation - Loneliness

  • Bullying

  • Self-Harm/Suicide

  • Substance Abuse

  • Poor Academic Performance

  • Risky Behaviors

  • Physical and Sexual Assaults

  • Eating disorders

  • Gang involvement

 

The ACES School of Creative Expression strives to support participants in developing unique adaptive coping skills and strategies that meet the following criteria:

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  • Anything that relieves negative effects of a stressor and…

  • Does not harm self or others

  • Something that works for them.

  • Provides a source of relief or healing for physical and psychological injury

  • Promotes physical and mental well-being

  • Addresses the root of stressor

  • Supports long-lasting benefits and promotes personal growth

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With art we bring awareness to our emotions to enable their management. When students work with art, they develop emotional management, adaptation to change, achievement orientation, and a brighter outlook towards oneself and the future. ACES emphasizes artistic and natural human development by expanding awareness of society and organizations, and developing a greater empathy for others. From this vision, students can manage relationships with others by learning teamwork, conflict management, and the development of mentorship and leadership skills.

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