InsideOut

Todd is an artist who travels the world and his local community, sketchbook in hand. His art shows the colorful eccentricity bound within moments and individuals, depicting scenes of people coming together to improve the world. Todd encourages people to create small, personalized drawings which he collages into larger collaborative art works.

When he's not circumnavigating the globe, you'll find Todd working as a public school substitute teacher or living in San Francisco’s eclectic Mission District neighborhood, painting scenes that capture a chaotic sense of community and collaboration in bright, expressionistic drawing, painting and collage.

Over the past nine years, Todd has experimented with a variety of approaches to bring art to students in the San Francisco Unified School District. He has worked with teachers to incorporate art into their curriculum and has engaged classrooms in quick, energetic collaborative art games.

Todd was born in the hills of West Virginia, grew up on Long Island, NY, and moved to San Francisco in 1998 with Lauren. He has a BA in Public Policy from Brown University and continues his arts education through programs at U.C. Berkeley Extension and the San Francisco Art Institute. His art often hangs on the walls of local community spaces, offices and homes.

"Take My Word For It!" is a word incubator - a place where kids can feel safe and supported while they grow as writers. Since 2005 we have been offering an innovative curriculum in our after-school and community-based creative writing programs in the East Bay and San Francisco. We also run private writing groups as well as Creative Writing and Art summer and holiday camp.

 

Our young authors have the thrill of sharing their work out loud at our bookstore readings for parents and friends, as well as crow about their work when it's posted online on our blog at www.blog.takemywordforit.net

Handful Players is a free children’s musical theater program rooted in San Francisco’s Western Addition community. Handful Players contributes to the rich tapestry of the community by engaging youth (ages eight to 16) in free theatrical productions and cultural events that facilitate and promote positive growth and constructive interaction. 

Our Mission is to help inner-city youth develop critical life skills, improve their self-esteem, and find their creative voices through theater performance.

Workshops and Performance. Handful Players conducts free two-hour student workshops twice a week after school from October to May plus an eight-week summer season. Each season includes workshops on storytelling, acting, music, movement, costumes, and set design. Handful Players commissions talented local playwrights to create original plays for our performances. Each season culminates in a fully staged, community performance put on by the children and accompanied by professional musicians. 

Handful Players also conducts an in-school residency of 10 weekly interactive theater workshops where Handful Players’ teaching artist and playwright collaborate with the classroom teacher and students to create a short musical theater production based on a book and the events and themes from the classroom teacher’s curriculum.

We hire exceptionally talented artists and educators who are committed to working constructively and collaboratively with the children to create unique experiences and help them acquire fundamental life skills. 

Please contact Judith Cohen at 415-921-8246 for a schedule and information about our after-school, in-school residency, and summer programs.

*Inspire girls to dream big
*Challenge girls to achieve excellence
*Empower girls through knowledge and accomplishment

Remarkable Girls, a unique theatre program for ages 9-18, provides classes, workshops, and performance opportunities designed to promote growth, creativity, and artistry.

In addition to her all-girl program, Jan Downing continues to offer coed musical theatre and drama classes to schools and community organizations.

 

Dandelion Arts provides art eduction to children with limited access to the arts in Kindergarten through eighth grades with an emphasis on culture and social responsibility.  Art mediums are primarily visual arts and creative writing.