P.S. ARTS 2026-2027
Theme & Anchorworks:
We Are the Stories We Tell
As we enter a new school year, we at P.S. ARTS are celebrating our 35th anniversary advancing equity and opportunity through arts education in public schools! For three and a half decades, we’ve championed equitable arts education, and we’ve found a throughline in all the work we’ve done with countless students and communities in that time—namely, that every student’s story matters. As we celebrate this legacy, we’re proud to announce that our 2026-2027 theme keeps us rooted in this ethic: “We Are the Stories We Tell.”
In addition to selecting a new theme, each year we select “anchorworks,” artworks or artists that ground and inspire our curriculum across our programs for the year. We use the term anchorworks instead of masterworks to decolonize the language we use and to reflect a more inclusive, culturally responsive approach to teaching. Below read more about the unifying themes we have planned for each of the artistic disciplines in our classrooms. A more detailed blog post spotlighting our anchorworks and anchor artists will be dropping on the blog next week!
VISUAL ARTS
This year, we are expanding our visual arts anchor artist selections to differentiate lesson plans for grade bands, with the aim of providing a deeper opportunity for students to be exposed to more artists, mediums, materials, and build upon their knowledge and skills from TK through middle school.
We have selected anchor artists and artworks for each grade band focusing on three distinct modes of visual storytelling: textile and quilting traditions, cartooning and comics, and narrative and public art. While our stARTer units for visual arts will contain many examples of artists and artwork, we’ve selected a few from each band to highlight below.
THEATER
This year, we are highlighting some of the rich and varied oral traditions of storytelling: from Thespis and Sophocles and the invention of the “chorus” in Ancient Greek theater to West African Griots and the Celtic seanchaís of Ireland, to the many Indigenous first nations peoples of the Americas. Students will explore the art of storytelling as they build creative confidence, strengthen collaboration and ensemble skills and implement grade-level appropriate theater skills and concepts.
MUSIC
Our music program will invite students to explore and create listening maps as they learn a diverse repertoire of musical works. They will create “sound stories,” focusing on making music that connects to their lives and histories. With lessons inspired by the Orff Schulwerk approach, students will experiment with multiple instruments, learning as they play.
DANCE
Our dance program has grown over the past few years, and with that growth, the opportunity for our Teaching Artists to infuse their classes with a diverse range of dance styles encompassing many forms of storytelling through movement. This year, we are expanding on this foundation by including anchorworks that encompass multiple forms and styles of dance that connect movement and story.
We are especially excited to share the concept of vernacular dance, as a form that originates within a community or culture, rather than being formally taught in studios and codified in technique books. These dances are often passed down through social gatherings, family celebrations, in the streets at community events. Vernacular dance exists in cultures worldwide. Examples include, salsa, flamenco, hip-hop, dancehall, Irish stepdance, lindy hop. These forms include elements of improvisation and “conversation” between dancers, making it a perfect fit with our theme. We are highlighting two distinct forms of vernacular dance, hip-hop and salsa, to explore these distinct styles’ mutual elements, as well as the ways they’ve influenced other forms of dance.
As we move into this new school year, we also celebrate 35 years of arts education that uplifts, inspires, and transforms. Together, with imagination and creativity, we look forward to shaping the next 35 years of possibility! The Theme and Anchorworks Guide reflects and inspires the work of P.S. ARTS both internally and externally, supporting an inclusive approach to arts education that inspires and connects! Read it here.
Please note: All content in the Theme and Anchorworks Guide is intended for educational and non-commercial use only. Reproduction or distribution without explicit permission is prohibited.
