Perpich Center for Arts Education, a Minnesota state agency, is delivering VR Arts Immersion to middle-school students across Minnesota. The program uses original virtual reality content from Act One, an Arizona nonprofit, to introduce young people to working artists, artistic traditions and new ways of understanding the world around them.
At Northeast Range in St. Louis County School District, a Perpich training and development specialist visited on October 13 to guide students through the experience. Students met the Duncan family, a native family who tell stories through dance, voice and music, Las Azaleas, a female mariachi band in Tucson, and Sentrock, a muralist working in Chicago.
How the program works
Perpich's Professional Development and Resource Programs team is bringing Act One's content to sixth- through eighth-grade arts classrooms in northwest and northeast Minnesota. Act One hosted Perpich representatives in Phoenix for training led by its staff and VR specialists, covering how to facilitate the sessions, guide classroom conversations, support educators and manage the VR equipment. The equipment then shipped to Minnesota for the school year.
Teachers are central to the model. Participating educators first experience the VR content themselves, then develop lesson plans that connect it to their curriculum and prepare students to engage with the featured artists, art forms and cultures.
What comes next
Perpich plans to keep traveling across Minnesota to deliver VR Arts Immersion. Act One and Perpich are also jointly developing surveys to measure student and teacher engagement, learning and response to the program.
