Community & School Outeach

Crowden has provided an Orff Schulwerk-based K-2 music program to the Washington School in the Berkeley Unified School District since 2006. This program evolved into a kindergarten program at three schools, Washington, Oxford, and our neighbors at Ruth Acty, serving 180 children per year. This program, supported in large measure by a grant from the California Arts Council, is just one way Crowden gives back.

Crowden also has provided specialists in low strings to Sankofa Academy, a Title One School in North Oakland which nonetheless boasts a strings program beginning in kindergarten and extending through grade 5 that we have been proud to support. Sankofa students have enjoyed scholarships to Crowden summer camps as well. Approximately 40 Sankofa students per year benefited from Crowden string instruction and instructional support.

Crowden has also provided after-school programs at Berkeley’s Thousand Oaks School, ensembles have visited Albany’ Oceanview School with a Haydn assembly, and numerous day care centers and nursing facilities have also enjoyed outreach visits from our student musicians. Crowden ensembles have also performed annually at the Berkeley Arts Commission’s juried art shows, attended by scores of visitors.

Crowden has been a partner with other local arts leaders, including Cal Performances, Kala, the Berkeley Rep, and the Berkeley Art Center in participating in the Berkeley Cultural Trust’s advocacy and arts support work, and serves on BAESC (Berkeley Arts Education Steering Committee). Crowden has hosted a BAESC workshop on equity in arts education along with Cal Performances, and is honored to join forces to support this important public school arts education advocacy.

Crowden's school outreach program is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.