Introduction

Mondavi Center Arts Education is committed to providing the best opportunities for students of all ages to experience and appreciate the performing arts.  We have designed culturally intensive educational programs for K-12 to meet the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards and open the classroom to the creative and imaginative process.  For adults, our goal is to inspire the sensibilities and intellectual curiosity that sustain a fully engaged life.  Through exposure to live performance and lively participation, we seek to ensure that the arts remain an integral part of our community’s rich inheritance.   The following programs describe rich and rare opportunities to observe artists creating their work.

School Programs K-12
School MatineesA series of 50-60 minute performances and lecture demonstrations at Mondavi Center specially produced for school age children, these matinees address and support the content standards for the California Visual and Performing Arts for K-12 education. Regardless of discipline or genre, these performances provide a high quality, curriculum based enjoyable learning experience for all students.


Curriculum Guides and Cuesheets Mondavi Center prepares CueSheets for all school matinees and provides them free to all teachers attending the school matinee. CueSheets are also available on line on the Mondavi Center webpage. The CueSheets are intended to provide background information on the artists, the art form, any geographical or demographic information that would enhance student's understanding of the performance, and an explanation of appropriate audience etiquette and expectations of audience members at a live performance.


Pre-Matinee Classroom Talks
This is a program managed by Friends of Mondavi Center, our donor based volunteer support organization.  Friends schedule school visits to classrooms attending specially selected school matinees to support the instructor’s preparation for students that are attending the performance.  Docent Guides for each matinee are researched and written by Friends and distributed to the docents.  A Classroom Talk lasts approximately ½ hr. Every effort is made to satisfy the requests of schools regardless of distance (usually within 1 1/2hrs. of UC Davis).

Professional Development
Globe Education Academy for TeachersTwelve regional teachers, selected by application and interview, participate each year in a partnership with Globe Education in London and for one year are immersed in the world of Shakespeare, both at UC Davis and in London. They have the opportunity to take classes from theatre practitioners from Shakespeare’s Globe, and from faculty at UC Davis. Teachers are in residency at the Globe Theatre in London for two weeks in July, working with Globe Education Practitioners, and then celebrate their extraordinary experience with their students in a festival day of theatre on stage at the Mondavi center in the fall.



Kennedy Center Partners in Education
Mondavi Center Arts Education and Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento are partners in a professional development program with the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C.  Partners in Education is designed to assist arts organizations throughout the nation develop and expand educational partnerships with their local school systems.