VAPA

THE VAPA COMMITTEE

The Visual and Performing Arts Committee was established in 2017 as a sub-committee of TEP, to evaluate and suggest ways in which the arts program at Topanga Elementary Charter School can grow and improve. ​VAPA is always looking for new committee members Please sign up for more info if you’re interested!

VAPA’S MISSION...

...to further develop the TECS arts programs and provide meaningful and inspiring arts enrichment for our students. By making the arts accessible to all, we strengthen our community and foster freedom of expression, creativity, and the celebration of life through the arts.

EDUCATION

Per our charter, Topanga Elementary Charter School (TECS) has invested time and resources to develop a one-of-a-kind arts educational experience for our children, including the following:​

• Topanga Enrichment Programs (TEP) – the TECS booster club - funds many of the visual and performing arts enrichment programs at Topanga Elementary Charter School.

• The Visual and Performing Arts Committee (VAPA) was established in 2017 as a sub-committee of TEP. VAPA members act in an advisory capacity to support and expand the arts enrichments at TECS.

• Visual & Performing Arts Curriculum: TECS provides a rich arts curriculum for all grades K–5, including Art, Dance, and Music. TECS also offers after-school music programs including RockStar and Orchestra. In 2018, TECS established dedicated Art and Music classrooms and hired an art teacher, Randy Butler. During the pandemic, TECS sent art kits home for every student and held art classes via Zoom.

• Student Art Show: Parent volunteers organize an annual student art show at the Topanga Canyon Gallery, featuring work by every student at TECS.

• TECS Auction: Each year, every class creates a unique and meaningful art project for the TEP auction.

• Variety Show: VAPA produces an annual show with opportunities for every student to participate.

• Spring Musical: TECS is known for our annual Spring Musical! As many as 100 TECS students participate in our popular after-school program each year, produced for the last several years by FOCUSfish.

• Visiting Artists: VAPA sponsors an annual visiting artist. Past events include classroom visits from children’s book illustrator and author Marty Kelley and a school-wide assembly with The Story Pirates Changemakers, who adapt kids' stories into wild sketch comedy musicals featuring professional actors.

• Art Lunch Club: Parent volunteers supervise art projects for kids during recess.

• Lunchtime Music: VAPA sponsors local musicians to play during lunch for the students.

• VAPA collaborates frequently with Topanga Art Tile to add children’s art tiles to the art wall at TECS.

• Field Trips: Kindergarten and first-grade students visit Topanga’s Theatricum Botanicum every year.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH (past or current)