{"id":115,"date":"2025-12-31T20:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/?p=115"},"modified":"2026-01-04T23:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:41:50","slug":"bilingual-arts-education-as-a-pathway-to-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/bilingual-arts-education-as-a-pathway-to-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC&#8217;s Future Speaks Many Languages. Here&#8217;s How We&#8217;re  Teaching Them."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"569\" src=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-1024x569.png\" alt=\"Girls playing instruments at Foundation for New Americn Aart headquarteers\" class=\"wp-image-39\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-1024x569.png 1024w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-1536x854.png 1536w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/littlemarketstband-2048x1138.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Young girls express their deepest emotions using the universal love language of music. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El futuro habla muchos idiomas. \u6211\u4eec\u7684\u672a\u6765\u662f\u591a\u8bed\u7684. Notre avenir est multilingue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bilingualeducationforbloomberg.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>NEWSFLASH<\/strong>: The Foundation for New American Art is honored to announce that we have been awarded a 2026 Cultural Development Fund (CDF) grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), in partnership with Mayor Zoran Mamdani. This award, bolstered by the CreateNYC Language Access Fund, is a powerful affirmation of our mission: using bilingual arts education to build belonging, confidence, and possibility for our city\u2019s children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-1024x667.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-1024x667.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-768x500.jpg 768w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-1536x1000.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/coolschoolbunnies-2048x1333.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To me, this work is deeply personal. I heard French as a baby. That is my heritage  &#8211; my Acadian and Abenaki ancestors crossed the northern border seeking opportunity. I know the heartbreak and resilience of those immigrants. My journey as a musician led me to Europe and eventually to China, where I fell in love with the&nbsp;<strong>\u97f3<\/strong><strong>\u4e50<\/strong><strong>(y\u012bnyu\u00e8 &#8211; music)<\/strong>&nbsp;of Mandarin. Language, to me, has always been friendship and possibility\u2014it\u2019s how we ask the universe for what we want.&nbsp;<strong>It\u2019s why in our classrooms, we don&#8217;t just teach words\u2014we unlock worlds.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our teaching is built on three  ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>First, it\u2019s a two-way street.<\/strong>&nbsp;English-speaking kids dive into Spanish, and Spanish-speaking kids gain confidence in English. They don&#8217;t just learn&nbsp;<em>from<\/em>&nbsp;each other; they learn&nbsp;<em>with<\/em>&nbsp;each other, building a community where every language is an asset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Second, we use the body to teach the brain.<\/strong>\u00a0Words stick when you move. We don&#8217;t just say &#8220;<em>pl\u00e1tano<\/em>&#8221; (ba-na-na) \u2014we feel its triplet salsa rhythm in our hands and feet. Vocabulary lives in a gesture, grammar lives in dance steps. It\u2019s learning that you don\u2019t just think; you\u00a0<em>feel<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Say BA-NA-NA! Clap the rhythm. That is a triplet \u2013 a beautiful Latin rhythm!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>And finally, this is about real-world belonging.<\/strong>\u00a0In a city like ours, multilingualism is practical magic. It\u2019s how you order your breakfast, make a new friend, or find your way. Let\u2019s be honest: in New York, you\u2019ll need some Spanish or Mandarin just to get anything to eat! We treat that not as a chore, but as a superpower. Our classroom is a microcosm of our vibrant New York , where speaking Spanish, Mandarin, or French isn&#8217;t exotic\u2014it\u2019s essential. It\u2019s how we build a future where every child feels not just included, but indispensable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Music of WE: How Our Languages Build Our Future<\/strong><br><em>La m\u00fasica del nosotros. La musique du nous. \u6211\u4eec\u7684\u97f3\u4e50\uff0c\u6211\u4eec\u7684\u672a\u6765\u3002<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This grant will allow us to deepen this work, particularly for our Spanish-speaking communities. It recognizes that language access is equity. In our programs, a child\u2019s home language is celebrated as a vital asset\u2014a bridge to belonging, a tool for confidence, and a source of creative power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The magic happens when that confidence sparks. Take Carolina, a Spanish-speaking girl we recently cast in our new film,&nbsp;<em>Children of the River<\/em>. She struggled with the English \u201cr\u201d in \u201criver,\u201d a sound worlds away from the Spanish \u201cr.\u201d We recorded her takes, and she watched the footage. In that moment, she saw two things: the precise shape her lips needed to form to make the new sound,&nbsp;<strong>and<\/strong>&nbsp;the beautiful, budding actress she truly is. That\u2019s the dual gift of this approach\u2014practical skill and soaring self-worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"717\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren-717x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren-717x1024.png 717w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren-210x300.png 210w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren-768x1097.png 768w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren-1076x1536.png 1076w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LESCCbeautifulchldren.png 1187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are immensely grateful to the Department of Cultural Affairs, Mayon Zoran Mamdani, and the City Council. This support fuels our belief that through\u00a0<strong>art and la amistad (friendship)<\/strong>, we can create spaces where every child\u2019s voice is heard, celebrated, and empowered to ask for the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To learn more about our programs and philosophy, explore our forthcoming feature:&nbsp;<strong>\u201cHow Bilingual Arts Education Helps ELL Children Belong.\u201d<\/strong>  Join us at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foundationfornewamericanart.org \">https:\/\/www.foundationfornewamericanart.org <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/bilingual-arts-education-as-a-pathway-to-belonging\/\" target=\"_self\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">: NYC&#8217;s Future Speaks Many Languages. Here&#8217;s How We&#8217;re  Teaching Them.<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"248\" src=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner-1024x248.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner-1024x248.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner-300x73.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner-768x186.jpg 768w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner-1536x372.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/newarttribunebanner.jpg 1599w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-3a88641f wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div style=\"height:100px;width:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer wp-container-content-6388d5dc\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px;width:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer wp-container-content-6388d5dc\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Written and read by Phoebe Legere, founder and Executive Director, New American Art Foundation<\/summary>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Phoebe Legere<\/strong> is an internationally acclaimed artist, a composer, novelist, and underground performance legend whose work detonates the borders between music, film, visual art, and radical inquiry. Signed to Epic Records as a teenager, she exploded onto the cultural landscape, later sharing stages with David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, and Allen Ginsberg, while writing seven operas about female power and insurgent leadership. A celebrated film composer, her early hit <em>Marilyn Monroe<\/em> (Island Records) became a cult anthem, joining her broader catalogue of iconic scores for independent and experimental cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her award-winning film <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phoebelegere.com\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.phoebelegere.com\"><em>The Gender Symphony<\/em> <\/a>(2024) \u2014 a fever dream of animation, philosophy, and gender alchemy \u2014 has seized 17 international prizes, including Best Soundtrack at the NY Independent Film Festival. Her newest bilingual single <em>2 Pianos<\/em>, released with a climate video shot at Yaddo, blasted its way to #10 on the Canadian Groover chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lecturer at NYU, Executive Director of the Foundation for New American Art, and a doctoral candidate plumbing Indigenous epistemologies, queer futurism, and post-catastrophic aesthetics, Legere moves with equal fluency through the academy and the underground. The recipient of numerous awards and honors for innovation in music, film, and socially engaged art, she is currently building a monumental public sculpture, crafting a new feature film, mounting a Bundy Museum retrospective, and completing a transdisciplinary novel.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-fill\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">phoebelegere.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>El futuro habla muchos idiomas. \u6211\u4eec\u7684\u672a\u6765\u662f\u591a\u8bed\u7684. Notre avenir est multilingue. NEWSFLASH: The Foundation for New American Art is honored to announce that we have been awarded a 2026 Cultural Development Fund (CDF) grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), in partnership with Mayor Zoran Mamdani. This award, bolstered by the CreateNYC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationfornewamericanart.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}