MNMP residency programs foster original, student-created artistic work across all artistic disciplines.  MNMP programs are available in the areas of music, drama, dance/movement, visual arts and creative writing.  Most of our programs integrate more than one arts discipline.

Consistent with the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, as well as the New York City Blueprint for the Arts, we infuse the creative process into everyday curriculum to support student learning. As a whole, our programs address skill-based learning, aesthetic comprehension, contextual and cultural understanding, as well as curriculum-integrated instruction.

At the Manhattan New Music Project, we will work with you to create a program that meets your educational needs.  Residencies can be integrated to support specific classroom literacy, math, social studies, and science curricula.  Standard residencies are 10-12 weeks long, but can be tailored to your school’s specific requirements.  After school residencies are also available.

Here are some ideas for residency programs.
Call us at 212.977.1070 for more details and to taylor a program for your school.

Bucket Brigade
Transform any class into a percussion ensemble that composes, improvises, and performs its own compositions, using plastic buckets, tin cans, flower pots, found objects, conventional instruments, and more.  Student compositions emphasize concepts and rhythms from traditions including jazz, hip hop, funk, rock, and drumming from Brazil, Cuba, and West Africa.  Students also incorporate their voices and elements of theater and dance.
Recommended for grades Pre-K - 12

Build Your Own Orchestra
Using recycled and low-cost materials, we will build our own orchestra of homemade instruments.  Students will practice their instruments, and learn both to conduct the group and to follow a conductor.  Students will explore orchestration, arranging and lyric writing, and will create and notate individual and group compositions.
Recommended for grades 1-8

Collage Songwriting
In the spirit of Hip-Hop sampling and traditional visual collage making, this class uses lines from previously created pieces of music as a catalyst for the songwriting process. We combine, transform, edit and augment the material until we have a composition that is entirely our own. Works of inspiration can include literature, film and other art forms, in addition to recorded music.
Recommended for grades 4 - 12

Creating Form in the Performing Arts
A holistic approach, using movement, dramatics, elemental instruments, vocal music, recited poetry, and visual art, students will create and present original performances, focusing on form. (based on the Orff approach to music and dance). The raw material can come from the students' curriculum (science, social studies, math, literature, etc.), and can employ their own innate creativity, while developing a sense of form, moving from simpler to more advanced forms.
Recommended for Pre-K to 8

Creating Legends Based on Indigenous Stories
Myths, legends, and folk tales will come to life with this drama and creative writing workshop. Students will see dramatized stories indigenous to the particular cultures in your curriculum. Students will then create their own original plays based on the culture and perform in a culminating event with music, costumes, and a set. Your students will love this creative way to approach history and literacy!
Recommended for grades 2 - 9

Dance Expressions
Students respond through movement as they express their reactions to many different kinds of music. Creative writing and theatrical improv is inspired through the images created by the various musical selections. Students work in groups to join their ideas together. Their collaborated piece is set to the music and a dance is formed.
Recommended for grades 3-12

Early Composition Adventures
Mater musical concepts by composing your own music to play!  Through composition, students will explore musical concepts such as dynamics, tempo, and orchestration.  Basic conducting techniques and non-traditional scoring methods will be used to help children create original instrumental works.
Recommended for grades Pre-K - 3

Fantastic Theatrics
In class, students perform for each other, reading from a variety of monologues and dialogs that are provided. This is an opportunity for the young student actor to explore the dramatic text of children's literature as a model for creating great characters and inspiring scene writing. By session's end, each student will develop their own character and perform their own original monologue alone or a dialog they have written with another student.
Recommended for grades 3-12

From Western African Folk Dance to Today's Hip-Hop
Tie what your students see as dance today on TV and in their communities back to its original roots. Students will receive an introduction into basic steps and the history of Western African folk dances and learn to identify those steps in the dance moves of their idols from today's hip-hop szene combined with a look back at history why and how these dances made their way into American cities and today's popular music scene. Then the creativity really begins, where students combine the old and the new to create their own choreographies.
Recommended for grades 5-12

Hip-Hop Habit
Do your students like to rap?  Getting kids interested in writing poetry is a snap with this residency.  Students will, individually and/or collaboratively, write rap lyrics about topics related to their classroom curriculum.  They will create or select beats appropriate to their lyrics, and put lyrics and beats together to create complete hip-hop songs.
Recommended for grades 2-12

History Comes Alive
History jumps off the pages of a textbook and into your classroom in this interactive study. Students will create tableaus representing the historical periods in your academic curriculum. Writing and performing original monologues and scenes will actively engage students engaged in learning. The workshop will end with a final production containing historical reenactments and dramatization of original dialogue written by students.
Recommended for grades 3 - 12

History Lives!
This writing and performance residency will help your students experience history in a new way. Based on a subject the class is currently studying, students will write a short play using historical characters and situations. Theatre games and improv will enhance the writing process. At the final session they will perform a staged reading of the play for their classmates or other students.
Recommended for grades 2-8

Image & Sound
In this mixed-media course, we will examine the link between visual art and music. From Jazz and Abstract Expressionism to Hip-Hop and Graphic Novels, students will be exposed to a wide range of musical and visual art forms, focusing on the parallels between the two field as well as their inspiration and effect on each other. Students will create original music and art throughout the semester.
Recommended for grades 3 - 12

Improv Theater Jam
Students learn think-on-your-feet- skills as they react to suggestions through Theatrical Improv.  Different settings, musical motifs, favorite songs, environments, sounds, and everyday objects used as props are tools to inspire the imagination. Creating individual characters, students develop Monologues, then create Dialogs between two characters, and eventually learn to build scenes.  A wide variety of Theater Sport Games are used to teach drama and comedy.
Recommended for grades 4-12

Improvisation as a Writing Tool
Watch your students create characters based on their favorite books. They will improvise monologues and scenes using classic and original characters and focus on writing structure with beginning, middle, end, and conflict resolution. This residency can be adapted for any literacy curriculum and can gives students a feeling that reading and writing can be more fun than they ever imagined!
Recommended for grades K - 12

Making Paintings Sing
Your students can explore art in a whole new way! Inspired by the theme, style, mood, color, and texture, students will bring the paintings to life theatrically by writing scenes, lyrics, and creating characters inspired by their interpretations of famous and/or original paintings and works of art. Students learn to work collaboratively with their peers in the creation of this unique artistic and theatrical experience.
Recommeded for grades K - 12

Music, Movement, and Math
Directly address mathematics on any level through the use of music and movement to demonstrate concepts and develop problem-solving skills.  This residency directly addresses the Math Standards as well as the Arts Blueprint.
Recommended for grades K – 5

Performance Prep
This residency is designed to assist students and teachers in preparing for any sort of performance or production. Through theatre games, vocal exercises and improv, students will enhance their performance skills, learn the importance of projection and enunciation, build their capacity for teamwork and cooperation, and gain confidence and focus.  Teachers will learn techniques for focusing their students' energies and creating a collaborative working ensemble.
Recommended for grades K-12

Plants and Animals
This exploration of plants and animals and their habitats uses drama, music, songs, stories, and composition.  Teaching artists and teachers work together to integrate science, literacy, and geography with the arts.
Recommended for grades 1 – 5

Poetry Slam
Students enjoy new paths to literacy through hip poetry slam stylings!  We will explore techniques to create vivid and descriptive poetic language, as well as effective form and structure.  Once the words are crafted, how can we present them in an interesting way?  Students will also hone the dynamic theatrical presentation of their original poems.
Recommended for grades 5-12

Say It in a Song!
All over the world, people love to tell stories through songs!  This residency will explore different genres of songwriting, including folk songs, pop songs, and the blues.  Children will learn some common song structures, and using instruments and voices, will create original lyrics and set them to music.  Song topics can be based on classroom curriculum.
Recommended for grades K-6.

Say It With Confidence! -- Voice and Speech Workshop
Are your students quiet and hard to understand when they read aloud, present book reports or speak or recite publicly?  In this workshop methods and exercises designed to enhance vocal projection and diction for classically trained actors will be applied in the classroom.  Students will learn effective breath control, proper enunciation and clear diction, vocal projection and presentation techniques to more effectively share oral reports, read-alouds or present original writing.
Recommended for grades K- 12

Scores and Soundtracks
Using Orff instruments, found objects, voice, body sounds and percussion, students create accompanying scores to stories, poems, films, videos, animation, and storyboards.  Students can create their own written notation and conduct and perform for one another. 
Recommended for grades preK – 5

Songs of NYC
Experience New York City through the songs that have been recorded and written about various NYC neighborhoods, notable people, landmarks, history, and much more!  Students will write songs about the New York City of yesterday and today.
Recommended for grades K – 8

Storytelling Through Music
Bring stories to life through music composition!  Using books and stories from their literacy curriculum, students will create musical compositions to support and enhance the drama of the narrative.  Music can include both vocal songs and instrumental compositions, and theatrical performance can also be incorporated.
Recommended for grades K-12