What is the Handbook?
The Online Handbook of Teaching with the Arts is a resource guide designed to help
UC Berkeley faculty and graduate student instructors connect their courses with the arts
on campus and throughout the Bay Area. This project is sponsored by the Arts Research
Center at UC Berkeley, which promotes the integration of the arts into general education
curriculum. 

What is included in the Handbook?
The Handbook encompasses a number of visual and performing arts organizations, including:
museums, performing arts venues, dance and theater companies, cultural institutes, musical
ensembles, and venues for opera and vocal performance. Categorized by artistic discipline,
it provides the information necessary to determine which type of arts organization might best
suit the parameters of a particular course. The Handbook provides UC Berkeley faculty with
a concise but thorough overview of Bay Area arts institutions and organizations, and highlights
free and low-cost resources that these organizations make available, such as guided tours,
open rehearsals, artists' talks, and special workshops.

At this time, the Handbooks covers Bay Area arts organizations in San Francisco and the
East Bay, but does not include the South Bay, North Bay, or Peninsula (except for Stanford
University facilities).

How can I use the Handbook in my course?
Sometimes faculty members have the impression that it is “too difficult” or “too much extra
work” to arrange arts-enriched activities. However, they are usually surprised to find that
once they contact an arts organization, the process of setting up a visit, tour, lecture, etc.
is both simple and inexpensive (or free). Arts organizations in the Bay Area are committed
to education, outreach, and youth/student involvement, and often wish they could find
more ways to bring the arts into schools and universities. Merely emailing the contact
person at an institution or organization listed in the Handbook and asking for an individualized,
tailored program can result in one of the most memorable experiences of the semester for both
students and teachers.

For example, a GSI teaching Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet might wonder how to make
the play come alive for her students in a new way.  By perusing the Handbook’s “Theater”
section, she could find a number of ideas that might spark her students’ appreciation:
inviting local actors from The Shotgun Players to act out the balcony scene in her classroom;
or taking her students to a “Hybrid Shakespeare” performance at Intersection for the Arts,
where Romeo and Juliet are re-imagined as teenagers in West Oakland; or bringing her
class to a pre-performance lecture at Zellerbach Hall, where the Bolshoi Ballet is dancing
Poklitaru’s recent version of Romeo and Juliet.  

The Handbook lists contact information, the focus or nature of arts organization, and any
specific forms of educational programs the organization has developed.  In addition, the
Handbook notes the location of museums, theaters, etc. relative to public transportation,
and gives information about general group programs or discounts, if the organization
does not offer educational activities specifically. All of the necessary information for an
arts organization is on the same page, so it would be very simple for the GSI teaching
Shakespeare to immediately email or call the contact person listed, and arrange a
performance, group ticket sale, or reservation for seats at the lecture. She would already
know from the Handbook whether discounts, grants, or outreach programs with funding
were available, so she could request reduced admission fees or a free backstage tour
when she called or emailed the contact person.

Who should I contact if I find incorrect information in the Handbook, or wish to
recommend an addition?
Please contact the Arts Reseach Center at ucb_arts(at)berkeley.edu or (510) 642-7784. 
We welcome your corrections and suggestions.

Credits: The Handbook was created and developed by Dr. Selby Schwartz, Dept of Comparative Literature,
UC Berkeley, with the invaluable support of the following people and organizations: Michele Rabkin and
Shalene Valenzuela of the Arts Research Center; and Dr. Davy Walter of the IHUM program at Stanford
University. This project would not have been possible without the helpful resources of the San Francisco
Arts Monthly and the Department of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley. The handbook was updated
in 2010 by student intern Giuliana Blasi, a UC Berkeley undergraduate majoring in Sociology, Dance and
Education, with assistance from ARC staff member Laura Paulini.