Each year, Design for Sharing (DFS) brings thousands of young people from Los Angeles-area public schools to CAP UCLA venues for free performances and interactive and educational art-making activities during the school day. DFS programs are often a highlight of these students’ school experience, welcoming them into the joy of live performance — and providing a glimpse of university life on the UCLA campus.
Through DFS’s annual series of performances, workshops and in-school art-making residencies, students encounter extraordinary professional artists from around the world as well as brilliant creators and educators working in our local communities. As a program of CAP UCLA, DFS facilitates creative exchange, shared celebration and mutual discovery, empowering students, artists and educators to learn from each other — and about themselves — in meaningful ways.
DFS events are open to any public school in greater Los Angeles and are always free to attend. Since our founding in 1969, we have welcomed more than half a million students from hundreds of schools to DFS programs. We invite you to join us!
Design for Sharing Programs
At UCLA
We know young people are empowered and inspired by connecting with artists and having an opportunity to experience creative work. We also know that visiting a university campus offers new perspectives on the world around them and their own personal goals. Design for Sharing has been welcoming public school students to UCLA for educational arts experiences for more than 50 years.
These hourlong matinee performances allow students to discover diverse art forms with professional artists. Held in a variety of our venues — primarily historic Royce Hall — demonstration performances offer a full theater going experience. Educational materials are provided to each participating teacher in advance, including information about the artists involved, the art form or genre, and discussion or activity guides to help contextualize and illuminate personal connections to the performance.
DFS workshop activities provide an opportunity for students to interact with artists in a hands-on setting. Typically held behind the scenes in the Royce Hall Rehearsal Room, these workshops are intended for smaller groups of students and offer participatory activities or artist-led discussions for a glimpse into the creative process.
In schools
Design for Sharing also connects students to the arts, and to their own creative voices, right in their classrooms. From long-standing school partnerships to easy-to-access online resources, our in-school programs reach young people where they are.
Since 2009, Design for Sharing has partnered with UCLA Community School to provide long-term arts programming for hundreds of fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. Residencies are developed in collaboration with classroom teachers and are centered around a unifying theme, allowing students to expand their knowledge of the curriculum through the lens of the performing, literary and visual arts while exercising their own creativity.
Periodically, Design for Sharing also offers short-term residencies with DFS teaching artists. These compact programs usually include a visit to UCLA to see an artist in action as well as hands-on activities in the classroom before or after the performance.
DFS maintains an online library of materials, videos, activities and links that educators can access and use in their classrooms anytime.
Support DFS
Design for Sharing has always been made possible by the generosity of our supporters. When you donate to DFS, you support all aspects of our programming and become part of our fifty-plus-year legacy of sharing the arts with L.A.’s kids.
Donate to DFS and give the gift of art to Los Angeles public schools.
Buy a bus! The Perloff Memorial Bus Fund supports student transportation to DFS programs. For many schools, the cost of a field trip bus puts even free programs out of reach. DFS subsidizes dozens of buses each year, bringing thousands of students to UCLA venues. Your gift helps us give kids a lift.
To contact DFS, email dfs@cap.ucla.edu or call 310-825-7681.