August 18, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NY Schools Receive $119,000 for Teacher/Artist Partnerships

(Syracuse) Seventeen New York State schools have received matching grants totaling $119,422 to fund partnerships between teachers and artists or cultural organizations that will help students reach New York State Learning Standards.

Through the partnerships, educators and teaching artists collaboratively plan and teach Standards-based curricula that teach arts and non-arts subjects as part of an integrated unit. Forty-four schools applied for SAP grants this year.

Syracuse-based Partners for Arts Education (PAE) administers the School Arts Partnership (SAP) grant, which is funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. This is the fourth year PAE has distributed funds for the grant, which now total over $630,000.

“With their excellent strategies for meeting school curricula and challenging students to exceed standards, these projects give educators valuable tools to increase student achievement,” said PAE’s Executive Director Laura Reeder. “The high caliber competition for these grants increases each year. Our goal is to be able to provide support for all of the schools and cultural partners that demonstrate ability to transform learning this way.”

More information on the grants can be found at PAE’s website, www.arts4ed.org.

This year’s SAP grantees include:

Greenbush Academy in Rensselaer Co., partnering with Concerted Effort for "Opportunities for Creative Expression.” All six classes of learning-disabled and emotionally disturbed students ages 6 - 16 learn through the arts to increase musical and expressive skills, fluency and reading comprehension, awareness of feelings, and cooperative behaviors.

Hamilton Central School in Madison Co., partnering with Picker Art Gallery and teaching artist Holly Adams for "The Dialogue of the Geocentric and the Heliocentric Universe." Using drama, music, and visual arts, fourth graders create a play that shows the movement in thinking from the geocentric universe to the heliocentric universe, gaining a sophisticated knowledge of the solar system.

M.C.C.S. Chinese School in Manhattan, partnering with teaching artist Ning Yuan Yu for "Chinese Children's Folk Song/Dance/Art in Language Class," to offer Chinese language programs appropriate for pre-schoolers that facilitate communication between generations and the transmission of culture using Chinese folk songs, games, dances and brush painting.

Manhattan Bridges High School in Manhattan, partnering with El Museo del Barrio for "The Living Legacy Project," to focus on the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. Tenth- and eleventh-grade students, educators, and parents explore their cultural heritage and personal identities through interdisciplinary art-based projects that take place in classrooms and in the Museum.

Maplewood Intermediate in Suffolk Co., partnering with teaching artist Dafna Soltes Stein for "Knowledge Alive! The Struggle for Freedom against Tyranny." Fourth-grade students learn about slavery on Long Island through storytelling, dramatic role play, creative writing and drawing.

McGraw Elementary School in Cortland Co., partnering with teaching artist Charles R. Smith, Jr. for "Reading and Writing Under the Ancient Night Skies." Using Greek and Roman mythological stories about the constellations and empirical data about the stars, students explore both expository and creative writing processes, culminating in an original theatre production.

P.S. 24 in Brooklyn, partnering with Brooklyn Arts Exchange for "Spanish as a Living Language." Each third- and fourth-grade class uses family stories, many from newly immigrated families, to create plays, with non-fiction books providing background knowledge of geography and culture. The curriculum is taught in both Spanish and English.

P.S. 39: Henry Bristow School in Brooklyn, partnering with Making Books Sing, Inc. for "Making Books Sing at Public School 39." K – 2 classes class use different books as a basis for drama games and creative play that build literacy skills. First- and second-graders develop a short dramatic adaptation, which they perform for the other classes.

PS 99 Q - The Kew Gardens School in Queens, partnering with The Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery, Inc. and teaching artist Karen Fitzgerald for “Playing Around.” Sixth-grade students and teachers create playground and board games that are inspired by ancient civilizations, using technology as a research and design tool to improve the outdoor play yard.

PS/IS 111 Alfred S. Ochs in Manhattan, partnering with Epic Theatre Center for “Developing Citizen Artists at PS/IS 111.” After seeing a fully staged version of Antigone, students create new citizen-choruses that represent different community-specific viewpoints, integrate them into the play, and perform them alongside professional actors. As students work to adapt the plays to address issues in their own lives, they explore how their personal ethics and choices might have civic consequences.

PS 188 - The Island School in Manhattan, partnering with the Third Street Music School Settlement for "Building Literacy through Music" to integrate music instruction with English Language Arts instruction, providing early intervention to address the literacy needs of diverse K – 2nd-grade learners.

PS 811M - Bellevue High School in Manhattan, partnering with Urban Word NYC for "Bellevue and Urban Word NYC Workshops,” which uses spoken-word poetry and creative writing to help students cooperatively build skills in areas such as critical thinking, writing, and oral presentations, culminating in a showcase and anthology.

The Renaissance Charter School in Queens, partnering with Young Playwrights, Inc. for “Write A Play! The Next Step.” Students in grades 6 – 9 increase the sophistication of their writing, critical thinking, and problem solving, linking historical and contemporary life issues through monologue and dialogue writing and character and scene development, and using peer review to refine dramatic impact.

Scholars Academy in Queens, partnering with Magic Box Productions, Inc. for "Discovery Through Demonstration in Science." Sixth-grade students work together to create original video documentaries of key scientific concepts, experiments, and brief biographies of important scientists selected from the middle-school science curriculum.

School of the Arts in Monroe Co., partnering with Writers and Books for "Teen Slam and Spoken Word." High school seniors experience and experiment with the performance, word, and text of spoken-word poetry, as well as the social and political ramifications of this genre.

Westport Central School in Essex Co., partnering with Essex County Historical Society and Adirondack History Center Museum for "Women of the Past Moving Forward." Students in grades 4 - 6 interpret the life of a local, nationally significant woman through different art forms, relating her life experiences to their own. Eighth graders serve as evaluators, responding and connecting to the work. The work is presented in an evening gallery walk and performance exploring issues of democracy, civic engagement, diversity, and tolerance.

White Plains Middle School in Westchester Co., partnering with teaching artist Marie McCann-Barab for "Academic Publishing Project.” Seventh-grade students develop an idea for a non-fiction book, write, design and publish the book, conveying information by integrating well-written content with key imagery and design, then share it with the community through display and public readings.

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Partners for Arts Education inspires learning and leadership for arts in education in Central New York and throughout New York State. We provide funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the arts for students, teachers and artists.

Partners for Arts Education
Delavan Center Suite 221  501 W. Fayette St.  Syracuse, NY  13202
315.234.9911  info@arts4ed.org  www.arts4ed.org

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