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 fifth year PAE has distributed funds for the grant, which now total over $766,000.  

“The 21st Century student needs new creative skills for the future,” said PAE’s Executive Director Laura Reeder. “The arts continue to provide an essential spark, personal relevance, and energizing challenges for our next generation. These partnerships are a framework for artistic and educational collaborations that can transform communities.”

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

This year’s SAP grantees include:

Abram Lansing Elementary in Albany County, partnering with Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, storyteller Pleasant DeSpain, and musician Brian Melick for "A Multi-faceted, Multi-arts, Multi-grade level Storytelling Project." It includes a storytelling component for 4th grade classes, dance for 5th grade, music for 3rd grade and visual arts for 2nd grade. The project culminates in March with performances of created works by the students.

Automotive High School in Brooklyn, partnering with Epic Theatre Center for "Building a Culture of High Expectations." After seeing fully staged versions of Epic’s adaptations of Antigone and The Oresteia, 10th graders create new adaptations of these classical plays to explore how their personal ethics and choices might have civic consequences. They perform alongside professional actors for teachers, fellow students, parents and community.

Greenbush Academy in Rensselaer County, partnering with Concerted Effort, Inc. for "Opportunities for Creative Expression through Music and Art." Learning-disabled and emotionally disturbed students learn through the arts to increase musical and expressive skills, fluency and reading comprehension, awareness of feelings, and cooperative behaviors. Students work on lyric writing, world-music drumming, and visual art, adding elements of slam poetry for the older students.

High Meadow School in Ulster County, partnering with High Meadow Arts, Inc. for "Arts Take Flight." Second through fourth graders create a state-recognized bird sanctuary on the school campus, working with local environmental agencies on trail maintenance and creating habitats and garden structures. Based on explorations in ecology and bird studies and on analysis of song structures, students learn and create songs that reflect themes of ecology and bird life.

M.C.C.S. Chinese School in Manhattan, partnering with MAP Global for "Chinese Children's Folk Song/ Dance/Art in Language Class." Students grades K-3 learn Chinese children's rhyme-game folk songs through speech, singing, brush painting, games, and dance. They develop their language ability through art, and enhance their connections with others, shaping artistic communication between generations and in the diverse culture of the community.

Maplewood Intermediate in Suffolk County, partnering with theatre artist Dafna Soltes Stein for “Knowledge Alive! The Struggle for Freedom against Tyranny." Fourth graders use storytelling, dramatic role play, creative writing and music to learn about slavery on Long Island. Students help build the story of two African children from the moment of their capture in their African village through the Underground Railroad, identifying what is important to tell and why it should matter to us today.

Millennium Art Academy in the Bronx, partnering with Elders Share the Arts for "The Millennium Pearl Initiative." Eleventh grade students work as "oral historians", gathering stories from elders in the community, transcribing and editing the text, and identifying and developing themes. The stories are augmented with their original writing, reflections, and illustrations, published in an anthology, and presented at a public reading.

MSS 233 in the Bronx, partnering with InCollaboration, Inc. for "Technically, It's Art!" Students grades 6 - 8 learn how to use technology as a means of expression, research, experimentation and education by fusing technology with the arts.  Projects include commercial, art, and journalistic photography and music creation and editing, and emphasize building writing skills through journaling and self-assessment.

Onondaga Hill Middle School in Onondaga County, partnering with ceramicist Ginger Dunlap-Dietz for "Service Learning: Curriculum Links to Community Service." After exploring the historical perspectives of hunger and homelessness through social studies and literature, sixth and eighth grade students participate in a service learning project in the community. Students "put a face on hunger and homelessness" by creating clay tiles which will be blended into a mural on the outside of the school.

P 373 K Transition Center in Brooklyn, partnering with Elders Share the Arts for "Dramatic Conflict Resolution." Developmentally disabled high school students learn how to make mature life decisions by using drama and storytelling to resolve every day social dilemmas and conflicts. Role-plays are coordinated with Elder Share the Arts, who use their own dramatic life stories to support student learning. Students develop skills in interviewing, appropriate socialization, listening, and empathy.

Park West Campus Schools in Manhattan, partnering with El Museo del Barrio for "The Living Legacy Project." Classes in three high schools on the Park West campus create a network of social and working relationships by focusing on themes of cultural heritage/memory and identity/migration using historical texts, literature, visual arts, music, and traditional foods. They interview family members to research their own cultural backgrounds and create and curate their own show on these themes.

PS 27, The Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Leadership in Brooklyn, partnering with Digital Story Workshop for "Digital Story Workshop and Writing Extensions." Pre-K through first-grade students create videos based on their spontaneous and planned play. They reflect on the meaning of their stories, draw and write about them, create costumes and props, and create books to encourage dramatic play and improvisation, support language growth, teach narrative storytelling, and promote inquiry.

PS/MS 188 - Island School in Manhattan, partnering with Third Street Music School Settlement for “Building Literacy Through Music - Year 2.” Three units of study at each grade level (pre-K – 3) focus on development of phonemic awareness, phonics, syllabication and decoding through rhythm and movement, age-appropriate instrumental playing, and cooperative singing.

PS 39 - The Henry Bristow School in Brooklyn, partnering with Making Books Sing, Inc. for "Literature at Play." K – 2 students explore books through theatre arts, including hands-on acting and playwriting workshops. The program also includes field trips (to Making Books Sing’s musical adaptation of Patricia Polacco’s The Butterfly and a local museum such as Jewish Children’s Museum), extensive planning and assessment with teachers, and an evening Family Program.

School of the Arts in Monroe County, partnering with Writers & Books for "SLAM HIGH! A Teen Slam & Spoken Word Project." Twelfth graders experience the performance, word, and text of spoken word poetry and the social and political ramifications of this genre. Each writes several poems, then chooses one to develop for performance. The residencies culminate in a school Slam at each high school and a Grand Slam championship with the winners of each school Slam.

Solace Elementary in Onondaga County, partnering with Open Hand Theater for "Puppetry Playwriting Project." Students grades 4 – 6 develop their original stories into plays for puppetry. Outstanding plays are published in a booklet, and elements of dialogue and scenes are developed in class workshops. Students work in teams with the artists in a final “production seminar” that focuses on bringing together all the elements into the process of staging a puppet scene.

The Renaissance Charter School in Queens County, partnering with theatre artists Andrew Ronan, and Desi Waters for "The Underage Cabaret." >Students produce "The Underage Cabaret" at a neighborhood professional theater using original material developed in their 9th-10th ELA classes. Producing pieces that link literary and personal life issues, they increase the sophistication of their writing and improve problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Westport Central School in Essex County, partnering with Magic Box Productions, Inc. for "Through Our Eyes." The project helps build digital skills while nurturing sixth graders' intellectual curiosity and creativity by using digital photography and personal narrative as tools for self-examination and reflection. They use digital cameras and Photoshop to create a gallery of photographs and text representing their individual experiences as adolescent girls, and build peer-to-peer reinforcement as they discuss each other's work.

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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

State of the Arts

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