FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2006

Community, Culture, and Education: A Central New York Arts-in-Education Research Initiative Begins

(Syracuse) Partners for Arts Education (PAE) is embarking on a year-long research project to assess the relationships between Central New York cultural organizations and our schools.  We will examine six arts-in-education partnerships using a diverse team of advisors and evaluators with a spectrum of experience in arts in education. With funding from the Rosamond Gifford Foundation and in tandem with our annual art$TART grants from the New York State Council on Arts, these six partnerships will provide the lens for understanding how cultural organizations and teaching artists can and do affect quality of learning in the classroom. 

The following schools will be participating in the CCE Initiative:
Allen Road Elementary (North Syracuse CSD), partnering with The Everson Museum of Art
Dr. Martin Luther King School (SCSD), partnering with Syracuse Children’s Theatre
Hamilton Central School, partnering with Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University
Madison Elementary School, partnering with Open Hand Theatre
Madison High School, partnering with Stone Quarry Hill Art Park
Nottingham High School (SCSD), partnering with NYS Early Music Association

To support this effort, Dr. Philip Alexander will be working with an advisory committee and guiding the evaluation team throughout the school year.  Dr. Alexander is director of professional development for the New York State Council on the Arts Empire State Partnerships and an arts-in-education consultant. 

The advisory committee for this initiative includes local leaders in education and the arts:

The evaluation team, which will meet periodically to review the selected projects and track their development and results, includes:

Why is the Community, Culture, & Education Research Initiative Happening?
Over the past six years, PAE has found that:

Principals and teachers in many schools want to make good use of cultural organization but they are battling bus costs, ticket prices, curricular relevance, diminished schedules, and too many grant applications to complete in order to gain any of these advantages for their kids.

Cultural organizations apply for and receive only 10% of the arts-in-education (AIE) partnership grants that we offer.  The NYS Council on the Arts has additional AIE grant programs but the CNY region (as compared to other areas of NYS) has received little of this funding.

Funding organizations traditionally support arts in education and want to make more effective use of their dollars in school but, individually, their grants to schools/cultural organizations are often too small/short-lived to make a long-term impact.

All three of the entities listed above come to PAE frequently with great ideas for new programs that will somehow engage the other two populations.  We believe that it is time to unite their issues and engage in some targeted funding and research to fully benefit from community resources available to schools and cultural organizations.
More information about CCE can be found at the PAE website, www.arts4ed.org .

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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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