VOL. 12 NO. 5
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VOL. 12 NO. 5 |
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The Blue Moon is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts
Council, a state agency in the Commerce
Cabinet. Please send comments, questions
and information to the Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts Council, 500 Mero Street, 21st
Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601-1987 or call 502-564-3757, toll free 1-888-833-2787.
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Artist Gathering at Faubush, 2005“Finding Balance” was the overall theme of this year’s annual Artist Gathering for artists on the Kentucky Arts Council’s arts in education roster. Thirty plus artists spent three days at the Kentucky Leadership Center near Faubush renewing their energy, collaborating on art making, learning from each other and getting updates on all the changes in Kentucky Arts Council’s programs and in the arts education sphere. Artists on the roster have been through a two-tier adjudication process to ascertain their excellence in their art form and their potential for sharing that art form in K-12 classroom settings through the Teacher Initiated Project grant. Some are also qualified to work in preschool settings through the ArtsStart! program or in alternative educational facilities through the Alternative Connections program. Many of the artists are veterans and for them, coming to Faubush is like a family reunion, but it is an ever-growing family. One purpose of the Gathering is to welcome new roster artists, to give them a sense of the breadth of programming through the Kentucky Arts Council and to help them feel supported in their work as artist educators. “This experience was wonderful,” wrote a new roster artist on the evaluation form. “It helped relax me and made me feel part of a community.” The Gathering began with a collaborative art-making project that evolved over the three days into a large mobile of materials gathered from the forest and lakeshore. Led by Sarah Paulson and Phyllis Free, the theme of the mobile project was seeking balance and that theme was carried into creative sessions led by certified poetry therapist Normandi Ellis and arts therapist Pat Sturtzel. John Benjamin, Arts Education Director, updated the group on the state of arts education on the national level as well as here in Kentucky. Pat Ritter spoke about the ArtsStart! and Alternative Connections programs, explaining both the logistics and the philosophy of the programs. Phyllis Free and Judy Sizemore added information about other potential job opportunities for artist educators. Bob Gates, Director of the Kentucky Folklife Program, provided folklife resources and invited the artists to the Kentucky Folklife Festival September 14, 15, and 16 in Frankfort. Amber Luallen, Director of Community and Individual Artists Programs, explained the ways that artists can be involved in a number of KAC programs. Phil Shepherd from the Department of Education shared the latest information on the process to re-write Kentucky’s Core Content for Arts and Humanities. “He did a great job of presenting complicated information well,” said one of the artists. Kitty Dougoud shared the perspective of a teacher working with an artist in residence. An attendee remarked, “It was especially good to have this perspective.” Each evening the artists were treated to performances by their fellow artists at the “Java Hut”, or coffee house. Although it is great fun to be entertained by some of the top artists in the state, it also serves a serious purpose. Artists are encouraged to collaborate on arts education projects, and this venue allows the artists to learn more about each other’s work. Possibly the most appreciated session was the closing circle, when the artists gathered in rocking chairs on the porch to reflect on the experience and think about next year’s Gathering. The consensus was that Faubush 2005 was an enriching, community-building time, but as always there were many ideas for changes. A wonderful aspect of the Artist Gathering is that it truly does belong to the artists and their input is what shapes future Gatherings. As one participant put it, “I feel like everyone’s comments were well heard. I strongly request more artist-to-artist creative sessions, not group projects but artists sharing their art forms.” Participants also requested that we alternate creative activities with the more informative sessions on subjects like Core Content instead of having long stretches of creativity and then long sessions of sitting and discussing. Others suggested that next year’s resource sessions be set up concurrently so that artists could focus on the areas of greatest interest to them, such as writing effective ArtsStart! or Alternative Connections grants. All great ideas. Time to start planning for Faubush 2006! Design Your Own Professional Development Seminar 2005The Kentucky Arts Council’s annual 2-½ day seminar for teachers brought together 90 educators from across the state to participate in hands-on workshops integrating the arts and cultural studies. While about half the attendees were arts and humanities teachers of some type, others were librarians, taught science, PE and social studies or were generalists. Teachers could select four of the twenty-four sessions provided by professional artist educators, most of them members of the KAC arts education artist roster. “It was so hands-on, with realistic approaches and creativity that will work in classrooms,” enthused one participant. That is just the response we hoped for, as our goal was to provide teachers with activities they could use and resources to draw upon to expand the range of what they can bring into their classrooms. The workshops ranged from making pop-up books of Kentucky history to learning West African dance. Six workshops were presented at each of the four breakout sessions so that teachers could elect to follow one culture through different art forms or one art form through diverse cultures. Trying to make the workshop assignments so that teachers got their first –or at least second – choice in each session was like working a giant jigsaw puzzle, but it was worth the effort to provide each teacher with the most relevant line-up possible. As one teacher said, “Faubush ’04 and ’05 were by far the BEST professional development I’ve ever had anywhere!” Teachers who attended all of the sessions received 17 hours of professional development credit. The workshops were supplemented by evening performances, allowing the teachers to see the talents of artists they might not have worked with in the hands-on sessions. And because all of these artists are available to do residencies through the Teacher Initiated Program (TIP), we included a session on grant writing. After the official performances, teachers and artists gathered in the rocking chairs on the porch for a time of sharing, jamming and dancing. This informal opportunity to interact with fellow teachers and artists is always one of the most valuable aspects of the seminar. Mealtimes were also a great time to get acquainted and exchange ideas. The grand finale was a campfire and marshmallow roast – complete with scary stories – on the shores of Lake Cumberland. Altogether it was a hugely successful event. On the evaluation forms, we always ask for ways to improve the experience or new topics to address. About half of the participants were returnees from Faubush 2004, so several requested advanced workshops in areas like dulcimer playing or mural painting. Others asked for more drama workshops, creative writing, sculpture, pottery, and instrument making. A fun suggestion is to have an optional evening session for teachers and artists to create fabric painted tee shirts with some sort of Faubush logo. We’re already working on these suggestions and planning for Faubush ’06. Planning Teams Begin Building Partnerships at FaubushA program once piloted by the Kentucky Arts Council in 2001 was rejuvenated on July 14th this year when community members from four counties sequestered themselves at the Kentucky Learning Center in Faubush, Ky. to develop school initiated partnership projects. Teams from Bell, Boyle, Madison and Trigg counties are in the beginning stages of a grant program entitled School-Community-Art-Parent Program (SCAPP). The teams were required to attend a mandatory training/planning retreat designed to enable schools to form partnerships with businesses, organizations and individuals through art. In Boyle County, members of the Danville School System initiated a team including the Director of Arts Education, Citizens Concerned for Human Relations, Director of Beacon Youth Services, Coordinator of School Improvement and teachers. Each of these community members had a common goal of strengthening racial and ethnic diversity in their community when they applied for the program and began to see themselves get closer to actualizing this objective as the weekend went on. Teams wishing to engage in this grant program quickly noticed that the SCAPP application is different from others on account of a stipulation that educators, community members, artists and parents from the same community come together to apply without a proposed project plan—but instead a strong commitment to work together. The development of the actual plan occurs July 14-16 during the retreat. This time equipped the teams with the environment, tools and resources needed to discuss, learn and plan for their partnership projects. Among training sessions about successful partnerships, documentation, and more, teams were allotted time for breakout meetings to map out their plans. For many of the groups, this is the first time they are able to be together for a concentrated period of time to focus on plans in this fashion. “It forces advanced planning without losing focus on the student,” said one of the participants. In their planning rooms, teams found post-it flip charts to record their brainstorming and hang on the walls so that circulating resource persons could track their progress and provide input if needed. “We’re trying to be the most help with the least interruption,” said SCAPP Planning Facilitator Debbie Shannon. The breakout meetings started on Friday morning and already by mid-day, the Danville team had turned the wall into a collage of their vision statement, activities and goals of their partnership. The plan was to blend new art elements into their annual Heritage Festival that will raise multicultural awareness. “The arts are a great way to educate people about cultural affairs and things can’t change until you’ve educated everyone,” said James H. Atkins from Citizens Concerned for Human Relations in Danville. Their plan is already in motion now with a playwright contest calling any Kentucky playwrights to enter plays focusing on themes of racial and ethnic diversity and/ or multiculturalism. Humanities classes will perform readings of some of the runners up in the contest, and the winner will receive a cash prize in addition to the play being performed at the Heritage Festival. The team is sketching further plans that place a strong emphasis on the mutual benefit of all partners involved and will discuss it further at their next meeting on the first of August. All of the teams will submit their plans to the arts council by August 15th because although their applications have been accepted to participate in the program, the have not yet been approved for funding. Representatives from the Kentucky Arts Council, Arts Kentucky, Kentucky Folklife Program, KET, Kentucky Center and Kentucky Department of Education came to the retreat to make themselves available as resources for future program planning. “I would like you to think of the arts council as a partner, not just a funder,” said Kentucky Arts Council Executive Director Gerri Combs while encouraging the communities to utilize the available resources. The arts council has taken a unique approach to this development period;
rather than concentrating solely on the teams developing a plan, they
would like to see the teams develop strong partnerships. The program
is a three-year commitment and the intention is that the partnership
will continue beyond the time that the arts council allots funding. After Breakfast on Saturday, the teams were refreshed and back to the drawing board, only this time it was to craft a presentation of their projects to this point. The focus on the arts shined throughout the weekend and as they illustrated their project plans through singing, costumes and bright displays. By the end of the retreat, not only had partnerships been cemented, but they also began to mold strong community projects. The Danville team felt that although they may have had some prior notion of how their project would take shape, some of their best ideas came from this weekend together. “We’ll be effecting the community through our students—if the students are involved family will follow and it will expand generation to generation,” Leah Simpson, Humanities teacher from Danville. For more information about School-Community-Arts-Parents Partnerships, please contact John S. Benjamin, Arts Education Program Director, at 1-888-833-2787, ext. 483 or John.Benjamin@ky.gov.
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