THE CENTER FOR ARTS EDUCATION

The 2nd Annual CITASI, a three day professional development summer institute for NYC middle and high school educators, was held on August 11th-13th, 2008. Educators including career counselors, teachers, librarians, and internship coordinators were encouraged to put themselves in their students’ shoes while engaging in activities that parallel the Career Development Program’s Boot Camp, a two week intensive geared towards preparing selected high school students for internships in arts organizations in NYC. Boot Camp-like activities included a Q & A with an arts professionals panel on employer expectations within the creative world, strategies to activate the CDP curriculum using themes such as self-assessment and career exploration, creative group research presentations on specific careers in the arts, mock interviews with CDP alumni, and team building activities inspired by theater practitioner Augusto Boal. Participants also learned ways to create a careers/arts-related action plan and gained tips for becoming informed facilitators and coaches within their own internship/career education programs. Highlights from the institute included a behind-the-scenes tour of the New Amsterdam Theatre, which culminated in a performance of Mary Poppins. Participants completed the institute with a renewed sense of energy as one educator stated, “Thank you for restoring and reviving my enthusiasm for teaching and learning as the time approaches to reenter the classroom!”

PS 186 Q – Finale Dance Performance (June 6th)
Participants learn the fundamental skills of a ballroom dance style and the history and cultural context behind it. Students are encouraged to act as mentors, teaching their parents what they have learned through in-school instruction. The culminating event will include an international pot luck dinner and live band, dancing and a performance by the class attendees. All participants are invited to demonstrate what they have learned at a culminating performance for the PS 186 community.

Newcomers High School 555 Q – Culminating Reception of Parents’ Artwork (June 7th)
The program includes three hands-on photography workshops where parents and students collect images reflecting their family life, neighborhood and greater community, eventually learning photography and storyboarding skills to create a photo essay reflecting their experience in New York City and in their Queens neighborhood. A culminating event allows participants to display their work for a daytime reception at the Queens Museum of Art.

PS 77 M – Final Gala Event for Families (June 5th at 6:00 pm)
Using contemporary art in the Whitney Museum’s collections as examples, parents and students experiment with unusual media as they design an art project together and explore methods of creating and/or altering space with their mixed media materials. A Gala Art Exhibition allows participants to display their completed projects for an evening at the Museum.

PS 721 Q – Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Opening of Spring Craft Fair (May 29th)
The school’s “Creative Card Art by Parents” PAAP program includes three 3-session workshop series supporting the creation of handmade cards. Parents and students are encouraged to develop their own handmade greeting cards; the school is planning a grand opening of a ‘parent’ line of cards at the school boutique, and participants will sell the cards at the Spring Craft Fair.

PS/IS 95 K – Final Dedication Ceremony (June 24th)
The workshops, centered on the theme of personal memory and storytelling, encourage participants to provide poems, stories and pictures from their own lives as content for quilt squares. Hands-on quilting instruction is given in stitching, block construction, and fabric layout. A final dedication ceremony unveils the quilt for the PS/IS 95 community.

PS 206 K – Concert for Strings (May 27th)
PS 206’s “String Fling VI” is a 12-session program offering violin instruction to parents and students in all grades, as well as to alumnae of the school and their families. The final performance will be a concert at the PS 206 auditorium and will feature two honorees – NYC Councilmember Lew Fidler and Paul Ash, for contributions to violin study at PS 206.

For more information, contact parents@cae-nyc.org or call us at (212) 971-3300 x 327.

Arts Smart New York: A Friendraising Celebration

The Center for Arts Education hosted its first-ever Arts Smart New York, A Friendraising Celebration on Thursday, September 27, 2007, at The Herman Miller Design National Design Center in Manhattan. This inaugural event brought together key decision makers to promote awareness about the benefits of and need for more arts education in NYC public schools.

Leonard Lopate and Laura Bell Bundy

Arts Smart New York was hosted by WNYC’s Leonard Lopate, and Legally Blonde star Laura Bell Bundy made a special appearance before her curtain to show her support for arts education. In addition, CAE honored New York City Council Members Robert Jackson and Domenic Recchia as its first ever Arts Smart Friends, recognizing their long standing and continued support for arts education in New York City public schools.

“The fight for arts education has only just begun,” said Councilman Domenic Recchia. “Every one of our City’s public school students deserves access to a quality education that includes the arts, and we must do everything we can to keep this issue at the forefront of education policy,” he said.

Richard Kessler, Robert Jackson, Jody Arnhold, Laurie Tisch, and Domenic Recchia

After accepting his honor, Councilman Jackson said, “Arts education is a basic and necessary part of a quality, well rounded education, and all New York City public school students deserve to have access to it.” “The Center for Arts Education is leading the charge to restore arts education in New York City public schools, and events such as these are integral in bringing people together who can help make a difference,” he concluded.

Bruce Silverstein

Bruce Silverstein, owner of Silverstein Photography and one of CAE’s most active Board Members, was chosen as a special guest speaker for the event. With a son in New York City public schools and a successful gallery in New York City’s elite Chelsea gallery district, Silverstein pointed out that the fine art community needs to recognize the important connection between arts education and the Creative Industries. “New York City has a $21 billion dollar arts industry, and yet there are still schools that have no arts programs at all. If anyone believes in the importance of and need for arts education, it should be representatives from the fine arts industry,” Silverstein said.

Antonio Thompson and Robert Jackson

Alumni from CAE’s Career Development Program (CDP) introduced the honorary New York City Council Members and shared their experiences with developing a career in New York City’s Creative Industries. Antonio Thompson, graduate of the program, studied with Wynton Marsalis during his internship. “It was an amazing experience. Working with Mr. Marsalis made me realize that I can pursue music as a career, and beyond playing music, CDP taught me how many other careers there are available to me in the creative industries,” he told listeners.

To read the complete press release, click HERE.