The West Virginia University College of Creative Arts has received an $84,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to continue to develop its Summer Institutes for Teacher Education in the Arts (SITE in the Arts) through 2006.
The summer programs for arts educators are designed to improve and enhance K-12 instruction of the performing and visual arts in public and private schools in West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania.
The College received a grant of $92,000 in 2003 from the Benedum Foundation to develop the initial program. It was the largest grant of this type in the history of the College. The 2005 grant will continue the program and also allow the College to add a distance education component.
Hosting SITE in the Arts is a dream come true for us, for it will enhance an already well-defined relationship between this College and K-12 educators throughout our region,said College of Creative Arts Dean Bernie Schultz.Creativity is a driving force which advances so many aspects of our society and we are continuing to open new levels of understanding of how the arts are an integral part of education.
In addition to the Benedum Foundation, other partners involved with the College of Creative Arts in planning and implementing SITE in the Arts include the Community Foundation of Fayette County, Pa.; selected arts teachers currently practicing in K-12 education; and the departments of education in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
SITE in the Arts is a response to needs identified in a 2000 National Endowment for the Arts Survey called Arts Initiative for the Millennium (AIM). The survey assessed the professional development requirements of fine arts teachers in West Virginia and revealed ongoing needs for improved arts training for educators, as well as guidelines for the integration of technology in the arts classroom, and the establishment of models of student assessment for the arts.
The survey emphasized that the arts must become an educational priority at local, regional and national levels.
William Winsor, associate dean of the College of Creative Arts, initiated the SITE in the Arts program, guided the grant application, and serves as principal investigator with the Benedum Foundation. Cyndi Conner-Bess, a faculty member in the WVU Division of Music, serves as the program director.
SITE in the Arts will enrich and nourish the teaching and practice of the arts through an intensive five-day curriculum and residential experience, beginning this summer.
The teachers attending will be involved in workshops that provide fresh teaching strategies, renew current teaching methods, and that teach innovative instructional techniques.
In another part of the program, participants will work on individual goals in their areas of concentration, including visual arts, theatre and music.
SITE for the Arts is being held at the Creative Arts Center during June 19-24, 2005. Teaching personnel include faculty members from the College of Creative Arts, as well as nationally recognized arts educators from Arizona State University, Ohio State University, The University of North Carolina, Northwestern University, and California State University at San Marcos. Also participating are professional artists, musicians and actors selected specifically to meet the goals of the program. In addition to events in Morgantown, there will be field trips to Kentuck Knob, the Pittsburgh Childrens Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Thirty teachers have been accepted on a first-reply basis to participate and the program is being offered free of charge during the two-year implementation phase. Optional graduate credit at the participantsexpense is available through WVU .
After the term of the grant expires, it is expected that applicable enrollment and tuition fees will enable the program to become self-sufficient.
It is the intent to build a strong foundation for SITE in the Arts this summer and to continue with the same programming during 2006,Conner-Bess said.To reach the maximum population of underserved areas in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania, we plan to expand the program during phase two to include arts-related distance education programs in art, music and theatre.
The distance education components will provide an opportunity to extend the benefits of the program to those whose access is limited by time, distance, or physical disability, and to all previous SITE participants to update their knowledge base at their places of employment.
The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation was established in 1944 by Michael and Sarah Benedum, both West Virginia natives, as a memorial to their only child, Claude, who died while serving in the First World War. The Foundation authorizes grants in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania in areas of economic development, education, health and human services, community development and the arts.