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From May 13 - 23, Building Curriculum, Community and Leadership through the Arts (BCCLA) staff are proud to announce that The Art of Inheritance, an exhibition of work from all 59 Fine and Performing Art Magnet Cluster Program (FPAMCP) schools, will be on display throughout the Loop. Macy’s on State, Dick Blick, Akira Chicago and Chicago Public Schools headquarters have all donated window and gallery space to exhibit the work from BCCLA classrooms. The work itself will range from visual art, sound installations and video, to process documentation exhibits, all created this school year in classes under the direction of the art teachers at these schools. There will be related events, including:
There will also be a large culminating event at Macy's on State on Friday, May 16, with BCCLA student and teacher performances, and keynote speaker, CPS Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins. To celebrate the success of all 116 teachers in the program, CAPE and FPAMCP will host a Post-Event Gala at the Macy’s Narcissus Room. In addition, CAPE and FPAMCP staff will host our regular professional development sessions with arts teachers in April and May, focusing on how to use the exhibit as a teaching tool in their schools, as well as final professional development sessions reflecting back on the experience of BCCLA over the past three years. Finally, this summer, BCCLA will host a series of summer workshops (the third annual "Summer Spectacular") focused on reviving the inner artist within every arts teacher.   CAPE CONFEREES Education Director Scott Sikkema "In March, I was fortunate to present at two conferences new to CAPE: the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) conference, and the International Conference on Teacher Research (ICTR), where Mark Diaz also presented. I will let Mark speak about ICTR, which was a terrific experience. "Regarding ASCD, one of the first things that struck me was the sheer size of the conference: 12,500 people were estimated to attend. I would say the majority of attendees were state superintendent of education office people, state board of education people, folks from large city boards of education, some university education staff and professors, principals, and a very large group of educational product vendors and professional consultants/consulting firms. Workshops heavily emphasized packaged products and consulting; indeed, every day a large portion of the conference was devoted to vendor presentations. Keynote speeches, on the other hand, were interesting and provocative, from topics like curriculum mapping to the future of teacher education to an all-out assault on No Child Left Behind! I think in the future there could be opportunities here for CAPE to present in connection with our offerings for consultation. "The conference was in New Orleans, a favorite place of mine, but one I had not been to since Katrina. It is different now, but is still a beautiful and unique city, with wonderful food and people. I promised the proprietor of the lovely B & B I stayed at that I would pass the word back in Chicago: 'New Orleans is open for business! Come visit!'"
"At the beginning of April, I attended Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, organized by Americans for the Arts. Celebrities Peter Yarrow (of the legendary folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and pictured with me at left), John Legend and Robert Redford were there to testify before Congress in support of the arts. Along with other arts advocates from Illinois, I visited the offices of Illinois' Congressional representatives: Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Barack Obama, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., Rep. Bobby Rush, Rep. Danny Davis, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, and Rep. Daniel Lipinski. "In general, Illinois' representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate are very supportive of the arts – but they need to hear from their constituents. If you feel strongly about the arts and arts education, write to your representatives to advocate for: increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, increased support for the U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education programs, and improved tax policies for professional artists." To learn more about these issues, please link to Americans for the Arts or Illinois Arts Alliance/Foundation for more information. Research Associate Laura Tan "In late March I traveled to the No Teacher Left Behind Conference hosted by Brown University where Gail Burnaford and I co-presented on "Building Curriculum, Community, and Leadership through the Arts." The conference was a small, but innovative group of participants and presenters – the Kennedy Center, the Perpich Center, ArtsLiteracy Group at Brown – as well as an amazing keynote by Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot (if you haven't read her book The Art and Science of Portraiture, please do; Gail and Arnie both say it was amazing). "I had no expectations arriving to Providence – what was I to expect? This was the first national education conference I had attended, and presenting, no less, on a topic that I had only been introduced to 6 months ago. So when two workshop leaders asked me to design a strategy for my goals, I blankly thought to myself: What should this goal be? In the complex maze of CPS alongside CAPE's innumerable activities, school and teachers, a single goal is not easy to determine. But one did come to mind – and it is one that continually festers. The goal I raised to this audience of students, arts ed administrators, and educators was to make the education research relevant and accessible to teachers, students, and our teaching artists. "Having been the first time to articulate my position so thoroughly, I admit I felt a bit strange (something like an out of body experience, or maybe just pre-presentation jitters). But it was incredibly refreshing to hear other participants respond with like-minded goals, and engage with them in conversations on ongoing projects, successes, discourse and ideas. And it was a delight to experience some quality (emphasis there on the quality) arts education practice firsthand. "The presentation? It went well. Gail was fantastic of course. "On a finally note, my biggest wish would be to raise funds for some Chicago teachers to attend this or similar events, to gain a broader perspective and participate in quality discussion on teacher practice in the arts." Program Associate Mark Diaz "I was greeted by a cold and rainy day, the last Thursday of last March. Though chilly and wet, it wasn’t the bitter frost I had left behind in Chicago. It was my first day back in New York City. This time around, I wasn’t the wide-eyed art student, the anti-war protester, nor the tourist from the Midwest retracing a Lonely Planet foody route of noodle shops and dumpling houses. This time around I was there to co-present with Scott Sikkema, at the International Conference of Teacher Research at Bank Street College. "This year’s ICTR conference was titled 'Combining Voices: Building a Teacher Research Community.' Our presentation showcased the research efforts of the Veteran Partnership schools, and, appropriately enough, described how a network supports teacher research. "The conference was a modest gathering of teacher researchers. Participants unraveled years of work, presenting and sharing their growth in and challenges with inquiry-based learning and action research. One of my favorite presentations was a reflexive examination on questioning strategies by a collaborating team of schoolteachers and researcher Jim McLaughlin of Florida Atlantic University. (Jim is also a CAPE researcher on the PAIR initiative.) From there, I sat in on a talk on getting teacher research papers published by editors of Beyond the Journal. "The keynote address by noted child psychologist and early childhood education researcher, Vivian Paley was great story telling. No projectors hooked up to a computer, no images, no video. It was just her reading from a stack of hand written notes on loose-leaf paper. "It never really warmed up to spring temps in New York, but that didn’t stop Scott and I from enjoying the city. The Bowery has exploded and we found a perfect French bistro there that has amazing food and wine. The Cai Guo Qiang retrospective was at the Guggenheim – ell worth the wait and the crowds. The Whitney Biennial was, unfortunately, disappointing, again. "Did I forget to mention our presentation? It went well, of course. Scott at the helm with perfect pauses between thoughts, cueing me to say a few words and signaling my index finger to push an arrow key on a keyboard that advanced the slides on our PowerPoint show. 'Great teamwork,' I say." |
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3rd ANNUAL TOAST TO CAPE         |
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© 2004-2008 Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) 203 N. Wabash, Suite 1720, Chicago, Illinois 60601-2417 | ||||||||
