JOHNSON CITY, TN -- The Johnson City Area Arts Council invites parents and teachers to attend its annual arts education conference to exchange ideas about the valuable role the arts play in developing and educating children.
Renewing Creativity & Boosting Learning will take place Monday, Nov. 16 at the Millennium Centre. Participants may choose from 21 concurrent workshops on a variety of topics in all disciplines.
Kick off the day and get inspired by attending An Exploration of Creative Habits of Minds, a highly interactive session where you'll watch the now nationally recognized 20-minute video, Powerful Learning Through the Arts, and see how students are engaged to take risks, imagine possibilities, think critically, and apply persistence and discipline skills in a range of art forms. Lisa Fitzhugh, founder and former executive director of Arts Corps, an arts education program for underserved children in Seattle, will lead this discussion on this video and topic that she and Eric Booth have collaborated on.
Continue to refresh yourselves by learning ways to help your students understand different cultures and link them with history, science, math, social studies and language through visual arts workshops like Japanese hand-made book forms and book binding with artist Claudia Lee.
New York teacher of the year, Annette Burton, whose specialty is using one discipline to teach another, will offer two construction sessions, beginner and advanced, for making a 3D paper house from a single sheet of construction paper.
A printmaking session will trace this form of communication from cave walls to German woodblock prints and Southern European metal etchings to today's printmaking methods that can be easily done in the classroom.
Other visual arts sessions feature hand building with clay, creating art projects from recycled objects, and transforming what we see of the natural landscape to a simplification of form and color through painting.
Music sessions include: Appalachian song and dance; developing collaborative projects between music and classroom teachers that include creating poetry, composition and melodic improvisation; bringing out the best in any vocal/choral group; producing a public performance using the regular curriculum. Also, another music workshop reaching across the curriculum will start with the study of the history of the United States and/or celebration of Black History month, and participants will learn historic songs, traditional dances, African music, spirituals, poetry and modern dance to tell the story of African culture's journey from their shores to present day America.
Technology and theatre workshops will round out the day. In these workshops participants will learn how to integrate technology more effectively into lessons, how to publish digitally children's plays, music, chorus performances; how to improve collaborations using theatre exercises and games and to enhance students' presentation skills.
Featured speaker for the noon luncheon will be Dr. Emily Stewart, who is Executive Director of Helping Teens Succeed, a nonprofit organization with a great track record of helping low income students get into college. She has done extensive work in developing innovative programs for talented students. With numerous publications in the field of creativity and talent development, she has served as president of the international organization, The Association for the Gifted and was recently honored with their Distinguished Service Award. Early in her career she directed the process for original design and implementation for two governor's schools. The title of her talk is The Artist's Journey which will be presented during the luncheon from noon to 1:30 p.m.
The hub of conference activity will be on the 2nd floor of the Millennium Centre where you can browse through a wide selection of resources, gather new ideas, and shop for unique artist-made gifts. A showcase performance by students will enrich your conference experiences, as will the many workshops throughout the day.
Registration for the arts education conference is currently underway. Registration information is available on-line at the Johnson City Area Arts Council's website www.arts.org. Materials will be mailed to previous participants by that date as well.
Early registration is strongly recommended, as many of the workshops have limited enrollment, so to ensure your space in these workshops, please mail your registration form with your check early. The JCAAC also accepts Visa and MasterCard. The cost of the full day's conference, including lunch is $55 until the November 9th deadline. After that date registration will be $65, and will include walk-ins on the day of the conference. If desired, a list of hotels providing special rates for conference attendees will be provided, as well as directions to the Millennium Centre.
For more information or to request a registration packet, call 423-928-8229 or e-mail jcarts@mounet.com
This arts education conference is supported by the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Southern Arts Federation, with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the City of Johnson City, and members of the Johnson City Area Arts Council.
