A Bridge for the Arts

In an innovative, cross-border partnership, and the  are working together on a Partners in Education program.

The Partner in Education program is part of aKennedy Center intiative to design effective art-integrated residencies for students and to bring in teacher-artists to present effective workshops for teachers. The effort, established in 1991, is based on the belief that educating teachers is an essential component of any effort designed to increase the artistic literacy of young people. The Kennedy Center's experience with its local professional development program for teachers is meant to provide the basis for this national program.

Partnership teams consist of a member of an arts organization and a senior level administrator of a neighboring school system. The team participates in an institute that provides models and planning strategies for establishing or expanding professional development programs in the arts for all teachers, follow-up consultation and annual meetings to assist teams in their continued development.  In Greenwich’s case, the partnership is between public schools District Arts Coordinator Jeff Spector and the Purchase College PAC.

According to Spector, teacher-artists will work with Greenwich schools officials to demonstrate how different art forms, such as theater and dance, can be used as a way to teach children language arts, math science, social studies and the arts. 

"What child does not like to act or 'ham it up'?" Spector told The Report Card. "These teaching artists, through their art form, work at the highest level to motivate teachers and children to be excited about their teaching and learning.”

Ian Driver, the PAC's educator consultant, highlighted the unique nature of the cooperation between the GPS and PAC.

“Typically Kennedy Center partnerships are contained within states so this is very unusual that the partnership has crossed state lines," he said. "Also, PAC typically has partnered with local teacher centers to support professional development for teacher, so this is unusual and positive.”

Prior to the partnership with PAC, GPS worked with the  to bring innovative programs to our schools including:  teaching artists interfacing with  (theater arts to teach an historical event — the Boston Tea Party),  (tableaux to teach reading comprehension and historical events),  (dance to teach visual arts) and some middle school teachers.

This spring with the PAC partnership, a new project will begin at.  With the support of Cos Cob Principal Kim Beck, Assistant Superintendent Stacey Gross and Driver, training has begun with some teachers in the Neighborhood Bridges program, an approach to bringing critical literacy into the classroom.  Neighborhood Bridges is Children's Theatre Company's nationally recognized literacy program. Its teaching artists use storytelling, theater and creative writing to transform classrooms into communities where students think independently and work collectively. Neighborhood Bridges is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a national model for arts education. 

A yet-to-be-determined grade level of Cos Cob teachers will be trained in May and begin implementing the program in the fall. This funded pilot will include two days of professional development with teams of artists and teachers specializing in storytelling and drama.

Then in the fall, there will be 10 weeks implementation in the Language Arts class.  Driver explained that the program consists of “drama and storytelling techniques intended to improve creative writing and critical literacy – this is an integrated arts model utilizing collaboration between teachers and artists – teaching arts techniques.” 

Dr. Stacey Gross, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Learning, said Greenwich public schools "are always excited to foster relationships with community resources that enhance the district's curricula. We are looking forward to establishing this new partnership with the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College."

This new partnership will literally bring two neighbors (Greenwich and Purchase) closer together and the beneficiary of good neighbors?  ... the children!