Arts Education Gets A Boost in Port Washington

Arts education in Port Washington is getting a boost in 2015, thanks to HEARTS, a local nonprofit.

The organization – whose mission is to add meaningful value to children’s lives and the community by supporting, promoting and enriching the arts in Port Washington and its public schools – announced its grant recipients for 2015.

The recipients are:

Authorfest 2015 and Poetry Cafe@PortFest

Maryellen Noone, Janet Moser, Kimberly Pinto, Joanne Koukoulas & Suzanne Mody

Authorfest will bring renowned author, poet, and illustrator Douglas Florian and other local authors to K-5th graders district-wide. Fourth grade students will participate in writing workshop to create their own poems and share them at PortFest 2015.

Curtains Up: Musical Theater Workshop

Lauren Blank & Emily Baxter

An after-school musical theater workshop for 4th and 5th grade students district-wide. Students will learn about musical theater, sing songs and learn choreography from various musicals throughout the decades culminating in a performance.

Night of 1000 Strings at the Tilles Center for Performing Arts

Diane Fish, Nicole Brunetto, Carly Valentine, John Akios, Carol Garofalo & Toni Pinelli

String teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels will collaborate with students to perform in a concert at one of Long Island’s premier performance halls, Tilles Center for Performing Arts.

A Night of Jazz, with Michael Davis from the Rolling Stones

John Meyer, Jr.

Michael Davis, professional trombonist/composer, will lead clinics for the middle and high school jazz bands, Schreiber’s jazz improvisation class, and 4th and 5th grade band students as well as perform with students at A Night of Jazz. Students will improve their overall musicianship by gaining a greater understanding of jazz, the art of improvisation, and love for performing.

Schreiber

Main Stage Productions

Lauren Foster-Holzer & Christine Nelson

Funds will be used to offset the costs of Schreiber’s annual musical production, Anything Goes.

Knighthorse

Joan Lisecki

Shakespearean players Ty and Amy Lemerande, known as Knighthorse, will make Shakespeare cool again “by getting him off the page and onto the stage”. They will use interactive performances school-wide including working with scene performers in Theater class and a visit to the Shakespeare elective.

Printmaking and the Landscape

Miranda Best

Master printmaker and inventor of solarplate etching, Dan Welden, will work with AP Art students in the creation of monoprints and etchings based on their own photographs and sketches of the landscape.

Weber

Pop Choir

Matthew Gawronski

Students will participate in a select choir where the best vocalists have an opportunity to perform fun, yet musically rigorous pop music at their full vocal potential.

Weber Woodwind Ensemble

Elizabeth Andrew

The creation of a brand new woodwind ensemble group to provide the opportunity for students to work in a small group setting to improve musicianship skills and to learn skills unique to the chamber music setting.

The 21st Century Music Department

Allison Friedman

Funds will be used toward the purchase of Google Chromebooks for the Weber music department. This will enable the general music program to use technology for creating and exploring music through a variety of web-based music technology tools and project based learning scenarios.

Daly

Story Time Dance Program

Giovanna Fitzpatrick

Guest artist Karen Guy will use music and movement to explore Pre-K students’ natural environment, space, directionality and body awareness in connection with content areas such as social studies, science and literature.

Daly Writers

Alex Eisen

Fifth grade students will learn to express themselves through the art of playwriting and acting. They will be introduced to the basic fundamentals of writing a play and will have the opportunity to craft and perform their own original plays.

A Hero and a Heroine’s Journey

Sonia Arora & Nancy Flynn

Led by Gold Coast Arts Center teaching artists Sonia Arora and Karen Hubela, and inspired by ideas from Joseph Campbell’s, A Hero with a Thousand Faces, 4th grade students will study myths about heroes and heroines from around the world. Students will write their own original myth and learn to sequence their original story with illustrations in a mixed-media book project.

Guggenheim

Charlotte’s Web Arts-in-Education Program

Brooke Roberts

Second grade students will be introduced to the magic of live theater while extending the classroom curriculum with this presentation of the musical version of Charlotte’s Web, performed by Plaza Theatrical Productions, a Long Island Based professional touring company mounting fully staged musicals for public organizations and schools.

Manorhaven

Broadway Workshop - Aladdin

Stacey Drucker, Lourdes Mergler, Kimberley Singh

Prior to seeing Aladdin on Broadway, 5th grade students will participate in a workshop that recreates a true Broadway rehearsal with students learning a choreographed dance piece, staging, and a musical composition directly from Aladdin taught by actual cast members and musical directors.

Sousa

Long Island Children’s Museum: Museum on the Go! Program - Lucky Fortune

Diana Conway

Third grade students will get a hands-on approach in learning about Chinese culture while promoting cultural awareness. This program focuses on the Chinese zodiac and the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. Students will be able to learn about hosting special banquets, perform the lion dance, share lucky red envelopes, and create their own parade mask.

Sousa Strong in Motion

Dr. Meoli

Guest artists Michael and Rachael Kosch will lead a dance residency/program for K-1st graders that integrates movement, music, social and emotional learning, and curricular content through repeated workshops. Students will participate in dance and music activities based on the school theme “Sousa Strong” in order to illuminate the concepts of kindness, confidence, and compassion and to exhibit that learning in a performance.

Image: HEARTS PW/Facebook

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