2008/2009 ARTS PARTNERS’ MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
Total Awarded: $14,784

Candor Elementary School, Candor Central School District: “Storytelling Around the World.” Students will work with Beauty & the Beast Storytellers to learn how to tell stories from a variety of countries using vocal and facial expression, hand gestures, volume, and tempo. The storytelling project will motivate students to research their story’s country of origin.

Coolidge Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “Street Beats” Students will express themselves and their connections to their environment through a variety of artistic mediums including poetry, music, and visual art. Teachers working with Artist Suzanne Bloom will immerse students in a rich variety of poetry created by artists of and/or inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. Students will draw upon their personal experience and their school and community cultures to craft original poetry.

Discovery Kids Preschool, UPK program. “Animals in Action” is a collaboration that will bring the world of animals to life for preschoolers. Students will enjoy 2 months of animal themed music classes then a visit from the Binghamton Zoo will provide the opportunity to see live animals and ask animal experts questions about the animals from our studies. The project culminates with the creation of animal masks that will be used during a performance for a featured First Friday event.

John Harshaw Primary School, Chenango Forks Central School District: “Poetry & Movement” 2nd grade students will explore different types and styles of Poetry. Each 2nd grade class will create and write their own class poem in their favorite style. To help deepen the understanding and interpretation of each poem, the students will collaborate with members of VIA Dance Collaborative to choreograph movements that enhance each class poem.

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, Binghamton City Schools: “Childstory” is a project designed to captivate young children to learn about the lives of local children, past and present, through the art of storytelling and using the historical resources of The Phelps Museum. 2nd graders will work with Storyteller, Eileen Ruggieri to awaken the storytellers inside them.

Roosevelt Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “Welcome Mosaic” Fourth grade students, with the artistic guidance of local artist Yvonne Lucia, will work together to create a public “Welcome Mosaic” for the school lobby. Students will use their math skills in measurement to plan the use of the space where the mural will be.

St. John School, Broome County Catholic Schools: “The Science of Sound” will enhance student learning by drawing connections between Science and Music as we explore pitch, vibration & resonance. This work will use Aesthetic Education to help students learn about themselves and become more keen listeners and questioners.

Vestal High School, Vestal Central School District:  “Creating Graphic Novels / Words to Images” During this project, student artists and authors will work with internationally recognized cartoonist/illustrator and author, Mark Schultz, to create short stories and produce artistic works in the form of graphic novels.

Woodrow Wilson Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “Character Education Syncopation! ” The idea for Character Education Syncopation!, a dynamic multi-percussive performance, is inspired by the success of last year’s Community Stomp!  at Wilson School. The medium is rhythm and under the creative direction of percussionist, Chris Adams, students will be introduced to instrumental, vocal, and body created beats as the mode of expression. Students, teachers and artist will craft a performance linked to Wilson’s school wide Character Education curriculum.

2007/2008 ARTS PARTNERS’ MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
Total Awarded: $20,300

Candor High School, Candor Central Schools: “Metal Sculpture: Plasma Designs” Art and Technology students will collaborate on a three dimensional sculpture to be designed and then constructed using metal and a plasma cutter. The visiting artist Tino Ferro, who works as a sculptor in metal, will teach and assist the art and technology teachers with the project. The finished sculpture will be exhibited in the courtyard of the school.

Binghamton High School, Binghamton City Schools:  “Confluence Project” Students will investigate the watershed in Environmental Science; explore and express the interdependent relationship between the rivers and our lives through written and spoken word, art, music and film using the skills introduced by the Visual Thinking Strategy as taught by Katherine Bowman from the Roberson Museum; explore the concept of confluence as a physical reality and as a metaphor through the study of literature; engage in a study of memoir using the river as inspiration in collecting oral histories from local residents.  

Ben Franklin Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “The Best Part of Me” Students will use book, “the Best Part of Me” by Wendy Ewald, as inspiration for the integration of creative writing and photography to self-express about their own “best parts”. Artist Yvonne Lucia will guide students through her artistic process to create works of art celebrating what makes each student special and unique.

Owego Elementary School, Owego-Apalachin Central Schools:  Hot Science and Hot Glass. Students will work with Diana Tillotson of Riverstone Glass Studios to create glass sun catchers. Through this project students will understand the science of glass making. Student learning and exposure to glass making will be enhanced by a hands-on art and science experience at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Vestal High School, Vestal Central School District:  “The Big Chief Animation Project, pt. 2” Art, Music and writing workshop students will bring their talents together for the creation of eight original animated films. Students will create an original story involving 2-3 original characters, sculpt props and design 3-D sets. Their task will be to send a message through animation, writing and music culminating into a final presentation of their completed DVD.

Columbus Learning Center, Broome-Tioga BOCES: “Visionary Self Portrait”. Students will learn to develop their own biographical stories into theme shaped poetry, while at the same time studying Faith Ringgold and her unique quilt painting style. The lesson plans and sessions with visiting artist Brookey Keeney, will lead to the completion of a large mural in the school that will visually reflect the students’ personal stories.

Candor High School, Candor Central Schools: “Speaking the Self” Students will create and tell authentic, personal stories and make masks using symbols from their lives. They will begin with maps as metaphors for a journey they choose that will develop into their story. Regi Carpenter will teach the art of storytelling and tell her stories as examples, while the English teacher will help students craft words for their stories and the art teacher will assist students in creating masks that have the story in symbols on them.

Roosevelt Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “Break It and Make It” Fourth grade students, with the artistic guidance of local artist Yvonne Lucia, will work together to create a glass mosaic mural in the school library. The mural will celebrate the work of Faith Ringgold. Inspired by her storytelling the students will combine written expression and art on the mural.

Coolidge Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “Flights of Fancy” is an integrative second grade unit that will inspire an appreciation of “flight” as both a physical and artistic experience. Teaching Artists Suzanne Bloom and Eleanor Ernest will collaborate on a six month process that will result in the creation of a garden aviary of birds of flight and fancy.

Wilson Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: “The Community Stomp” First and fifth grades will collaborate with percussionist Chris Adams to mine their home community to discover and collect the sights and sounds of their neighborhood. These “sound images” will be the basis of a percussion performance by the students for the rest of the school and the community.

Seton Catholic Central High School, “The Shakespeare Project” The Theater/Performing Arts Dept. will be performing two plays: Romeo & Juliet and West Side Story. In conjunction with these performances, the English Dept. students will be studying the socio-economic contrast and similarities between the two eras of the plays.

Chenango Bridge Elementary School, Binghamton City Schools: “The Art and Science of weaving Living Willow Structures.” Students at Chenango Bridge Elementary School will gain a deep understanding of how science applies to the art and craft of willow work, through the building of living willow structures on the school grounds with professional artist Bonnie Gale.

2006/2007 ARTS PARTNERS’ MATCHING GRANT AWARDS
Total Awarded: $18,763

Arts Partners awarded eight project grants for the 2006-2007 school year.  Recipients, chosen by an seven-member panel of community members are:

Spencer-Van Etten High School, Spencer-Van Etten Central Schools: Synthesis of Art & Engineering II.  Artist Ben Sherman and the Physics teacher will be working with students to develop self powered models of moving vehicles, such as cars, boats and airplanes. These models will theoretically have the potential to be sold as full scale consumer products that have the necessary artistic visual qualities to attract customers and good engineering design qualities to be safe and long lived.

Maine-Endwell Middle School, Maine-Endwell Central Schools: Stop Motion and Claymation Video animations.  8th grade students will develop and create their own stop animation videos and claymations using multimedia technology.  The Special Education Inclusion specialist, the technology teacher, the art teacher and resident artist, Matthew Flesher, will help students in developing the concept and creating storyboards which form the basis for the student animations.  Videos will be entered in the Rod Serling Video Festival.

Candor High School, Candor Central Schools:  Warped Math: connecting the language of math with the expression of art through textile design. Through collaboration between math and studio arts, students will design warps and weave projects. Students will develop a deeper understanding of the connectedness between art and mathematics.

Binghamton High School, Binghamton City Schools:  Confluence Project. Through workshops conducted by naturalist, writer and photographer Rick Marsi, and classroom lessons by individual teachers, students will examine nature writing, investigate the impact of the confluence on our community, and explore the artistic relationship between the watershed, their community, and their lives.  Art and literature will be the means of exploration with an oral history component that will include interviews of long time community members.

Roosevelt Elementary, Binghamton City Schools: The Best Part of Me. Using the book, “the Best Part of Me” by Wendy Ewald, first grade students will use the combination of creative writing, photography, and collage to celebrate the very best of who they are. With the help of artists, Suzanne Bloom and Yvonne Lucia the students will create works of art that celebrate what makes them special and unique.

The Susquehanna School, Binghamton private School: The Science of weaving a living willow dome. Elementary students will gain a deep understanding of how science applies to the art and craft of willow work, through the building of a living willow dome on the school grounds in Spring 2007, with professional artist Bonnie Gale.

Owego Elementary School, Owego-Apalachin Central Schools:  Hot Science and Hot Glass. Students will work with Diana Tillotson of Riverstone Glass Studios to create glass sun catchers. Through this project students will understand the science of glass making. Student learning and exposure to glass making will be enhanced by a full day hands-on art and science experience at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Vestal High School, Vestal Central School District:  The Big Chief Animation Project. This project will give students in International Baccalaureate HL-A Studio, I.B. Math Studies and Senior Portfolio an opportunity to combine their artistic skills with math and technology in the art of claymation. Students will learn to create the human figure from clay armatures using specific dimensions derived from their research of the High Renaissance and the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

2005/2006 ARTS PARTNERS’ MATCHING GRANT AWARDS

Arts Partners awarded twelve project grants for the 2005-2006 school year.  Recipients, chosen by an five-member panel of community members are:

Macarthur Elementary School, Binghamton City Schools: “Through My Eyes, In My Voice” will have fourth graders use photography, photo collage, digital imaging, and expressive writing to document and exhibit their perceptions of themselves and each other. The year-long project culminates in the creation of a photo journal by each student with narrative and images of student’s daily life, and the creation by each class of a collage inspired by the art of Romare Bearden using photo images from student journals to represent the diversity and relationships that shape their community. Suzanne Bloom, author and illustrator, will be the resident artist.

Mann Elementary School, Binghamton City Schools: “Mosaics of Life” is an art project where third grade students will design and crate mosaic benches and stepping stones to be installed at the front entrance of Horace Mann. The mosaic designs will symbolize students’ understanding of diversity in society. Yvonne Lucia, painter and mosaic artist, will be the resident artist.

Binghamton High School, Binghamton City Schools: Through workshops led by naturalist, writer and photographer Rick Marsi, and classroom lessons by individual teachers, students will examine nature writing, investigate the impact of the confluence on our community, and explore the artistic relationship between the watershed, their community, and their lives. Art and literature will be the means of exploration.

Candor Elementary School, Candor Central Schools: Musician John Simon will work with pre-kindergarten students and their parents in an interactive project to compose and perform original stories that connect to family’s lives. Performing a child’s story, Crocodile Beat, written by Gail Jorgenson, Mr. Simon will set the book to music to make it come alive.

Candor High School, Candor Central Schools: “Math and The Fiber Arts” will allow students to gain an understanding of how math applies to three fiber arts: weaving, basketry, and quilting, through interaction with the math and art teachers and two professional artists – Bonnie Gale, basket maker; Sue Smith Heavenrich, spinner and weaver.

Chenango Forks Middle School, Chenango Forks Central Schools & Southern Tier Celebrates: Eileen Ruggieri, storyteller, will partner with teachers to offer a literary arts education program – New York Poetry in Motion/Young Poets Speak to sixth grade students. Students will create theme-based poetry and learn how to feel comfortable in presenting personal poems. Students will recite their poetry as part of First Night Binghamton.

Maine Memorial Elementary School, Maine-Endwell Central Schools: Fourth grade students will work with storyteller Eileen Ruggieri in studying and personally enhancing short fables that teach a lesson or highlight a character education word from the school’s Morning Program. The students will role play their character’s part in front of the Morning Program audience using masks created in art class.

Maine-Endwell Middle School, Maine-Endwell Central Schools: 8 th grade students will develop and create their own stop animation videos and claymations using multimedia technology. The English teacher, art teacher and resident artist, Matthew Flesher, will help students, develop a concept, create storyboards, and create their animated videos. Videos will be entered in the Rod Serling Video Festival.

Owego Elementary School, Owego-Apalachin Central Schools: Third graders will travel “Around the World” as they see art from different cultures, learn about the art processes of those countries, and work with artists representing the countries studied. Students will also study the countries’ in the context of community, map making, location and culture. Writing, reading and social studies will be integral to the project. Artists Kriko Frank ( Japan), Kathye Arrington (Africa), and Cheryl Dutko ( Ukraine) will partner with teachers.

Spencer-Van Etten Elementary School, Spencer-Van Etten Central Schools: Third grade students will identify the way in which home design of all species defines and builds their community. They will describe, analyze and select their favorite architectural attributes and include them in creating their own ideal home. Entire classes will construct their unique aesthetic and functional classroom community and mount it for display in the school.

Spencer-Van Etten High School, Spencer-Van Etten Central Schools: Through physics classes, students will develop models of consumer products that meet good engineering design and visual art qualities (as related to three-dimensional design and color). Each product must be safe and attractive to its consumer, as well as perform to its design goals.

Whitney Point Middle School, Whitney Point Central Schools: “Pathways to Cultural Discovery” will provide students with an experience to help them understand culture and how it is reflected in the arts. Students at each grade level will create a mural on local culture to be displayed at the main entrance to their school. Aubrey Clark, painter and muralist, will be the resident artist.

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