Archive: Around Town

The Fine Arts Booster Group (FABG), an affiliate of IPEI, has awarded $5,837 in mini-grants to 13 Ithaca City District School (ICSD) projects that will reach 1,321 students.    Funded projects include support for DeWitt, Boynton, Lehman Alternative Community School and Ithaca High School drama programs; artist visits following a Kids Discover the Trail! Ithaca Johnson Museum field trip; exploration of musician biographies;  digital photography; music books;  a composer’s arrangement; native culture song recordings;  square dancing; trip scholarships; School Success Transportation Coalition support;  and a dance/creative movement and language-arts initiative.

For example, in Sheila Bowman’s third-grade classroom at Belle Sherman Elementary School, students will explore musicians in their biography unit, develop an understanding of the genre, the role of the author viewpoint and imagination in historical nonfiction narrative, build vocabulary, identify music and increase their speaking skills and imagination by acting the part of their subject.

“FABG is very glad to support the ICSD teachers in their varied and creative projects, which will help enhance students' knowledge and appreciation of the arts.” notes Co-President Alice Wu.   Co-President Janine Eng sees that these grants help unlock understanding as noted by former US Secretary of Education William Bennett, “The arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic…music, dance, painting, and theater are all keys that unlock profound human understanding and accomplishment.”

The next mini-grant deadline is February 1, 2015.

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