Archive: Around Town

Fine Arts Boosters Club (FABG), an affiliate of IPEI, is offering a creative retreat for teachers of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) teachers and other districts in Tompkins County during the February and April school breaks. The program is designed to provide residency-type retreats for local teachers in the following disciplines: creative writing, photography/film/video, and painting/sculpture/visual art. The program is totally free to attend. Teachers were selected through a lottery system. 


For the February break:

• Gail Brisson, librarian, Trumansburg elementary/middle school
• Cindy Daly, band director, Belle Sherman, Caroline, LACS
• Taura McMeekin, third grade teacher, Enfield Elementary
• Denise Place, math teaching assistant, South Hill Elementary
• Clarissa Plank, art teacher, Lansing High School

For the April break:

• Tiffany Jackson, teaching assistant, South Hill Elementary
• Douglas Keating, teacher, TST BOCES
• Dianne Lynn, K-5 art teacher, Enfield, Fall Creek, Cayuga Heights
• Steve Paling, teaching assistant, Dryden High School
• Elizabeth Sprout, art teacher, Dryden High School

The teachers will be provided with a five-day, four-night retreat with private accommodations, studio space, and hearty, chef-prepared vegetarian dinners. These retreats are modeled after Saltonstall's summer residency program and provide our local teachers with uninterrupted time and space in which to focus on their own creative endeavors.

Funding for our teachers' residencies is generously provided by the Fine Arts Booster Group, an affiliate of IPEI -- the Ithaca Public Education Initiative.


Lesley Williamson, director of the Saltonstall Foundation, was inspired to create the teacher retreat program by a similar one at a Florida arts colony. "This is a very mission-specific way for us to support a group of local artists and writers who don't often get the chance to be artists and writers. We are so pleased to offer this opportunity to local teachers with the help of the Fine Arts Booster Group."   


An affiliate of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), the FABG works in partnership with the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) to support and celebrate all the arts for all the kids. The Fine Arts Boosters strive for increased student access and participation in arts programs. The boosters believe the arts – music, dance and visual, literary and theater arts – are a central part of every child's public school education. Visit www.fabgithaca.org.

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