Six New Summer Teacher Institutes in the Arts -- for Teachers in New England

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) are pleased to announce six new summer teacher institutes in the arts - for teachers of all academic disciplines.

Designed for teams of teachers, teaching artists, administrators, and others, the five-day institutes will help participants develop and refine the skills necessary to teach students the artistic, cultural and historical context of outstanding works of art. The institutes will also provide training in related disciplines, such as history, geography, science, and literature, and in assessment of student learning.

During the institutes, teachers will develop curriculum units to implement after they return to their classrooms in the fall. In December, each institute will reconvene its participants for a full day to share their experiences in implementing the curriculum units, and to evaluate the success of the institute itself.

The six institutes now open for registration are:

• The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University: Summer Institute (Providence, RI)

July 11-15, 2005
Who are we? How do we represent ourselves in the world? How can we represent ourselves using art? The ArtsLiteracy Project will explore Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and ideas of self-representation in their Teacher Institute. Teachers will explore the cultural, historical, and material contexts of Song of Myself and consider different ways students can create their own self-portraits and use them to understand Whitman's classic poem. Multiple artistic mediums will be considered, including poetry, performance, visual collage, and photography. Participants in the Teacher Institute will create arts-based literacy curricula for grades 6-12. To register or for more information contact Nancy Hoffman at 401-863-7017 or .

July 25-29, 2005 (Portland, ME)
Winslow Homer's 1894 oil painting Weatherbeaten will serve as an anchor work through which participants will explore the role of "place" in works of art. Teachers will learn from experts in arts education and art historians, and meet with contemporary Maine artists for whom Maine's setting plays an important part. Teachers will learn how to use the study of local artists to enliven art and history for high school students. To register or for more information contact Stacy Rodenberger, Coordinator of School Programs at (207) 775-6148 ex. 3226 or . For an application, go to www.portlandmuseum.org.

July 25-29, 2005
This institute will study the epic poem Shahnameh, a Central Asian literary classic written by the 10th century Persian bard Ferdowsi. Teachers will better understand how to engage students in grades 1-12 in the study of an ancient text through art and poetry. For more information contact Kelly Bryer, Member Services Coordinator, AANNH, 603-726-8843 .

July 31 - August 5, 2005 (Lenox, MA)
Shakespeare & Company will assist teachers in developing dynamic approaches to teaching Macbeth through scholarly inquiry, experiential activities, and the creation of strategies and curriculum units that challenge students intellectually and emotionally. Teachers will learn how to make Shakespeare come alive for students in grades 4-12. To register or for more information, contact Mark Woollett at 413-637-1199 ext. 131 or .

The Boston Public Library, in partnership with the Massachusetts Studies Project at UMass-Boston, will present the Library as a model of how public buildings function, not just as monuments to the collective memory, but as constantly evolving works of art. Teachers will learn from the institute how to use local cultural resources to enliven the social studies curriculum for grades 3-12. To register, contact MSP at 617-287-7654 or For more information, contact Christine Baron at (978) 927-5432 or

• DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park: Kinetic Sculpture and the Art of Wind Dynamics

The museum will focus on the artistic, historical, social, and scientific significance of artist George Rickey's outdoor kinetic sculpture, Three Lines, and examine other kinetic sculptures on exhibit in the sculpture park. Educators will discover strategies to use these works as tools to underscore art and science curricula for grades 6-12. To register or for more information contact Donna Berube at 781-259-3603 or .

More information about the NEA Teacher Institutes project is available online at www.massculturalcouncil.org.

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