The London Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Thames Valley District School Board and London District Catholic School
Board are pleased to announce the launch of a collaborative program focused on arts-infused learning in schools.
Two years in creation, the London Artists in Residence Program (LAIR) will increase education, training and employment opportunities for professional artists, engage children and youth in the arts and promote the value of the arts to youth, school boards and the community at large.
The London Arts Council contracts local artists to work collaboratively and intensively with teachers and students, explains Catherine McInnes, Education Coordinator for the London Arts Council.This program opens up a world of possibilities and greatly impacts London's youth.
Arts experiences can be a catalyst for learning for students struggling with traditional teaching methods. Students involved in creative projects demonstrate stronger problem-solving skills, tenacity and the ability to think outside of the box. Having artist-educators in classrooms is a professional development opportunity for teachers, sharing the creative process of a professional artist, giving a teacher the possibility of developing new creative skills and sparking ideas for arts-inspired teaching in various subjects.
The focus of the program is on student and teacher exploration and practice of the creative process, as outlined in the Ontario Arts Curriculum. The artists' role is to facilitate, model, nurture and assist in creating the environment required for the creative process.
The Ontario Ministry of Education supports the Artists in Residence (Education) model. The collaborative nature of instruction between the teacher and artist is central to the effectiveness of the program. Research has shown that students' ability to use the creative process effectively and independently enhances not just their skills in the arts in terms of artistic expression and production. The creative process skills transfer to other academic subjects that require critical analysis skills.
Seeing value in LAIR as a job creation and talent retention strategy, the London Economic Development Corporation has joined the team to support the program. The addition of LEDC support for this initiative is a testament to the program and the valuable work coming from the arts sector, states Andrea Halwa, London Arts Council Executive Director. She adds, We welcome them to the team and look forward to a positive working relationship.
Part of the new culture strategy for the City of London, LAIR contributes to economic development through job creation for local professional artists. The LAIR program supports the artists and teachers connection- and develops a standard of excellence for artist-educators through a juried process, providing quality assurance for the school boards.
Funding support to develop and create this strategic program was provided through The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Sport Cultural Strategic Investment Fund and the London Community Foundation Beryl Ivey Endowment for the Arts.
BACKGROUND: LAIR is based on the Ontario Arts Council's Artists in Residence Program (Education) program. This program currently funds thirteen school boards province wide. The school boards are funded long-term. OAC identified southwestern Ontario, specifically the Windsor - Chatham - London corridor as a gap in service. Consequently, OAC had allocated new AIR(E) funding to this area.
Over the fall & winter of the 2012-13 school year, a roster of ten professional London-based artists was selected through an application and jury process with the London Arts Council. The Pilot Project Roster includes four local visual artists, two actors & musicians, two dancers and two spoken word artists/poets. Elementary teachers, who were invited to be part of the Pilot Project from four schools in TVDSB, and three schools in LDCSB, selected seven of the ten artists to work in their classrooms in April & May 2013:
- Jake Levesque: music video creation & production
- Jennifer Fagan: music theatre creation & production
- Andrew Stewart: animation
- Julie Picken Cooper: environmental visual arts
- Tricia Edgar:landscape painting
- Marilyn Lazenby: figure & character drawing
- Bizz Varty: contemporary dance
Each artist is collaboratively planning and delivering a minimum of twenty-five hours to a maximum of fifty hours of instruction with each class or group of classes at a school. Twenty-nine classes (twelve in LDCSB and seventeen in TVDSB) are involved in the Pilot Project, with an estimated impact (at an average of twenty-five students per class) of seven hundred and twenty-five students and twenty-nine teachers receiving arts-enriched programming, delivered by seven LAIR artists. The following seven schools are involved:
TVDSB: AJ Baker (Kintore), Delaware, Fairmont (London) & John Wise P.S. (St. Thomas)
LCDSB: St. Sebastian School (London), St. Michael's (Woodstock) & Monsignor Morrison (St. Thomas)
Funding is in place for a full launch in the 2013 - 14 school year which is projected to expand to the equivalent of forty- eight twenty-five hour LAIR projects.
For more information, contact:
Catherine McInnes, Education Coordinator, London Arts Council
519.661 2500 ext 5060
cmcinnes@london.ca
Nasreen Khan, Arts Education Officer, Ontario Arts Council
416-969-7428
nkhan@arts.on.ca
Helen Coker, Learning Coordinator: The Arts, K-12 TVDSB
519-452-2000, ext 20394
h.coker@tvdsb.on.ca
Chris Quinn, Coordinator: Literacy, Languages and the Arts, LDCSB
519-663-2088 ext. 42103
cquinn@office.ldcsb.on.ca
In a separate document attached is a list of LAIR sessions for Education Week, May 4, 10, 2013 that media may wish to attend. Please connect directly with the specific school contact to arrange a school visit.
