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Arts Commission News

2010 Whole Schools Summer Institute

"Bringing Heritage Home"

DATE:         June 23 , 2010  

CONTACT:    Susan Dobbs, Public Relations Director

601/359-6031, sdobbs@arts.state.ms.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

JACKSON—The 2010 Summer Institute of the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Whole Schools Initiative will offer educators new and innovative ideas for classroom arts integration.  This year’s Institute will be held at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian July 18 – 22, 2010, and will focus on “Bringing Heritage Home.”   Sometime the view from our own front porch is full of surprises!  The Commission hopes that participants will rediscover the abundant artistic riches in their own backyard.

Approximately 200 teachers, artists and administrators from more than 40 schools will gather in Meridian to study everything from book making to Native American and African American traditional music forms.  The Institute’s highly professional training will give educators the inspiration, knowledge and art skills to lead their students toward the goal of reaching their full academic potential.

“The Mississippi Arts Commission is proud to provide this outstanding professional development opportunity to teachers and administrators interested in providing arts-infused instruction to their students,” said Malcolm White, Executive Director of MAC.  “This agency is committed to show the value of teaching the arts across the curriculum and what a difference it can mean to children today and in the future.”

Classes will begin after lunch on Sunday, July 18th, with a series of special workshops and arts experiences, followed by a keynote address that evening by Mississippi’s own Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Natasha Trethewey.   The Honorable William Winter, former Governor of Mississippi, will present a special keynote address on Tuesday, July 20th at 11:30am. 

The Institute provides educators with a unique opportunity to learn how to teach math through dance, critical thinking and problem solving through visual art, and how hands-on, sensory lessons in the garden and kitchen can be translated into core subject lessons.

Since 1992, the Mississippi Arts Commission has provided grant funds, technical assistance and professional development opportunities to Mississippi schools. It is the goal of the Commission to assist schools in the development and implementation of arts-based, interdisciplinary curriculum. The Summer Institute was created twelve years ago to offer comprehensive professional development opportunities educators need to deliver effective arts-infused instruction. In addition to the Institute training, participating Whole Schools receive up to $8,000 a year in grant support, several retreat opportunities during the school year, plus a Field Advisor to offer assistance, support, advice and training.  

The Whole Schools Initiative is open to pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and strives to engage everyone from principals to parents to work toward integrating the arts into existing school curricula in order to further prove the powerful role the arts play in engaged learning. 

Visit the WSI website at www.mswholeschools.org to learn more about Whole Schools and the annual Institute.  For more information about the Mississippi Arts Commission, visit http://www.arts.state.ms.us/.  The Institute is sponsored in part by The Riley Foundation.

The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Phil Hardin Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and other private sources. MAC is the official grants-making and service agency for the arts in Mississippi.  The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.

 

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