me arts ed

Thursday evening: Artists Showcase- Karen Montanaro

If you are familiar with the “fish philosophy” than you are aware of the 4 components: 1) play, 2) make their day  3) be there and 4) choose your attitude. And if you know Karen Montanaro you are aware that she is the epitome of that philosophy. At the Arts Content! conference “Celebration” on Thursday evening Karen ‘WOWED’ the participants with her performance drawing everyone in to enjoy themselves thoroughly!

An interview with Karen Montanaro: dancer/performer/wonderful all around person!

1. What was your most rewarding experience as a teaching artist?

Each workshop is a barrage of rewarding moments. Before every class, I feel like a race horse, chomping at the bit to get started. I really can’t wait to dive into the thrills and challenges of mime and dance. I bypass words and explanations and go right into the actual experience of moving, knowing that the kids will learn so much from the experience itself. It is rewarding for me to watch them struggle and accomplish the intricate movements of dance and the magical movements of the mime illusions. Teachers often express their delight and pride at the attempts and gains of their students. So often the teachers have shared how this workshop has given them a new perspective on a child in their class. I look forward to watching the children’s expressions when I tell them that the skills they use in mime and dance may be applied to math or science or basketball or anything requiring focus, timing, precision and follow-through. There have been countless rewarding experiences as a teaching artist, and I look forward to more.

2. How did you find yourself in this profession?

Participants join in the fun

I am motivated by a deep desire to inspire young people to do their best at all times. I do this using the vehicles of mime and dance because these movement-disciplines have taught me so much about myself and my connection to other people and the world around me. Mime and dance are natural ways for me to communicate with students. They are also natural ways for me to share the joy of self-discovery, self-mastery, and self-expression.

3. What are some of the primary goals in your res idencies?

To use mime, dance and movement in engaging ways to : –Get young people energized and excited about doing their best and learning new things, –Give young people a sense of accomplishment and effervescent joy, –Sharpen the students’ focus, –Access the students’ energy, –Provide a creative outlet for the students’ –And activate their imaginations all at the same time!

4. Who are you available for (schools, camps, private engagements, etc) and when are you available?

I am happy to consider all venues with the appropriate physical requirements. Please feel free to contact me by clicking here to discuss any teaching/performing possibility. I am available year-round.

5. What do you hope to achieve as an artist?

As a performing artist, I strive to keep learning, exploring, creating and trying new things. I strive to expand my solo-repertoire as well as my collaborations with other performing and visual artists. As a teaching artist, I strive to be the very best teacher I can be. One day, I hope to design a movement curriculum that will be part of every child’s school experience, from kindergarten through high-school and beyond. I intend to direct a performing troupe of school children and teenagers who create their own stage material and tour the world inspiring other children and teenagers to explore their creativity too.

Thursday evening: Artists Showcase- Michael Trautman

Michael amazed the participants on Thursday evening with his ping pong ball performance. “Where did all those come from?” and “how did he do that?” were questions I heard over and over. I can imagine him with students, I bet he is AWESOME! In Michael’s own words here is his story:

At the urging of a college friend, I took my first mime class in 1976 at a dance studio in a Kansas City suburb. I was immediately hooked. My first teacher was Steve Harris. Steve had trained with Claude Kipnis and had been in Claude’s company at the University of Illinois. Steve invited me to be one of the founding members of Mimewock, a Kansas City based mime company. Through my association with the company, I received training in mime, dance, t’ai chi, improvisation, juggling, magic, and mask work. The company became a clearing house for mimes in the midwest. It was also a stopover for many of the great movement artists of the time. I met and participated in workshops with Claude Kipnis, Bari Rolfe, Ken Feit, and many others who passed through our doors.

After starting my career by performing on the streets, at shopping malls, and birthday parties, I soon had enough of a show to start doing school assembly programs. In 1979, I went on the road for my first solo tour, doing fifteen weeks in Georgia and Kentucky, averaging thirteen shows each week, never in a town larger than about 10,000 people. Two weeks of wearing whiteface make-up and trying to find my way around rural Georgia, combined with the fact that I was interested in many other aspects of performance besides the silent, illusionary pantomime I was concentrating on, made me decide to stop wearing the whiteface, and include in my show every type of skill that I possessed – juggling, magic, improvisation, and storytelling – while learning from the school audiences themselves what actually worked.

Since then, I have had the good fortune to make a living as a performing artist by touring around the world. I have given over 3500 school assembly performances in addition to doing shows in theaters, universities, festivals, fairs, television, circuses, and cruise ships.

When I first began performing in the schools, the mandate was fairly simple: bring artists into the schools, introducing and exposing students to the power and beauty of art, inspiring them to think creatively, become artists, or at the very least, to become future audiences and supporters of the arts. Over time, this mandate has changed. Now, artists are required to serve the curriculum of the schools, developing works and workshops that teach various lessons related to a wide range of school subjects. I am not convinced that I, as a mime/clown/magician/juggler/storyteller, am a qualified expert on teaching students about science, math, english, or other mainstream school subjects. What I am qualified to teach is movement and the creative process. Over my career, I have studied with two of the leading mime and improvisation master teachers in the world. From 1983 until his death in 2002, I trained with Tony Montanaro in a number of workshops and considered him to be my mentor and the main influence on my work. In 1987-88, I studied with Jacques Lecoq at his school in Paris, France. M. Lecoq has a long and powerful influence in the world of mime, counting among his students Avner the Eccentric and Mummenschanz.

From these two powerful influences, and from my study of the French movement theorist Francois Delsarte, I have developed my current school performance and workshop, BODYTALK. In these programs, I give students and teachers clear, usable tools for understanding and using body language. Our bodies speak. Every facial expression, every gesture, every little movement is a statement. BODYTALK teaches you how to understand what you and other people are saying without words. Besides the obvious application of this information to the performing arts, the benefits of exploration into this not-so-secret language include: Improved communication skills; Physical fitness; Improved gross- and fine-motor skills; Improving personal and social interactions; Self-confidence; Public speaking improvement; Improved empathy/awareness of others’ feelings and thoughts.

Something else that I have to offer to audiences that I feel is every bit as important as the educational and informative aspects of my work is laughter and fun. When ideas are presented in a way that engages and entertains, the information presented will be retained far longer. The laughter that my audiences experience is by far the greatest gift that I can give to them, or that they can in turn give to me.

Additional information, including a study guide, about BODYTALK is available online by clicking here or contact Michael directly at info@michaeltrautman.com .

Some weeks are just wild and crazy (and all good!)

Blueberry field

I had one of those weeks that took me on the road for several days. I started in Machias at the Harvest of Ideas workshop day (you may have seen an earlier blog). I stayed over to attend the Washington County superintendents meeting, wearing my ‘Regional Representative hat’. It is always interesting to hear the activities of superintendents. They had invited their legislative representatives to meet with them on this particular morning.

I headed west towards Old Town and drove slowly through the blueberry fields. The plants were a brilliant red and the sky was filled with glorious clouds. I stopped a couple of times to take some pictures, my eyes could not take in enough of the beauty, and the wind was blowing so much that my hair was a mess after each stop.

DEEP meeting

The next morning I headed southeast to Castine for the Downeast Educational Partnership (DEEP, curriculum leaders of Hancock region) meeting. It was being held at the Wilson Museum and what a fascinating place it is. I highly recommend a visit to the museum and check out the programs they have for students. I’ve been to Castine many times and was surprised that it is only 20 minutes from Bucksport.

I left there in the early afternoon and headed to Old Town to meet with the Leonard Middle School staff to plan the collaborative keynote we are giving at the MAMLE (Maine Association for Middle Level Education) at Sugarloaf. I was wearing my ‘middle level hat’ and will post about that next week.

I attended the Art in the Heart meeting at the University of Maine. A great faculty exhibit is happening at Lord Hall. Afterwards I met with a few colleagues.

The next morning I headed south to the ACTEM (Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine) conference in Augusta at the Civic Center. It was great to see many arts educators there. I enjoyed the keynote given by Marco Torres, educator, producer and media artist.

Yes, it was an especially busy week… all good!

“Little Buzzy and the Giant Pumpkin” by Arthur Mayers and Illustrated by Tom Block

Veteran art teacher, Tom Block from Wiscasset High School has just published a children’s book called “Little Buzzy and the Giant Pumpkin”. He kindly donated a copy for the conference raffle. Below you can read a review of the book.

“Little Buzzy and the Giant Pumpkin” is a children’s’ story written by retired news reporter Arthur Mayers and illustrated by Wiscasset H.S. art teacher Thomas Block. The story is based on real life character Buzzy Pinkham and how as a little boy he dreamed up the Damariscotta Pumpkin Fest.
The books are available at Maine Coast Bookstore in Damaiscotta for $15.00 or you can order direct from the Illustrator by e-mailing tblock@svrsu.org. Tom is available to visit schools for readings and share about illustrating a book.

It is a wonderful little story about a season that so many children love! The illustrations are delightful.

Information Shared by Bangor High School Visual Arts Educator Kal Elmore

The Wallace Foundation has a report available called “The Quality of Qualities: Understanding Arts in Education” that you can access the 136 page report by clicking here. Here is the summary:

For many children in the United States, arts education, if offered at all, is uninspired and infrequent. What do arts educators and others think are the key attributes of “quality” in arts learning in K-12? Researchers at Harvard’s Project Zero explore this question through interviews, case studies and a literature review. Excellent arts education, they conclude, is “not simply a matter of adopting a research-proven set of ‘best practices.’” Rather, it requires educators and others to reflect deeply about a range of issues, including the many possible purposes of arts education, from helping students develop aesthetic awareness to helping them grow as individuals. The report includes a set of tools that can assist in making decisions about achieving and sustaining quality arts education.

BOOK- “Doing WELL and Doing GOOD by Doing ART” by James Catterall

This book sounds very interesting, here is a short review on the book. I found it on Amazon for $19.00.

This is a 12-year national study of education in the visual and performing arts on more than 12,000 students and shows powerful correlations between later-life results and participation in what he terms “arts-rich” school environments over the 12 years.  And the effects of the arts are found to be the same for low SES students.  His findings are summarized under three main observations: Involvement in the arts and academic success; Music and mathematics achievement; and Theatre arts and human development.

Remember that there is a page on the meartsed blog that has other research information.

Workshop: Making Clay Drums – by Charles Hamm

Kath Hartley

The Udu drum workshop was terrific in many ways. First of all, I feel it’s always good practice to be in the shoes of the student. I liked Kath’s approach to slab work and can see that it is a great improvement to the way I’ve been doing clay for years. Clean, easy and doable without sinks.

She conveyed the enthusiasm that is so contagious in the arts. The group of “students” were eager to get going and succeeded in actually making a drum in a very short period of time. We enjoyed catching up with some friends and making new ones as we followed instructions listened to the sounds of udu drumming.

As a big fan of everything African, I found the workshop relaxing and fun and it fed the desire to get into the studio frame of mind. The energy of having others creating, talking, laughing and creating
was just what I needed as we head into the long winter months. As Arts teachers, we never seem to see enough of studio time or networking with other artists. I look forward to next year’s workshop.

December Event for Music Educators

Half day seminar to introduce you to Apple’s two music applications, Garageband and Logic Studio. These are complimentary tools that can be used to teach music to students of all ages and abilities. You will learn the strengths of both programs and where they fit best for the music classes you teach.

Jim Frankel from SoundTree will facilitate the Garageband segment from both a trained and untrained musical perspective. Participants will see the multiple facets of the application such as Magic GarageBand, GarageBand lessons and tutorials, multi-track recording with real and virtual instruments, effects, loops and Jam Packs. Jim will relate his years of experience in the classroom, showing just how effective and engaging Garageband can be including a variety of examples to use in the classroom.

Joining us to talk about Logic Studio is Jonathan Perl, from the Sonic Arts Center at the City College of New York. In addition to Jonathan’s college teaching, he is also an Apple Certified Trainer with Mac Audio Trainers. As you will see, for advanced high school and college-level musicians, Logic Studio opens up a variety of tools and refinements not available with Garageband. Logic Studio helps streamline the technical side of things, so you can compose, record, edit, and mix quickly at a professional level. Logic allows you to tap into a huge collection of software instruments, sounds, loops & effects, perform complex edits and subtle adjustments in a short amount of time, mix down projects of any scale with full automation and surround capabilities, generate scores or lead sheets, create new sounds and effects, and more. Jonathan will relate his years of teaching experience with practical examples of how this tool engages students and teachers alike, as musicians and audio designers.

Details: To REGISTER please click here.

Schedule: December 8, 2009, 8:30-1:00,

Frank Jones Center, 400 Route 1 Bypass Portsmouth, NH

8:30 – 9:00 am – Registration
9:00 – 1:00 pm – Presentation and Demonstrations

Who Should Attend?
Music Teachers K-20

Workshop: Exhibit and Critique: Visual Arts and Web 2.0 – by Chris Milliken and Audrey Grumbling

Sarah Sutter

Exhibition is so natural on the internet!  The benefits are tremendous from celebrating our students’ achievements in the visual arts to promoting our programs, there is no other tool quite as revolutionary as a visual blog, voice thread or wiki. Sarah Sutter, a high school art teacher and technology integrator at Wiscasset High School brought these tools to life for 25 participants in her energy and information packed workshop. Sarah’s natural love of technology and a ‘can do’ attitude were a positive force spreading almost virally to everyone in her presentation titled, “Exhibit and Critique: Visual Arts and Web 2.0″.  Sarah infused practical advice and visual examples into each and every aspect of this learning experience.

I signed up for the workshop because I have wanted to establish an online gallery for my middle school students, their families and all lovers of kid art anywhere on the web.  Challenges have gotten in the way such as publishing names of minors on the internet, the daunting task of organizing and shooting all the images and the time to choose the platform on which to establish such a gallery. Sarah cut through the red tape of internet safety within the first 5 minutes of her presentation. She had everyone convinced that personal blogs as portfolios are the best way to archive students’ work!  So much for the hurdles of safety.  She clearly demonstrated ways to limit and control access to blogs that even the most novice technocrat could manage.

Sarah’s gallery posting suggestions ranged from a simple download to flicker to a snazzy voice thread of students talking about their work that is embedded in a blog or wiki. All of this becomes interactive with people being able to record voice comments and identify elements within the image using pointing and writing tools. The gallery is now a critique platform!  Technology allows quiet kids a chance to reflect publicly in a private setting.  The voice thread teaches critical thinking, thoughtful criticism and internet etiquette.

Who knew? By the end of the workshop I emerged confident and successful in establishing a wiki, which became my preferred platform at the middle school level. The wiki, it turns out, allows me a lot of access control and I liked the organization and some of the graphics options, though there are more beautiful ways to organize information in other platforms.

Having Sarah demonstrate technology from the perspective of an art teacher as well as a technology integrator helped bridge the gap between basic technology instruction and the application in the art room or music studio. Thanks again to Sarah for capping off a fantastic conference experience with a memorable, applicable and engaging workshop! ~CM

Sarah Sutter’s workshop “Exhibit and Critique:  Visual Arts and Web 2.0” was a dynamic, in-depth tour of web-based tools available to allow teachers and students to post work and discuss their work through technology: blogs, Voicethread, Flickr, wordle, animoto, classblogmeister, googledocs, and digital drop boxes were all demonstrated by this energetic presenter, who is both a high school (and college) art educator as well as a technology integrator — the best of both worlds.

She nudged even the most reluctant elementary through high school arts teachers toward useful ways to help students exhibit and reflect on their own and their peers’ work.  By the end of the session, everyone was on line, exploring and/or developing useful tools for their own class situations.  Sarah Sutter is an energetic and remarkable resource, thank you so much for enlisting her for this conference! ~AG
During lunchtime Sarah shared Animation-ish, a program created by FableVision. Peter and Bill Reynolds are the creative thinkers behind this program. You might know Peter’s name from the wonderful children’s book “the dot”. I recommend you check out their site and what they have to offer by clicking here.

Workshop: Rockin’ Your Classroom – by Julie Sanborn

Jennifer Holmes

I attended the Rockin’ Your Classroom with Jenn at the Arts conference on October 9.  Wow!!  What an exciting time!!  This workshop has helped me get new insight on how I can add technology into my choral class.

I left this workshop ready to go, excited to try new things, and  help me challenge my kids in another ways and tools  to help me assess their growth.  We have these great tools in our hands, computers, but have not had enough training to know how to use them.  This workshop was a valuable asset to help me with garage band, so that I can differentiate my classes and help students be successful.  After the workshop was finished, we wanted more!!

Workshop – Art Smart: Share Your Favorite Ideas! by Linda Phillips

Lisa Gilman photo by Shalimar Poulin

Nestled on a wooded hillside overlooking the beautiful coast of Maine, Point Lookout in Northport is an amazing destination no matter what the event. Add an enthusiastic group of artists, arts educators, and advocates and it becomes an event to celebrate and remember!  The 2009 Arts Connect  conference provided a splendid opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and friends and to meet new ones.  Also, it provided a venue in which to share new ideas, strategies, and lessons to bring back to the arts classrooms.

One of the afternoon sessions that I attended was presented by Winthrop Middle School art teacher, Lisa Gilman, entitled, “Art Smart:  Share Your Favorite Ideas”.  In reading the list of sessions prior to the conference, I was attracted to this particular session because it can be difficult to find the time during the hectic school year to connect with other arts teachers to compare notes about what goes on in our classrooms.  I felt that this session would be well worth attending, and I was right!

Lisa Gilman did a fine job of facilitating the session, and it was a pleasure meeting her and all of the other attendees.  She also shared a great sculpture lesson about public art in which her students study and plan their own work of public art for a park in their town.  They sculpt a maquette of their sculpture out of a styrofoam block and apply paints.  A photo is taken of their sculpture and it is digitally “installed” in its public setting!  The photos of the sculptures are displayed along with the models.

Two other visual arts teachers shared some of their favorite lessons.  Karen Wolfe shared a bunch of helpful tips and creative ideas for working with paper mache in the classroom, and Lynne Nickerson provided us with some great handouts for use in improving students’ drawing skills.  Both educators also shared some beautiful samples of student work which made evident their success in the art classroom!

The only suggestion that I would make for next year’s conference is that “Art Smart:  Share Your Favorite Ideas” is offered again – perhaps by grade level.  Being a new high school art teacher this year after teaching middle school art for nine years, I would like to connect with other high school art teachers and learn about their programs.  This type of session would be a great opportunity to do so!  Thanks to everyone who presented, not only in this session, but in all the sessions throughout the Arts Connect conference as well as all of those who worked so hard to organize the event.  What a great day!  I look forward to the next one (and maybe I’ll even stay in one of those cozy little cabins!)