The Kentucky Art Council is now accepting applications for their Teaching Art Together Grant. The money will allow Kentucky public and private school teachers to create artist residencies for their students. Officials said the program’s purpose is to involve students and teachers in the creative process and provide teachers with the tools to integrate the arts into their classrooms.
Cynthia Warner, Arts Education Director of the Kentucky Arts Council, said music and art can be applied to many subjects.
“So, the idea of teaching dance or music with math, for instance, that goes hand in hand. You have to do so much math for rhythm, and it requires all that. So, it would be mainly you would teach the concepts, but you would pull in an art form where students were actually participating in art,” said Warner.
Warner said educators may choose a one-week artist residency up to a four-week artist residency. She said the artists available through the art council’s directory have an array of talents.
“There's a wide variety of disciplines there. For the purpose of this program is to expose students to maybe a new art form that they hadn’t even realized. I mean, we even have a blacksmith on our roster. You know, it’s really cool to have those kinds of artisans that are willing to go to schools and work with students,” said Warner.
Officials said the program isn’t just for teachers. Any representative of a nonprofit or public organization in Kentucky with full-time staff providing education to minors, such as juvenile detention centers or residential group homes, may also register for an artist residency. Artists must be selected from the art council’s Teaching Artists Directory and the deadline for submission of the application and supporting materials is May 17.