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Erie Arts and Culture outlines arts-in-schools work, seeks expanded partnerships with Erie City SD
Summary
Erie Arts and Culture leaders told the Erie City SD board they serve six counties with residencies, teaching-artist rosters and an Educational Passport pilot that reached 937 students; they asked to expand programming and professional development in district schools.
Susanna Faulkner, executive director of Erie Arts and Culture, and Jim Hain, the organization’s arts education manager, told the Erie City SD board on Monday that their nonprofit provides residencies and arts programming across six counties and partners closely with local schools.
"My name is Susanna Faulkner. I am executive director of Erie Arts and Culture," Faulkner said as she began the group’s presentation, describing three program areas — arts education, creative entrepreneurship and folk and traditional arts — and a roster of more than 60 teaching artists available to schools.
Hain described the group’s Educational Passport pilot, funded in part by Erie Insurance, which provided coordinated arts experiences for two community schools last year. "We ended up serving 937 students total, and 536 of those were from Piper Burley," he said, and listed classroom visits, field trips and residency work that included hand drumming, a student-led theatrical cast and museum tours.
Faulkner urged the board to expand arts programming, professional development for teachers and arts education funding. "Based off feedback from families, from youth, from teachers, we would love to advocate to have theater back in all of our middle schools," she said, and asked the district to consider dance programs at both high schools.
Board members and district staff thanked the presenters and agreed to continue conversations about scheduling, funding and how arts groups can support strategic-plan goals for culture and curriculum. The board had previously waived the public-comment time limit to allow the presentation to proceed immediately.
The presenters provided contact information and said they would coordinate with the district’s community-school and curriculum staff to expand the second-year Educational Passport and other partnerships.
