Author: Gordon Vessels

Benefits to Arts Partners
Possible grant funds in year one to develop workshops for teachers, instructional performances for students, and teaching guides that promote character growth through one or more art form (proposal required by March, 03);
Training in the Grammy Foundation’s Artful Learning® approach to academic instruction;
Training in how to address Georgia’s QCCs, national arts standards, and grade-specific character objectives in your work with students and in your instructional guides for teachers;
The freedom to use at any time and place the programming you develop as an “arts partner”;
An introduction to schools outside the 8 grant- project schools through the widespread internet dissemination of instructional products and arts- partner lists.

You are invited to “partner” in a creative arts-based character development and school reform initiative that combines the following:
Quality instruction in the arts;
Collaboration with schools to develop artistic productions and arts instruction that promotes character and academic development;
Direct instruction and experiential learning activities that foster character development;
The engaging Artful Learning® approach to academic instruction that stimulates creative thinking and sets the stage for addressing character objectives.
Together we can (a) affirm the value of the arts and arts infusion in all instruction, (b) affirm the importance of character education to students, teachers, parents, and administrators, (c) create exemplary lessons that combine academics, the arts, and character themes, and (d) go back to the future by addressing all developmental needs: social, moral, intellectual, academic, and emotional.

Dear Prospective Arts Partners (artists and arts organizations):
Our statewide Character Through The Arts proposal recently received,1.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education. This four-year project brings together school reform and character education specialists plus arts enthusiasts who share the vision of a more engaging, arts-centered, and standards-driven education that addresses all developmental needs. Project leaders include (1) Dr. Gordon G. Vessels, the Project Director and author of Character and Community Development (1998), (2) Dr. Richard Benjamin, the Evaluation and Planning Coordinator and a Project Liaison for the Grammy Foundation’s Artful Learning® school model model, and (3) Dr. Kathleen Thompson, the Arts and Education Partnership Coordinator and long-time art teacher and leader in the area of art education.
Schools and school systems were recently made aware of the project and invited to apply. Eight schools will be selected by February 10, 2003. Between this date and August of 2003 when the project begins in these schools, (1) baseline data will be collected and (2) school personnel and arts partners will be trained in (a) the Artful Learning® school reform model, and (b) an approach to character education that is eclectic and developmentally based.
Kathleen Thompson will be to work with interested artists and arts agencies to help them develop suitable arts-based character-thematic instruction for students and teachers. Some partners have already worked in the schools to build character and are familiar with the QCC academic standards. Others will need assistance, which Dr. Thompson is prepared to provide through phone conferences, email communication, conference presentations, a summer workshop, and the dissemination of documents like the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations recently published, “Authentic Connections: Interdisciplinary Work in the Arts.” In addition to the requirement to connect teacher training and instructional performances for students to academic standards, arts partners will be asked to connect their instructional offerings with the character standards found in Dr. Vessels core curriculum for character education. This curriculum includes eight standards for each of five grade clusters, and the eight standards correspond (1) to the primary virtues of kindness, courage, ability, effort, friendship, teamwork, citizenship, and (2) to psychological processes related to empathy, moral reasoning, and the formation of conscience.
A few small Development Grants will be distributed early in 2003 to artists and agencies that provide preliminary plans that appear promising. Partners seeking these funds should communicate with Dr. Thompson who will share your proposal with Dr. Vessels and personnel from project schools. Some artists and arts organizations have already worked through this development process and are ready to make exemplary instruction and instructional performances available to schools. Beginning immediately with these partners, Dr. Thompson will begin to compile a menu of offerings. This will essentially be a Catalog of Instructional Programs offered by our arts partners, and it will include CTTA-endorsed offerings. Those included in the Catalog will have (a) identified relevant QCCs, (b) adhered to relevant national standards for dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts, and (c) incorporated Dr. Vessels’ character education standards. It is expected that new artists and arts agencies will join the project throughout the four-year grant period thereby necessitating periodic updating of this Catalog. Schools will be free to encourage artists and agencies with whom they have worked to contact Dr. Thompson and to take the necessary steps to become an approved arts partner.
Once the program begins in the schools in August of 2003, schools will communicate directly with arts partners and make arrangements to contract with them during each school year. Each school will have a yearly allotment of $12,000 for this purpose. Some partners will have instructional offerings that can be carried out in all eight schools during a single year while others will need to work with a single school. Instructional programming is expected to evolve and improve over the course of the four years. Dr. Thompson will function as a liaison between schools and arts partners and assist in matching the two. She will also process and approve arts-partner contracts received from the schools and pass them on for final approval to Dr. Vessels and Mrs. Anne Short, Director of Pioneer RESA, the fiscal agent for the project.
The instructional units that our arts partners develop will not be the property of the grant project. Our partners will be free to use these units in schools other than the eight project schools, and we encourage them to do so. We want the products of this project to be available to as many educators around the state and across the country as possible. Therefore, we ask that you provide written lessons plans, teacher guides, and descriptions of activities, plus pictures, sound clips, and video clips that can be placed on websites. Descriptions of successful instruction will also be included in the CTTA newsletter. Our philosophy is that schools and projects are fluid and that the long-term impact of this project will be determined by how well it is documented. Thorough documentation will give interested schools elaborate roadmaps to follow as they attempt to reproduce and improve upon what we accomplish. Part of this documentation will come from the qualitative component of the program evaluation. The quantitative component, if it confirms the achievement of program objectives, will give schools reason to believe that following the lead of the CTTA project is in the best interest of their students and instructional program.
We are seeking the best visual artists, storytellers, dancers, musicians, and creative writers. In particular, we are seeking artists who are capable of developing quality programming that will help us achieve our project goals in terms of personal character growth and the creation of a caring communities that engage and motivate students through the arts. We are looking for people who can creatively combine character education, academic education, and the arts. Finally, we are looking for artists who want to grow and expand through the training and experience this project will provide, and artists who display a genuine sense of social responsibility.
The following is an abbreviated Timeline: January 10, 2003 is the deadline for schools to apply; January 18, 2003 is the deadline for inclusion in the preliminary Selection Notebook that will be shared with schools to ascertain interest in proposed instructional offerings; by February 10, 2003 eight schools will be selected; by March 30, 2003, final decisions will be made about program Development Grants; between March and June of 2003, pre-testing will be completed along with focus groups and planning in schools; May of 2003 will include the opening CTTA conference; during June of 2003 the 3-day trainings in the Artful Learning® model will be completed; during July of 2003, a workshop will be given by Dr. Thompson to assist arts partners with the use of standards; in August of 2003 the program will begin together with arts partner contracting.
To obtain further information about what you should include in your proposal, please contact Dr. Kathleen Thompson at 706-632-6926 or email her at tjthomps@tds.net. Send proposals to her at 85 Nacoma Lane, Blue Ridge, GA 30613, and send an extra copy to Gordon Vessels at 35 Highlands Court, Oxford, GA 30054, or by email attachment to falshgord@msn.com. We look forward to working with you and learning from you.