Gertsacov Arts In Academics Program

ABOUT THE ARTS IN ACADEMICS PROGRAM

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:20:00 +0000

"I believe that art is not autonomous or self contained. When the arts are woven into the learning experience, they not only provide skill acquirement and application, but enhance education by providing activities that promote curiosity, discovery, inquiry, experimentation, persistence, inventiveness, exploration, critical thought, and creative problem solving."
Karel Gertsacov, Funder

The purpose of the program is to promote the concept that the arts are integral to the learning process. To that end, Karel Gertsacov, a retired art school teacher from the Cranston School System, established a fund at the RI Foundation that will give out grants for projects that exemplify this concept.

Currently grants are administered once a year with an application deadline of November 1. You may download an application at the address listed below. This year's application is not yet available.

Successful grant projects mix academic programs with art learning and creation in new and interesting ways. Projects should be process oriented, creative, make the best use of limited resources, and ideally result in student creation of new work.

The typical successful grant request is in the $500-$1000 range.

Any 501c3 non-profit or school is eligible to apply for the grant, however any project funded must benefit Rhode Island public school children. Especially welcome are collaborative applications from artists who work in and with schools or non-profit organizations. Due to foundation regulations, all funds must be paid to a school or 501c3 organization.

The grant process and all funds are administered by the Rhode Island Foundation. If you would like to apply, please contact Daniel Kertzner at the Foundation for an application or additional information.

Rhode Island Foundation. 401-274-4564.
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM (PDF)
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ABOUT THE DONOR

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Karel Greenblatt Gertsacov was a retired art educator with over 30 years of experience in the Cranston school system. Mrs. Gertsacov was a pioneer in creative art education, and taught process oriented creativity and visual problem-solving in addition to teaching artistic concepts, history, and technique. A number of her exercises and activities are still used in the Cranston school system.

Mrs. Gertsacov (or Mrs. G, as her students called her) passed away in December 2007- but her legacy of arts, creativity, and education will live on through this program.

Arts in Academics Grants 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:13:00 +0000

Projects selected for Arts in Academics funding for 2007 are:

Agnes B. Hennessey Elementary School, East Providence, $525, for the "Detective Night" project for second, third, and fourth graders and their parents. The evening will include several different activity stations, such as "Scientific Drawing," where students will draw pictures of insects while learning about insect body parts, size, and proportion and "Who Done It? Math Haiku," where students will solve riddles based on math term clues in the poem.

Block Island School, $400, for the school's production of "Green Eggs and Hamlet." The play, about issues of self-esteem and social interaction, will be written in part and performed by the K-6 students, helping them develop the skills of self-expression and coherent thought for writing successfully.

Broad Rock Middle School, Wakefield, $575, for the Special Event Family Platter history project. As part of a social studies unit on immigration, eighth grade students and their families will be invited to create a keepsake ceramic platter that incorporates their own family history. The platters will be decorated with images and symbols that relate to each family's history and nationality and can be used at family celebrations and holidays.

International Charter School, Pawtucket, $500, to support the "Book of the Dead: Making Ancient Egypt Come Alive" project. Fourth grade students studying Ancient Egypt in social studies classes will be able to create a "Book of the Dead," using pictures, symbols, and hieroglyphics to tell their own life story.

Martin Middle School, East Providence, $500, for the musical Mathecal (Math Through the Ages and Disciplines). Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders will assist with the playwriting process, the creation of costumes and set, and will perform in the musical, while integrating information acquired in all core subjects with an emphasis on math concepts.

Arts In Academic Grants 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:35:00 +0000

Projects selected for Arts in Academics funding for 2006 are:

North Smithfield High School, $850, for the “Obras Vivientes” (“Living Works”) project which will allow students in the Honors Spanish IV and Honors French IV classes to research the works of Spanish, Hispanic and French painters and then “bring them to life” by creating a background that includes elements of the original work, illustrating the work through music, movement, and dance, and providing a bilingual narration of their projects.

Agnes E. Little Elementary School, Pawtucket, $675, to support the “Shades of Aboriginal Music” project and specifically to enable third grade students to construct rain sticks and boom pipes. These musical instruments, constructed from such materials as PVC, wood, mailing tubes, and beads, will teach the students math skills and concepts of sound, such as wavelength and frequency, that are part of the science curriculum.

Burrillville High School, $675 to support the school garden project of the landscape design class and specifically for decorative clay tiles or mosaics. For the project, English classes at the school will research poetry that reflects on nature. Landscape design students then will incorporate the poems into decorative design elements on tiles and create tile walkways and/or line walls within the garden.

Arts In Academics Fund Grants 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:48:00 +0000

Inaugural Arts in Academics Projects

Scituate High School, $1,000, toward the establishment of the Scituate Middle/High School Nature Lab, a permanent collection of preserved biological and geological specimens that will be studied by science and art students. Through the project, students in the advanced senior-level biology class will travel with sixth grade art students to collect seaweed samples which later will be preserved with assistance from a local artist/scientist and a naturalist.

William R. Dutemple Elementary School, Cranston, $750, toward the design, construction, and installation of a labyrinth of grass and concrete paving stones in the school’s front lawn. While fifth grade students, with the help of a landscape architect, will create the labyrinth, each student in the K-5 school will paint a stone. The project will require students to use mathematics while also integrating social studies through the study of labyrinths in past cultures.

North Smithfield Junior/Senior High School, $250, for a trip to the Rhode Island School of Design for students in the French III and IV classes and for the construction of a timeline mural of French history by students in the French IV class. In the proposal, French teacher Linda Milner captures the essence of the Arts in Academics goal: “By integrating art projects with what the students are learning, I have found they are able to develop an emotional attachment to what they are studying. As a result, they care more about what it is they are learning, they become more engaged in the learning process, and they learn more.”