Spring 2009
Keith Kaminski, Program Director of Community-Word Project (CWP), provides comprehensive administrative support for all of CWP’s programs, including residencies and TATIP. Keith helps oversee CWP’s professional development programming, both internally for teaching artist staff, and externally for other organizations and after-school sites. Keith also coordinates and provides ongoing support for residency programs to help ensure that residency goals are being met, programs are integrating into the classroom curricula in meaningful ways, and to nurture development of partnerships within CWP’s partner schools. He received his BFA in Art Education from Syracuse University with a studio concentration in Printmaking. He has worked as head of Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s education department in addition to serving as a New York City public school arts specialist teacher in Queens. Keith designs and screenprints t-shirts and other apparel under the Faux Sure label and is half of Hyptone recording artists/ DJ duo Ladycreme.Winter 2008-2009
Anne Rhodes, a writer, arts in education trainer and consultant, has been working in arts in education for twenty-six years. Starting out as a Teaching Artist in theater, she became a trainer of TA’s and Teachers in two Aesthetic Education programs. Ms. Rhodes now works with school administrators, teachers, museums, arts organizations, and artists to find innovative ways to connect with works of visual art, dance, theater, literature, and music. She is interested in helping to identify and promote best practices for all of us engaged in arts in education. She also does anti-bias, diversity, and communication work.
August - September 2008
Brian Goldblatt has spent the past 12 years as an actor and teaching artist. He is presently living in Binghamton, NY working on his Master’s Degree in Theater at Binghamton University. He has just accepted a scholarship from the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts in Beijing, China to study Peking Opera style beginning in January of 2009. Brian’s life passion is using Theater activities to facilitate students to nurture their own passion and dreams that in many instances has never been acknowledged before. He has taught at grade levels from pre-K to college. He has enjoyed learning how to be an adult amongst kids and a kid amongst adults. Brian enjoys stilt-walking and looks forward to the day he will stilt-walk across the United States.
Mike Halverson has a BA and MA Ed from the College of William and Mary; three years of doctoral study in Comparative Education at Humboldt University, Berlin. Mike worked in media arts (CBS News; Richmond Times- Dispatch; Virginia Shakespeare Festival; Budapest Film School) and education (secondary English Teacher; ESOL in Virginia, Haiti, Hungary and Germany) before joining the staff of Stage of Learning in 2001. He served as that company’s first Director of Programs until 2007. A filmmaker, writer and performing musician, Mike has provided sound design for the Budapest Academy of Drama and Film, Living Room Productions in Berlin, and Stages of Learning. He is currently the Executive Associate for The Center for Arts Education in New York City.
Pene McCourty is an interdisciplinary performing artist, educator and art maker who uses movement as her base. She has worked with several locally and nationally known dance performance companies and community arts organizations. As a performer and teacher she was a member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Marlies Yearby’s Movin’ Spirits Dance Theater and Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group. As an educator, Pene has created, taught and facilitated movement, dance and theater workshops in numerous schools, senior centers and universities within the New York City area and beyond for the past 12 years. She is a trainer for the National Center for Creative Aging and was the Performance Director of Elders Share the Arts creating/directing Continuum Dance Collective-a cross-generational performance and teaching collaborative. As an art maker, her work has been presented at St. Mark’s Church, Joyce Soho, Chicago’s Links Hall, Towson University and San Francisco State University. She has also worked collaboratively with percussionist Leon Parker, writer Suhier Hammad and composer Tigger Benford. Pene is currently the Education Director of BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange. June - July 2008
Elizabeth Hallmark is an educator, choreographer and performer. For the last 20 years she has worked as a teaching artist in schools, combining free-lance arts education consulting as well as work with Aesthetic Education Institute and Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts. From 2000-2005 she directed her dance company, Hallmark Danceworks, and coordinated Fieldwork/Rochester - interdisciplinary workshops for adult artists. Liz has received numerous grants from NYSCA, The Field, and Rochester Area Community Foundation for her work in performing arts and arts-in-education. She holds a B.A. in English from Mount Holyoke, an M.A. in Dance/Movement Therapy from Antioch/New England, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Education at University of Rochester’s Warner School. Alongside her academic work, she teaches arts theory and practice to pre-service teachers at University of Rochester, freshman writing courses in the English Department, and yoga classes out of her home studio.
Michele Kotler is the founding director of the Community~Word Project, an arts in education organization based in New York City whose mission is to inspire New York City youth in underserved communities to read, interpret and respond to their world, and to become active citizens through collaborative arts residencies and teacher training programs. She received her MFA in creative writing, poetry from the University of Michigan. She serves on The After-School Corporation’s Advisory Committee and is a board member of the Association of Teaching Artists and The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable. She performs her poetry in New York City and her poetry has appeared in Washington Square and Painted Bride Quarterly.
Alan Núñez studied for his B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy at Rowan University in New Jersey. After several years of being a manager for Borders Books, he pursued a career in arts education, including five years as Manager of Schools and Community Services at New York City Opera. Working as an administrator, evaluator and teaching artist, Alan has collaborated with various Lincoln Center institutions, including City Opera, Juilliard and the New York Philharmonic. He most recent position was as the Director of Residencies for Arts Horizons, and in June became the Associate Director of the Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Center. When not in schools, Alan divides his time between his music (including taiko drumming) and being a certified barbecue judge and competitor with his team, Garden State Porkway.
Mid-April - May 2008
Haifa Bint-Kadi , Mosaic Artist and Teaching Artist
Haifa’s original studies were obtained from Instituto d’Arte per il Mosaico di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy, but she considers her real training to have come from Terni, Italy. She is a roster artist in the Westchester County arts Councl and also work as a teaching artist with Citylore in Manhattan. Her most recent public art commission is a 11 ft x 8 ft mosaic mural fabrication of the Hudson River and Henry Hudson’s Half-Moon for the Peekskill Riverfront Green, designed by Brook Mahr. She is also coordinating a public art project of a Jewish Muslim Mosaic. Jewish and Muslim participants have agreed to work collaboratively on a mosaic in order to further dialogue, mutual respect for each other’s faiths and peace. A recent exhibit, before + after: imagining public art in westchester, featured a proposal for pique assiette on the cement trash cans of White Plains, NY.
More information at: http://www.artandsoul-studio.com/
Jack Langerak, in addition to being the Director of the Rochester Wolf Trap Program at Nazareth College, is an arts-in-education consultant providing leadership to a broad range of AIE particulars including: arts partnerships residency projects, strategic planning at all levels, professional development, assessment and evaluation, grant-writing, networking, and other areas of this growing field. A retired English and Theatre teacher, he was the primary force behind Penfield High School’s award-winning drama program for twenty-eight years. For the last five of those years he also served as the Arts-In-Education Coordinator for the Penfield School District. A past President of the Board of Young Audiences of Rochester, Jack, upon his retirement from teaching, served that organization as its Associate Director for four years. He is the recipient of the Excellence in the Teaching of Drama Award given by the NYS English Council, the Citibank Teacher of the Year Award, the Smithsonian Exhibition Award for Education, and is a member of the NYS Academy for Teaching and Learning. He was selected by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as one of thirty-one of the most “Outstanding Arts Educators” in the country and has been frequently listed in Who’s Who Among American Teachers. Jack is President of the Board of Partners for Arts Education, on the board of the NYS Alliance for Arts Education, a past member of the AIE Panel of the NYS Council on the Arts and a co-chair of the WNY Regional Leadership Initiative for the Empire State Partnerships Project.
John Stickles is Principal at both the Martin Van Buren Elementary School and its sister school the Martin H. Glynn Elementary School in the Ichabod Crane Central School District. The Ichabod Crane Elementary Schools have been collaborating with the Capital Region Center for Arts in Education are in their dissemination year of their Empire State Partnership Grant.
More information on the Ichabod Crane Central School District at: http://www.berk.com/ichabod/index.html
Mid-March - Mid-April 2008
DreamYard Arts Leadership Team at PS/MS 95
Nancy Kleaver - DreamYard Program Director // Maile Ogasawara - DreamYard School Partnerships Coordinator // Lori Brown-Niang - DreamYard Teaching Artist (Theater) and Site Coordinator at PS/MS 95 // Asma Feyijinmi - DreamYard Teaching Artist (Dance) // Monica Judge - 8th Grade Literacy Teacher and DreamYard teaching partner (Dance with Asma) // Pamela Gordon - 8th Grade Literacy Teacher and DreamYard teaching partner (Theater with Lori) // Anthony Naccari - 5th Grade Teacher and DreamYard teaching partner (Theater with Lori) // Beth Klewan - Teacher.
Learn more about DreamYard: http://www.dreamyard.com/
February 2008
Lori Diamond, 6th Grade teacher, PS 144Q, in partnership with Queens Museum
A classroom teacher since 1994, I have always used art to teach in and out of the classroom. I have been a member of the ESP community for six years. I have used Summer Seminar as professional development as well as for personal development.
Rachel Lyons, Visual Art Teacher, PS 192 Buffalo
Rachel has been involved with ESP for 5 years, and is very excited about the school’s new partnership this year with Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. She has been to 4 Summer Seminars, and looks forward to seeing everyone in July!
January 2008
Hawley Hussey, Education Director, BRIC Rotunda Gallery
Hawley is a visual artist, writer, performer and very importantly, a committed winter bather (she currently has membership with the legendary Coney Island Polar Bear Club and the newly formed, highly respected Stillwell Avenue Royal Order of Penguin). Hawley has exhibited, published and performed her work from Coast to Coast. In rail yards, laundromats, bookstores, boardwalks and from the back of a flatbed truck in some very important Southern California parking lots. Her work is collected internationally and most recently her wood-cut book THE DEVIL AND ME was acquired by the Smithsonian. She loves her job and feels blessed to have a position that teaches her and inspires her on a daily basis.
David A. Miller is Director of Education at Roundabout Theatre Company in New York, NY. David is also a director and sometimes playwright (including the upcoming A Lesson in Art & The Oral Tradition). He received his MFA in Directing at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is a Drama League Director alumni. David is also a board member of TYA/USA (formerly ASSITEJ-USA), an international organization for theater for young audiences, former Artistic Director of CityKids Repertory Company (NYC) and was the Director of Educational Outreach at Seattle Children’s Theatre.
More info at: www.mrdavidamiller.com
December 2007
Philip Alexander is the Senior Program Officer of the Empire State Partnership (ESP) Office of Partnership Support and Research. He has served as a consultant and/or grant reviewer on projects with Center for Arts Education, Partners for Arts Education, VSAarts, Orchestra of St Luke’s, and US Dept of Education. Holding a doctorate in theatre, Alexander has taught college courses in theatre and communication, and was instrumental in expanding education programs at the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Stephanie Pereira, Program Coordinator, Office of Partnership and Research, Empire State Partnerships. Stephanie holds an MA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Before working with ESP, she worked for Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education as their Research Associate and after-school Program Manager. Stephanie is also involved in the arts community as an artist, curator, volunteer and cultural producer.
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