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News
Arts & Cultural Council Presents Workshop:
Assessment for Afterschool Programs
The Arts in Education Regional Roundtable of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester presents Assessment for Afterschool Programs Monday, January 29th, 2001 from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Avenue. The program will be led by Delores Jackson Radney (Kuumba Kids) and Sharon Turner (James Madison School for Excellence Photo Club - Studio 678), and is free and open to all those interested in the arts and education.
Kuumba Kids is deeply rooted in African-American culture and connects young people with caring adults who serve as mentors. The program has successfully served boys and girls, ages 7 to 15 for five years. In addition to "in-house" evaluations, a comprehensive evaluation by Dr. Michael Mason of the University of Rochester, shows that Kuumba Kids is meeting its goals:
- To use the arts to build constructive behavior patterns for at-risk youth from some of Rochester's poorest neighborhoods.
- To provide a vehicle for artists to serve as role models by working with Rochester youth.
- To provide the Rochester community with concrete evidence that the arts can help solve community problems.
Thirty students in grades 6, 7, and 8 meet after school on Thursdays from October to April for the James Madison School of Excellence Photo Club - Studio 678. The students use photography as a tool to develop community awareness, integrate academic subjects with art, and improve self-esteem through accomplishment. They learn how to use a 35mm camera, make their own prints in the darkroom, and prepare for an exhibition. According to Sharon Turner, "We have found evaluations to be an extremely useful tool to assess how well we have accomplished our goals and what we need to change to better serve our students." Evaluating the program are the students themselves, their families, their classroom teachers, members of the community who attend the exhibit, our funders, and the photographers who work with the program.
The Arts & Cultural Council through funding from United Way sponsors both Kuumba Kids and Photo Club.
The Arts in Education Roundtable is a consortium of arts organizations, artists, teachers, education administrators, parents, and others interested in making the arts basic to education. The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester sponsors the Roundtable.
For more information about this program, contact Arts in Education Coordinator Goldee Hecht-Meyer at 473-4000 ext. 205.
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