Due to cuts in the Federal budget, funding the BASICS Program for 2011-12 was not available.
September 2011 Update
Diane Franken - BASICS Project leader
The Davenport Team has continued with local funding. Here are some highlights of their activities:
On July 21st, the Davenport BASICS Development Team held a reception for Dr. Art Tate, Davenport Community Schools new superintendent. As one of their initiatives, the team’s list of questions about arts education programs was used during the interviews of perspective applicants. Dr. Tate was previously the superintendent for the Tempe, Arizona, school system. He rides a mountain bike, is a vegetarian, and makes and actively sells his own jewelry. (The BASICS team is very happy with his first name).
The reception was held at the Internet Players, a BASICS business partner, in downtown Davenport. While enjoying classical music from the Walcott Middle School ensemble and a visual arts exhibit from all the schools, invited guests enjoyed a selection of food from business partners, Schnuck’s Grocery Store and Harris Pizza. A presentation was then delivered to give Dr. Tate an overview of the BASICS program and the part that the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts had played in the initial phase of the program. Accomplishments for the year were highlighted and all business partners introduced and recognized with appreciation plaques.
Various brief musical and dance performances were given and Dr. Tate was presented with the new edition of Sir Kenneth Robinson’s book: Out of Our Minds, Learning to be Creative. The reception concluded with a theatre performance provided by the Internet Players. Click on photos for more images...
On August 11, 2011, Davenport Community Schools’ elementary music and elementary and intermediate physical education teachers experienced a dance workshop presented by Dorian Byrd of the Imani Dancers Studio. The experience was provided through the BASICS program in the Davenport Schools and a grant from one of their partners, Quad-City Arts and with the support of Jim Bawden and Brad Oates. Dorian Byrd is a graduate of the Julliard School, an instructor at Augustana College and on the Davenport BASICS Development Team.
The grant was written by Connie Bracey, a guidance counselor at Lincoln Academy, former dance teacher and also on the Davenport BASICS Development Team. Dance was identified as the least covered arts form during an audit from the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts of their arts education programs. The Davenport Team felt the most logical place to begin to increase students’ experiences with dance was to begin with the segment of the physical education curriculum which already calls for dance and movement.
They also felt that elementary music teachers would be the most likely to already be incorporating movement into their classes and be eager to learn some additional strategies. Teachers actively participated in the workshop and the following comments are a sampling of the positive reactions to the day:
“Many kids are not exposed to moving creatively—they need to be.”
“I loved the tips to get all to participate and learned the terminology.”
“They won’t be inhibited with this type of dance.”
“The movement will help student to engage their brains.”
“Dance is part of being human. All students should have dance as part of their arts experience.”
“Dance is universal expression.”
“Brain research provides how important movement is to learning.”
“Movement broken down into steps makes it easier for me to teach to my students.”
“I loved the work involved with partners in designing a dance. Great collaboration experience!”
“Will use the tips on how to build creative student-driven movement. They will gain ownership and be engaged!”
“Like how dance can portray music.”
“Great stress reliever for some kids.”
“Enables exposure to different world music and cultures.”
6/9/2011 Update
Diane Franken – BASICS Project Leader
As the school year and the first BASICS grant from the Kennedy Center comes to an end, we reflect on the many accomplishments in Grundy Center, Des Moines and Davenport. All districts and their newly created business partnerships should be congratulated on their work thus far to build these bridges and improve quality arts education programs and partnerships in their schools and communities. Most exciting is that the action groups formed in each will be continuing to work on additional goals they have identified, so the momentum set in place by the BASICS grant funds will be sustained.
In Grundy Center, GEO mats were purchased for their physical education program to include an elementary dance experience, led by Rick Schupbach with music and movement that enhanced learning through rhythm with over 200 students. High School Arts students, along with art teacher and district BASICS contact, Ronda Sternhagen, took a field trip to learn about art careers at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa in April. Ronda also instituted a community adult jewelry art course at the local YMCA. A parent and child workshop, called the Garden Party was lead by Amber Greiman, Joan Schuller and Ronda to create stepping stones together.
A newly created Art Camp was taught by Heidi Leverton in early June through the YMCA. The Band Bank, under the direction of Bev Dirks and Andrew VanHooreweghe, was created to provide musical instruments to those who cannot afford them. Finally, My Fair Lady, a project directed by CoraLynn Gray, and written by a Grundy Center High School student, centered on a theatrical production by Grundy Center High School and the surrounding community students, created in a more modern version of the play.
In Des Moines, a new partnership was created between the Des Moines Public Schools and the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines to align with the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program. Through the partnership, over 70 hours of professional development in arts integration were offered to both classroom teachers and arts specialists in the Des Moines Public Schools. Over 300 teachers participated in the project. This summer, participants will partner with teaching artists from the Iowa Arts Council and the Des Moines Metro Arts programs to develop arts integration lessons which will align with the Iowa Core.
Davenport BASICS has had a very productive and exciting first year. Many educators and patrons of the district have become educated to the purposes of BASICS as evident by the over 70 people on our BASICS Advocacy ListServ we created. Accomplishments to date include the following
- Received “Dare to Dance” grant to provide in-service for all elementary physical education and music educators. The goal is to increase access of Davenport students to dance through providing strategies for the teachers to integrate into their curricula. A second in-service will be conducted at our BASICS elementary school where creative movement will take place in physical education classes and culminate with a dance performance by students for the public.
- Creation of a collaboration with “The Internet Players”, a new theatre company in Davenport, to introduce a cross-curricula approach to drama. Each year, Davenport BASICS and the Internet Players will work with professional and student artists to create a new and original work. The pilot program is entitled “A Green Revolution.” The script will explore the world’s past, present and future in terms of environmental sustainability and innovation. Teachers will recommend possible students to the company, especially students who might otherwise fall through the cracks to become involved in the production. In early June, the company also offered a “Story Telling in Action and High School Drama Workshop”. The final production took place for invited guests in their new facility. Davenport BASICS also provided scholarships to each of its three schools to participate in additional “Story Telling in Action” workshops which will continue in July. BASICS assisted in the creation of the I.P. Creative Center and Think Tank where the community can meet and discuss creative problems and collaborate in creative efforts. The project leaders assisted I.P. in their obtaining a River Development Grant for $10,000.
- Creation and performance of the “Earth, Circle of Life” project. This integrated arts project centered on the connectedness of all living and nonliving creatures on earth. The students took Native American songs and poetry from a variety of tribes and added their own drama interpretation, movement and made their own accompanying instruments. The visual arts, physical education, and music teachers collaborated on this experience.
- Exhibition of student visual artworks at a local Schnuck’s grocery store will begin in late July. The rotating exhibit will be repeated every four months. Venues for instrumental and vocal music and drama are in the planning stages for performance as well.
- Professional visual art display installations will be placed in each of the three schools in the BASICS program. These installations will be on-going and feature original artwork of local and regional artists for viewing and study by the students.
- Created an intern program by a BASICS Graphic Design instructor at Central High School with Terrostar, a local web design and marketing company.
- Created a list of questions to be used at BASICS schools for their administrators during the hiring of prospective arts teachers.
- Created a fine arts related question list which was used in the hiring of a new Davenport Community Schools superintendent.
- Drafted a letter to the Davenport Community Schools Board of Education urging them to select a fine arts friendly candidate and they did.
- Providing a welcome reception in July for the new superintendent with the purpose of introducing him to the BASICS program.
- BASICS began work with the city of Davenport in establishing two sister city connections that will provide opportunities for long distance sharing of the visual arts, music, dance and drama with the BASICS schools and schools in Germany and Brazil.
April 2011
IAAE is applying for a grant from the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education for Year Two of the BASICS Program. Applications for school districts to participate are now available.
What will be the benefits for a school district from the BASICS program?
Grant money will provide training based on the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network model including:
- Conducting an Arts Education Program School Audit and using the findings
- Use of their Arts Education Advocacy Tool Kit with their community
- Presentations on Model Arts Education Units by leaders in each arts discipline
- Identifying arts education and financial supporters within the local community for articulation and to establish stakeholder partnerships
- Creating an Arts Education Program Strategic Plan and Action Steps
- Networking with other Iowa school districts regarding their arts education programs and community outreach challenges and successes
Grant money will provide amounts for training, travel accommodations, mileage and food, resources.
Improved arts education programs/community partnerships creating positive support and communications within the community
What are the Responsibilities of the District to be selected for the BASICS Program?
- Commitments as outlined in the Application (Selection Process), including obtaining a community business partnership(s)
- Between $4-5000 for implementing local arts education action steps as outlined in the school’s Strategic Plan
- More than one community business partner or individual can provide these grant matching funds
- Community partner(s), business or individual, $4-5000 contribution will match the Kennedy Center grant monies and will be returned to the district to be used for Action Steps which will arise from the findings of their Kennedy Audit which will identify weaknesses in their arts education programs. It is a requirement of the Kennedy Center grant that the state Alliance "administer" all monies.
Interested?
Please contact:
Diane Franken, Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, BASICS Program, 1610 Prospect Terrace, Davenport, Iowa 52803, artdiane0427@mchsi.com to request an application
Questions?
Call Diane Franken at 563-324-9423
April 2011
BASICS Program Update
Davenport Community Schools
After uncovering strengths and weaknesses in their arts education programs through the Kennedy Center Community Audit for Arts Education, the Davenport BASICS Arts Education Task Force established a goal to increase dance opportunities for Davenport School students and an awareness of dance opportunities throughout the community. Through an Arts Dollars Grant from the Quad City Arts, Dare to Dance will increase exposure to dance through workshops, classes and public performances for Davenport Schools’ faculty, students and audiences. The experience will be led by Dorian Byrd, Artistic Director of Imani Dancers and the Imani Dancers Studio for the Cultural Arts.
Their project, Dare to Dance, includes two creative dance workshops led by Dorian Byrd during fall in-services for all Davenport elementary physical education and music educators. Dance concepts will be incorporated into the present Dance Curriculum for physical education in all Davenport schools. Thus the program has a strong sustaining dance program improvement element. Music educators will increase movement vocabulary they may use during classes and concerts.
During the second in-service, Dorian will teach creative movement in physical education classes at McKinley Elementary School (the specific Davenport elementary school involved in the BASICS program). Dorian will select interested students to rehearse and dance in performances for students and the community. By providing educators and students with additional dance training and presenting public performances, Dare to Dance will increase dance education in Davenport Schools and build community awareness of dance as an art form and a community cultural activity.
The Audit also uncovered that theater was another weak arts education component. McKinley School has taken the Kennedy Project Audit to heart and is integrating visual art, music, dance and drama into a program based on the Native American culture and heritage. This is in coordination with the 4th grade social studies curriculum benchmark on the subject of a study of the indigenous peoples. We used knowledge attained from workshops, texts, and web sites to develop this Native American project.
Called the Earth Circle of Life project, the content centers on the “connectedness” of all living and nonliving things on earth. We begin with the children circling the audience, symbolizing rotation of the earth around the sun, and end with the children again forming that circle, adding homemade instruments and authentic sounds, demonstrating our “thankfulness” for all our gifts from the “Great Spirit”.
The children have taken Native American songs and poetry from a variety of tribes, added their own drama interpretation, instruments and movement. They created the drums and shakers in art class to be used during the presentation. Visual representations of blankets from ten Native American tribes were hung to frame the stage.
The students developed a sense of community as they worked in cooperation to complete all the elements of this project. They also gained a deeper understanding of how all of the arts can be used to express cultural heritage through literature, music, dance, theater and the visual arts. This unit, along with other arts integration exemplars will be shared with the elementary arts teachers at all Davenport elementary schools.
Davenport BASICS introduced the Our World project created by their Educational Content sub-committee in March 2011 to supplement student learning with an opportunity for students to be actively engaged in an artistic collaboration. Davenport BASICS will use The Internet Players, a local non-profit theatre organization to produce a new and original theatre performance that uses parts of our school’s curriculum environmental components at Central High School and Sudlow Intermediate school, as its’ backbone.
This year, Central and Sudlow students will be selected to participate as apprentices, interns, or performers in a project entitled A Green Revolution, an exploration of our past, present, and future as it relates to our environmental sustainability. Local professionals will guide students through all steps that are necessary for building this theatre show from a blank page into a fully produced stage. Professionals will work with community educators to ensure crossover with actual class work in geography, history, math, science, all of the arts and other participating subjects.
In its first year alone, this project hopes to reach more than 400 Davenport students. The Our World project will reach out to find students who are in need of a way to be more engaged in their studies. This project aims to empower students by showing them how to apply what they’ve learned in school to a real world project. Goals of the project are to increase the drama arts education offerings and Central High School’s graduation rates. Another goal will be to especially reach out to their at-risk students and get them involved. Students, teachers, and professional theatre practitioners will collaborate to produce a professional theatre show that is sure to attract large audiences around our community. The theater’s close proximity to Central High works to help students see this as a welcoming community project to uncover their talents. Student’s work will be documented to further encourage achievement. We are looking for the kids who can achieve but may be slipping through the cracks and need a project to which they can take ownership. The Internet Players will provide a centralized location in Downtown Davenport to house activity created by the Our World project.
The BASICS Informed Leadership Committee’s recommendations for interview questions were used as part of the district’s interview process for finalists and a new superintendent has been hired with consideration to responses to these arts education questions. Additionally, they have been working on arts education question recommendations for the future interviewing of all administrators and teachers and on an arts requirement for graduation.
BASICS business partners continue to be a major influence with a variety of actions steps and projects for students. Davenport’s Mississippi Artist’s Gallery has offered the installation of area professional artists’ works for students to view in the three BASICS schools. A grant has been written for the cost of display materials. Internships continue with Central High School students and one BASICS business partner, Terrostar, a web creation and marketing firm. Epals are continuing to be createdwith graphic design firm, Blue Space Creative, inc. which gives the visual arts students answers to their real-life career and formal education.
The search is continuing for Sister Cities in other countries. Plans that should be finalized soon include a partnership between the city of Davenport, these cities and the BASICS Task Force to include the Skyping of a musical production including Sudlow Intermediary students and an art show from McKinley Elementary School students. Additionally, a BASICS website is also planned for arts education advocacy and communication.
Grundy Center Community Schools
In response to their goal to increase communication with the community regarding arts events at school, the Community Connections Committee is developing a list of e-mail addresses for interested individuals who would like notification of upcoming arts events at the school. The arts teachers will be responsible to communicate upcoming school arts events to the “tab” as well as to the interested patrons of the district when there are upcoming events.
They also are working to increase adult arts education course offerings at the YMCA with hopes of eventually being able to also offer adult education arts classes through local community colleges. The committee is also exploring possible instructors within the community, as well as interested staff members. To assist in this endeavor, the committee plans to develop a list of community members with talents in the arts as recommended instructors.
The Informed Leadership Committee plans to increase before and after school/summer/YMCA programs to promote the arts. A one-week summer arts camp for grades K-5 is planned, and will be instructed by the elementary art teacher. An adult beginning jewelry class is scheduled for June 16, to be taught by the MS/HS art teacher.
Cultural connections with the Ostfriesen Society in Krummhorn, Germany, have been made through a long-standing group of Germans in Grundy County. A community exchange will take place in September 2011, which will have residents, students and teachers from Grundy County visiting the sister city in Germany. Information about existing art programs at GCHS were shared with parents and students at the annual class registration.
The Educational Content Committee is working with a high school student who has rewritten a modern version of My Fair Lady that will be performed by high school students from Grundy Center, as well as surrounding communities. The current speech director will assist and supervise this endeavor. The elementary physical education department will be implementing an extended dance curriculum with purchases of equipment from the BASICS grant.
February 2011
Davenport
The Davenport BASICS Task Force is alive and well. They presently have over 50 interested educators, parents, students and business people as members of the expanded Task Force. The Audit and Mission/Vision Statements are complete. Goals and Strategies deriving from the Audit are being accomplished and are at the following subcommittee levels:
Educational Content –
- A grant for the inclusion of Dance in staff development has been submitted.
- Community theater personnel are developing strategies to strengthen the discipline in the schools and investigating grant possibilities for implementation.
- Two of the four schools that are involved have formed teams to write and develop integrated arts lessons paid for with teacher quality funds.
Community Connections
This sub-committee will be working with City Hall to create a visual art exchange with its “sister city” in Germany. Other arts exchanges will be implemented with two other “sister cities” in Brazil and Japan.
The high school graphics classes are doing internships with one of our Business Partners, Terrostar. The graphics students are also creating epals with a graphic design business, Blue Space Creative, inc., asking them questions dealing with their career and formal education.
Informed Leadership
This sub-committee has recently completed and sent a letter outlining ideal characteristics they recommend for a superintendent to become part of the consideration of the Davenport School Board, which is now interviewing finalists for the new superintendent. They also have a strategy to develop a system of communication between each of the three schools in identifying and retaining talented arts students from K-12.
Grundy Center
Grundy Center's BASICS team is forging ahead to finalize the audit. We were made aware of a number of items going on in our community that we mismarked in the audit. Beyond that, the three sub-committees are continuing to work to narrow down initiatives to pursue.
The Community Connections group is looking at how and what the community could offer for additional arts for all ages, as well as possible "advertising" in the local movie theater.
The Informed Leadership group is considering how they could bridge the gap between our county and our sister city in Germany through the work already being done by the Ostfresian Society, as well as being pleased with our current school leadership and their forethought to include art as a requirement for graduation.
The Educational Content team is going to possibly be looking for volunteers to bring back the summer Prairie Fire Children's Theater, as well as the possibility of expanding offerings in dance at the elementary level.
Des Moines
Before creating their Strategic Plan with subsequent goals and sub-committees, Des Moines is concentrating on developing promotional materials for recruitment to their proposed Fine Arts Middle School, guidelines for student enrollment, and developing policies for staffing the magnet school.
December 2010
Read more from Davenport Superintendent Julio Almanza
Report from the Grundy Center Developmental Team 
12/1/2010 Sixteen members of our school staff and community members met in the MS/HS IMC on Monday, November 29, to hear an overview of the BASICS (Bridging Arts Strategies in Communities and Schools) grant, as well as begin work on developing priorities. The grant leaders are Joel and Diane Franken, Executive Director of the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, from Davenport. Other schools participating in the grant this year are Davenport and Des Moines. The Developmental Team from Grundy Center who were trained in October include: Chair ‐ Ronda Sternhagen, Vice‐Chair ‐ Andrew VanHooreweghe, Secretary ‐ Ellen Stoner, Vicki Knaack, Lisa Miller, Jacque Osgood, Bill Catron, Rebecca Catron, CoraLynn Gray and Joan Schuller.
As part of the grant, we are responsible for securing $4200 in local matching funds that will come back to our school and community to implement strategies. To date, we have secured $3075 due to the generosity of the following businesses and individuals: Community Title/Grundy County Abstract, Frederick Furniture, Konken Electric, Latta Harris Hanon & Penningroth LLP, Greenbelt Bank & Trust, Lifetime Vision Center, Manly Drug Store, Grundy Center Education Foundation, and Gene and Tannis Shaw.
The Developmental Team was initially charged with creating a Mission Statement, as well as supporting Vision Statements.
The BASICS Task Force is: Grundy Center BASICS Task Force will generate support and advance quality arts education programs for all Grundy Center students and the community. The supporting
Vision Statements are: All students have the opportunity to participate in and are encouraged to create arts experiences in music, art, theater and dance; Community members are well informed about the fine arts programs through a variety of media formats; The Grundy Center Community values arts education through attendance and sustained financial support for targeted programs.
A Kennedy Center for the Arts Community Audit was completed by the Developmental Team as part of the training. From that Audit, summary statements of strengths and weaknesses were developed and reviewed by the Project Leaders. Much of the Task Force meeting focused on developing subcommittees to focus on the three areas assessed in the audit: Community Connections, Informed Leadership, and Educational Content.
Each of those sub‐committees is scheduled to meet on January 4, at various times and locations to work toward writing Next Steps & Future Priorities that are the culminating part of the audit. The whole Task Force will meet together to share their work on January 11, 4:00 p.m. in the MS/HS IMC. Anyone is welcome to join us! Please contact Ronda Sternhagen, rsternhagen@spartanpride.net, for more information.
10/28/2010 BASICS Training in Des Moines
October 15th & 16th was attended by a Development Team from Davenport, Des Moines and Grundy Center. The Davenport team will initially involve work with Davenport Central High School, Sudlow Middle School and Eisenhower and McKinley Elementary Schools. Grundy Center's team will include all of their schools and Des Moines will be working with the planning team for the proposed magnet arts middle school. 
The primary components of the training consisted of:
- Work towards completion of a Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Audit of their Arts Education Programs,
- Development of a Mission & Vision Statement for their local Task Force,
- Identification of Local Challenges to their Arts Education Programs, the Strategic Planning Process,
- Viewing of four exemplary arts education curriculum units in Dance, Drama, Music, and the Visual Arts.
Diane Franken, IAAE Executive Director and Joel Franken, IAAE Programs Committee person served as the BASICS Project Leaders. Trainers in the four areas included Valerie Williams, dancecomotion; Gretta Berghammer, IAAE Advisory Council member; David Law, IAAE Chair and IMEA President; and Joel Franken, AEI Issues & Directions Chair.
09/02/2010 The BASICS Program is an initiative to select, train, develop and promote schools in three locations across the state to analyze and improve their arts education programs, beginning with an audit of these programs using Kennedy Center resources. A central focus of the program works to create community/business partners to support these programs and to implement a process to construct an Arts Education Strategic Plan toward these ends.
Two of the schools, Davenport Community Schools and the Des Moines Public Schools are currently designated Kennedy Partnership Schools. The third school that will be part of the program is Grundy Center, a smaller district in central Eastern Iowa.
Training, which will begin in October in Des Moines, will be given to a Development Team of stakeholders, formed by the schools. The Development Team will include an administrator, a school board member, a business partner, a community supporter, four of their arts teachers in dance, theater, music, and the visual arts, a parent and a student.
Four state arts teacher leaders representing each arts discipline will assist in the training including presenting a unit in their area. On the local level, a larger Task Force, including the initial Development Team will create and implement their Strategic Plan and action steps to build community/partnerships and improve the quality and support of their arts education programs.
Schools will receive continual assistance and assessment for all steps, including an on-site visit and input by the two project leaders. Schools meeting the final evaluation criteria for implementation will receive designation by the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education as a Model Arts Education School and become part of a network of resource sites for other schools to consult, regarding their own arts education program improvement.
Funding from the National Partnerships, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts grant will provide financial support for the training, support, assessments and evaluations of the school's implementation of the program.