Saint Paul Public Schools
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Please use links on the left menu to download the conference brochure, poster, registration form, request for presenters proposals and volunteer information form.

Saint Paul Public Schools' staff may register on PDexpress under "ARTS: Arts for All Conference: http://pdexpress.spps.org/.


2009 Arts for All Conference

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Battle Creek Middle School,
2121 North Park Drive
St. Paul, MN 55119
7:50 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.


Description:
Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) 8th Annual Arts for All Conference is a professional development training for educators, administrators, parents/guardians, community members, artists and arts organizations that work with educators and youth in Saint Paul Public Schools, other districts, or in the community. The ultimate goal of the conference is to provide participants with visual and performing arts knowledge, skills, tools and the beliefs necessary to create high levels of student learning and engagement, improve instructional quality and encourage personal artistic growth.

The conference provides approximately 30 inspiring sessions which assist over 200 participants in learning in the arts, through arts integration and about the arts. This year’s keynote speaker and special session presenter is J.F. Kennedy Center presenter John Bertles.

Content Focus:
Visual and Media Arts, Music and Music Technology, Theater, Dance and cultural art forms. Literary Arts as well as arts subject areas integrated with other subject areas and cultural arts.

District Goals:
Sessions will support SPPS district goals of ensuring high academic achievement, raising expectations for accountability, accelerating the path to excellence, strengthening relationships with community and families and district strategy and action step "C8" which strives to expand and integrate visual and media arts, music, theatre, dance and cultural arts experiences for all students.

Participants will take active roles as learners to:

  • engage in lively and in-depth explorations of music, dance, theatre, visual, media, literary cultural and integrated arts;
  • explore the interrelationship between art forms and curriculum;
  • expand knowledge of artistic and arts education standards, practices, strategies, issues, resources and policies to ensure student learning;
  • discover, create, make, contribute, observe, analyze, connect, converse, respond, revise, improve, reflect, apply, learn, celebrate and renew.
Highlights:
Spirited and interactive sessions in the arts. Master Clinic Intensives designed for specific grade levels and arts areas. Inspiring keynote speaker and workshop leader John Bertles. Fabulous door prizes from businesses, vendors and local arts organizations. Vendors of arts education and art-making materials, resources and services. Delicious continental breakfast and lunch. Clock-hours and in-service credits.

Sponsorship:
The Conference is an annual Saint Paul Public Schools sponsored event with co-sponsorship and facilitation by East Side Arts Council (ESAC). Additional sponsorship is by Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Saint Paul Schools Foundation/Clear Channel School Arts Project, in partnership with Minneapolis Public Schools through the J.F. Kennedy Center's Partners in Education Program. (Food is sponsored by Ordway Center and private funds).

Registration:
There is no cost to attend for SPPS staff, SPPS Site Council or School Support Organization chairs, leaders and members (PTA, PTO etc). Minneapolis Public School (MPS) staff are also invited to attend at no cost (fee paid by MPS). Non-SPPS affiliated are invited to attend for a nominal fee of $18. Presenters and volunteers are invited to attend breakfast, lunch and workshop sessions at no charge. Please check back soon for registration process and specifics.

Keynote Speaker and Session Leader:
John Bertles is a composer, instrument builder and educator.  As a composer he has written music ranging from opera to circus music, and from symphony to punk rock.  Most recently he has been concentrating on music for instruments built from recycled materials with his group, Bash the Trash®.  "The Evils of Pots" (1994), written entirely for pots and pans, has been performed at Lincoln Center in New York City and at the International Gamelan Festival in Indonesia and throughout the United States.

He is also an educator and staff developer, having been Lead Teaching Artist with the Carnegie Hall Link-up Program for nine years as well as Program Leader for Carnegie Hall’s Distance Learning Program for the last three years, a curriculum writer and teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and a teaching artist and guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School. He has taught and performed for the Leonard Bernstein Center, Grammy Foundation, Guggenheim Museum, Kennedy Center, American Museum for Natural History, Franklin Institute, Fordham University and New York City Opera among others.