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 Jan McClure, Founder/Organizer
Concord School District
Concord Four Arts "Four Arts for Concord Schools"
School District Population: approximately 6,000
PURPOSE
To support the arts in all four disciplines (Dance, Music, Theatre Arts, and Visual Arts) for the Concord School District and to support the implementation of the new Arts Curriculum.
GOALS
Raise people's awareness of the importance and value of the arts in our children's education; provide community support for the implementation of the new Arts Curriculum; develop financial support for the early stages of the implementation and the training of the district's educators.
 OBJECTIVES (1999/2000)
Recruit parents and staff from each Concord school as vehicles to share and disseminate information to the schools; encourage individuals to request copies of the Arts Curriculum from the Superintendent's Office and read them over; explain the current status of the Arts Curriculum and ask individuals to contact the school board in support of its implementation; provide materials to the school reps to use in their school newsletters and on their arts bulletin boards; organize public information meetings during the school year; develop a mailing and email list of community members who are supportive of Arts in Education issues; assist with the organizing of a summer institute to provide staff development concerning the Arts Curriculum; research grant sources to assist with the early stages of the staff development needed for the curriculum implementation; and solicit support for ongoing activities and develop a fund-raising goal and campaign.
Contact: Jan McClure
Concord Four Arts
82 District #5 Road
Concord, NH 03303
603/226-3370
re: Electronic Submissions
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The Superfund
Gilford Middle High School
Thomas Sica, Principal
Gilford Middle High School Superfund Program
School District Population: approximately 1,402 (serving the towns of Gilford and Gilmanton)
For the past fourteen years, Gilford Middle High School has conducted an annual fundraising program called the Superfund, a one-time, yearly campaign project for the purpose of raising enough funds to adequately support the wide variety of student activities at GMHS, including the arts. This fund-raising effort replaces the many traditional door-to-door sales campaigns area students are often asked to participate in, and cooperation is strictly voluntary on the styudents' parts. Most of the funding comes from ads purchased by local businesses as well as through donations made by individuals.
The Superfund coordinators ask the community to support the shcool by way of contributions, accepting whatever area individuals and businesses would like to donate, and through the purchase of advertising in the school program, with ads that may range from $75.00 to $1,000.00. Names are then listed as GMHS supporters in all of the school program booklets for student activities and performances throughout the year.
The funding campaign usually lasts from the beginning of school through the month of October, and students may solicit contributions and advertisement revenue from all over. Each department raises its own funds by selling ads and seeking contributions for the school program, keeping the balance of whatever is raised by that department after publishing costs are deducted. Donors can also indicate which organization or class they would like their money to be applied towards. Superfund solicitations have raised an average of $20,000.00 to $25,000.00 over the last few years.
Contact: GMHS Superfund
c/o Gilford Middle High School
88 Alvah Wilson Road
Gilford, NH 03249
603//524-7135 fax: 603/524-3867
www.sau.gilford.k12.nh.us
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Julie True Kingsley, English Teacher - 7th Grade
Dover Middle School
Principal: Paul K. Mauceri
Looking Beyond the Classroom: Fund Raising for a Seventh Grade Classroom
Teaching English to seventh graders is a challenging task. They need constant stimulation, interesting material and an abundant dose of humor to keep them engaged and challenged. My personal and professional goal this current school year is to find numerous forms of enrichment for my students. It is imperative that students hear and learn from members outside the school community. This inspires in them a connection to the world and instills an added dimension of purpose in the daily English program.
Like many teachers in New Hampshire, I am constantly feeling the constraints of a very tight school budget. With a one hundred dollar budget for one hundred and twenty-five students, the task of finding special activities for my students is daunting. With such limitations, how does one look forward to the possibilities of an exciting year? The answer is found in the immediate community.
At the beginning of the school year, I called a local author and spoke to her about coming into my classroom to speak about the writing process. She has an uncanny ability to use local color to great effect in her writing. She was extremely receptive and we set up a date for her to speak. Though certainly modest, her presentation nonetheless had a fee.
I decided to tap into local community resources. I started simply with the local yellow pages, looking up local service organizations such as the Lions, Rotary, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. I called and spoke to members about my guest speaker and asked them to underwrite her. To my delight, they all seemed very interested and encouraged me to write letters to the clubs' treasurers. Consistent to all these local clubs, approval of funding is dependent upon a club vote.
The thing that surprised me the most was that all clubs seemed willing to sponsor something special for my class. It was a matter of choosing one, and saving the rest for future enrichment opportunities.
I imagine a great deal of my future fund-raising success will depend upon my giving the organizations credit for their generous donations. To acknowledge my local supporter, I contacted Fosters Daily Democrat, the local newspaper, and invited the education representative of the paper to come and listen to the author speak. This has three benefits: the guest speaker receives increased recognition, the students see added worth in their day, and it gives formal recognition to the organization that funds any enrichment activity. Further tips: if the reporter attends, have a press release ready for immediate release so that recognition may be ensured. Beyond this, I always personalized thank you notes - both from me and my students - to any organization.
It is my belief that education is more than just one teacher educating a group of students. My responsibility to my students is that I must be knowledgeable about the local talent and bring them in as resources to embellish the curriculum and add richness to my subject area.
If a teacher is aware of a town's booster clubs and other organizations - and he/she has the gumption to simply ask for support - he/she will find that the resources are surprisingly abundant. The people and civic organizations of Dover have been more than willing to share their time, resources, and talents with my students. With a little research and a bit of courage, I'm certain that teachers in New Hampshire towns will be able to experience a similar outpouring of generosity. From a budgetary standpoint, school fund-raising is a necessity. However, in my experience, fund-raising is a terrific way is getting the community involved in the schools - it's a win-win situation.
Note: This program allows much flexibility in practice and implementation. Any style of projects/lessons can be taught as long as the basics of grammar are addressed.
Ms. Kingsley is willing to be a mentor/resource to other educators.
Ms. Kingsley is willing to facilitate visitations to Dover Middle School.
Contact: Julie True Kingsley
66 Preble Street
South Portland, ME 04106
207/799-0107
julie_kingsley@msadsi.org
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Phoebe Lovett, Teacher/Site Coordinator
Rye Elementary School, Rye
Principal: Valerie Livingstone
Rye Elementary School Arts Committee
School Population: 400 (K-5)
Expenses- Arts Specialists: $1,000.00 in-kind Teachers: $2,000.00 in-kind
NHSCA Roster Artist Fees: $3,150.00 Other Artist Fees: $1,800.00
Accomodations: $500.00 Meals: $150.00 in-kind Travel: $93.00
Arts in Education Conference Fee: $400.00 Marketing/Publicity: $500.00 in kind
Teacher Resources and Sustitute Pay: $500.00 in-kind
Income- Private Foundations: $1,500.00 /Parent Teacher Organizations: $2,209.00
Grant Amount Requested from Arts Council: $2,234.00
The goal of our Arts Committee at Rye Elementary School is to bring at least one artist a year to our children. We fund these programs through the state and local community.
In a recent AIR program, we worked with Annagret Baier and Erma Colvin for a 15 day residency. Both women are trained in African dance and drumming. They worked with all classes, first grade through fifth, and also worked with two core groups that were comprised of children from each classroom. The entire school and community were invited to a performance at the beginning of the residency, and there was a final performance involving the core groups.
For arts programs to be a success, a number of criteria should be present. Funding is the key that will be addressed later. Administrative support is most beneficial. Ideally, a directive to integrate the arts into the program would not be necessary, but often that is the only way some teachers will integrate. The integration is critical for the children, but also for the community. If we show the community the importance of art, not as an extra, but as a key component to education, the community will support us and then the funding rolls in.
Media works! Having the newspaper and television reporters there brings a successful program to light. Parents and children love seeing themselves in the news. Time is an element that is often overlooked. Teachers have too many subjects to teach! They are stressed. If they are given prepared ways to integrate the arts and time to do it, they will integrate and become excited about the programs.
Rye has been lucky to receive grants from the NH State Council for the Arts in the last two years. We must match the funding locally. Despite the community's love and support for the arts, they do not have arts in the school budget. We fund the balance of the program by PTO and the Rye Foundation for Education. Both of these organizations are generous to the arts. We have counted on their support and consistently received it. They will fund programs that touch the education of all the children in our school.
The school donates in-kind release time for the site coordinator and generally budgets a few hundred dollars for materials. This year, the money was used to purchase books on Africa for the library.
Contact: Phoebe Lovett
461 Sagamore Road
Rye, NH 03870
603/436-4731
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Niki McGettigan, Principal
Temple Elementary School
Celebrating What Kids Can Do in reading, writing, thinking, creating, caring and sharing.
Enriching curriculum, problem solving, community connections and more through the arts...
Some ideas can not only provide children with artful opportunities but can also give you some money to fund those special supplies that make the products more outstanding!!!! In Temple, we had very little actual budget money to fund the arts, but each year we have been able to build more and more opportunities for children by letting some of our art events actually help to fund materials or parts for the next event. Here are a few examples.
Each year, there is a Harvest Festival, which is a community event that the school joins. The school works to create crafts, foods, etc. to share what KidsCANDO!
- Create a piece of art . . .like this leaf print quilt. Then display and sell at a craft fair or festival. Children can work with parents or other community members to do the sewing. Senior Citizens came in to help the children hand quilt around the leaves. The quilts sold for $5.00 each and the children were proud to see their works of art sell at the fair.
 Another piece of art created by fourth graders with the help of a local florist were some dried flower arrangements. The hanging baskets sold for $5.00 each and each year they are a popular item. The children learn about color, balance, mixes, and more. It is a great after school activity and again shows the community all that children can do. The money goes to helping to keep the village green beautiful . . . it's a community project.
- The wooden sculpture wall hanging was another activity where an artist came in and directed the children, along with several senior patients from a local nursing home, on how to use wood to create garden sculptures. These were a natural to sell at the festival.
The Community Ladies Aid runs a Christmas fair and they like having the children join the fair so that more community people come and take part. It's a senior citizen/kid connection activity.
- Another great activity included using milk cartons and some artificial greens. Then we made some snowmen and dressed them up. The scene was personalized for families and sold for $1.50. They were a wonderful addition to the Christmas table.
 These snowmen are another popular and creative encounter of the TES kids. They can be made easily then placed on windowsills for snowman peepers or larger ones can be created and sold separately or in pairs. They are an annual hit and each class tries to invent a new type of snowman or snowman angel, etc.
- Santas galore . . . each year these are created by kids and sold to make money for needy families in our area. The children generally make about 200 of them and we sell them for $5.00 each. We rent a table at the high school craft fair and the children handle the money, gift wrap the purchases for people, and work with children from older classes to become comfortable talking to the public. They are so proud of seeing their crafts purchased that they can hardly contain themselves! Again, it shows off what we can do!
- Children can work with winter decor too. They love taking sprigs of vines and painting them, then adding some color. Again, it's a great way to talk to kids about color, balance, and more. The senior citizens love them!
New Hampshire Posters created by fourth graders
The fourth graders worked with artist Jill Webber and each created a picture about New Hampshire that was alphabetically telling. The alphabet pictures were then scanned and laid out poster size and printed. The prints ended up being several different sizes depending on our needs. The posters also were a great selling item and we have orders all the time. This was one way to put our art into a collaborative activity and then use some of the proceeds to fund our next art project.
Temple Through the seasons . . . felt murals by the Temple School children
We did a big, integrated whole-school project at the Sharon Art Center. The children participated in creating these murals which are about 4'x5'. The murals hang in our multipurpose room. They are made out of felt and the process was incredible. To keep the project alive, we then created pictures of the murals, sent them to the printers, and had cards created. Each pack of cards was sold for $6.00 and we couldn't get enough. The projects combined with a study of Temple through the seasons but any New England village could have been portrayed. This was an incredible activity. One that can last for several years.
Local artists come to school to share their works with children. The children are totally inspired. We are always inspired by how many artists actually live near us and how many don't want money to come in . . .they don't mind sharing what they do. The children don't actually make and take . . .they watch, listen, and become inspired. This has become an important piece of our art program.
This painting, done by Wally Young, was painted while children actually watched him work with lighting. The children were so taken with his works that we fund raised enough money to purchase this painting for our school. Wow!
Contact: Niki McGettigan, Principal
Temple Elementary School
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 Andrew Raeside, Art and Music Program Coordinator
Art Educator of the Year 2000 for the P. Buckley Moss Foundation for Children's Education Spaulding Youth Center, Tilton
Annual Arts Festival
Length of Program: one day per year
Personnel: all staff, VSA arts staff, contracted professional musicians
Goals: integration of language arts and history into theatre
Learning Outcomes: lessons in history, language arts, social studies, social skills, self-management, self-esteem
Objectives:
- to provide a public venue to showcase the creativity of our students;
- to provide an environment to allow appropriate and positive interaction between students and their parents (Spaulding is a residential school);
- to attract possible financial contributors;
- to attract positive media attention.
Every school needs money. Money for Arts, money for everything.A good way to raise money for your Arts Program, or any part of the school, is to do something that attracts positive attention from your potential funding sources. In this case, parents, charitable organizations, corporations, concerned citizens. This is how fundraising works for athletic programs, and it can work for the Arts too. First, however, you need an event that is high quality enough to attract some positive attention.
How do you plan such an event? There are lots of ways. The easiest I know is to hire a visiting artist. It requires an investment. But it can stir up lots of enthusiasm among teachers, potential volunteers, and students. It often brings positive attention from the media as well. That can create a team of individuals who may be able to turn a one-time blitz into an annual event that actually makes money. There are also funding sources that can help you up front, like the State Council on the Arts.
Visual Artists, Theatrical Artists, Musicians and dancers have all done this at the Spaulding Youth Center to great effect.
You can start by identifying a person in your school who is willing to champion the cause for you. If you are working through the State Council, this person will be the "site coordinator." Often, once you have a person who is willing to take on some responsibility for planning, things begin to fall into place.
We have done this at Spaulding Youth Center for the last five years. For the last three years, no visiting artists have been necessary. All the work was done by internal volunteers. At a private, nonprofit school like Spaulding, this is a perfect opportunity to invite potential donors to the school.
Of course, the real reason for the festival is the enormous benefit it provides for the students, but these other benefits should not be overlooked. People prefer to donate to causes that are interesting, unusual and fun. And isn't that what you want to bring to your students anyway?
Description: The model for the Arts Festival is as follows: the festival usually starts just before lunch with the students and staff parading around the quadrangle in the middle of our campus. They display works they have made as they go, usually banners, T-shirts, large puppets, etc. There is a cook-out for lunch. After lunch, each program performs a play outside in the quadrangle. A number of "art stops" or art activities are provided for the students.. After, professional musicians provide a concert/dance for the students. A display of student artwork is also included.
Mr. Raeside is willing to be a mentor/resource to other educators.He will also help support other educators' initiatives by facilitating visitations to the Spaulding Youth Center.
Contact: Andrew Raeside, Art and Music Program Coordinator
Spaulding Youth Center
PO Box 189
Tilton, NH 03276
603/286-8901 fax: 603/286-8650
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