Our Lady of the Mountains Welcomes an Artist in Residence

The Kentucky Arts Council offers the Teacher Initiated Program to help teachers bring professional artists into classrooms for one-, two-, three, and even four-week residencies to demonstrate their art forms and to provide hands-on arts experiences for students and teachers. This is a matching grant, so schools must provide some funding, however the KAC matches the grant on a 2-1 basis. Here is the link to the program:

http://artscouncil.ky.gov/guide/prog6/tip_guid.htm

Some of our diocesan schools have applied and received funding through this program. Below is a report from Cathy Cybriwsky, principal of Our Lady of the Mountains School in Paintsville, about their recent Artist in Residence experience (and the photo at left is their visiting artist, Ms. Roberta Schulz!).

Our Lady of the Mountains School was recently awarded a grant by the Kentucky Arts Council to fund an intensive 2-week Artist in Residency Program. This program is designed to bring a musical artist into the school to expand the student’s experience and exposure to the musical arts.

We were delighted to welcome Ms. Roberta Schulz, an accomplished musician, performer, and teacher, who stayed in the area to work with our students and teachers for two weeks in January. The title of her residency program was "Harmony through the Ages".

Highlights of her stay included:
-classroom instruction with all grades
-a presentation for parents at the PTO meeting
-a Professional Development course for teachers on strategies/techniques to integrate music into the classroom
-a student performance on Friday, Jan 25th.

What a wonderful opportunity for our students! Here are some of their comments:

• I thought Mrs. Schultz was a very good blessing that we've had and I would like to learn more.
• I LOVED this class!
• We sang a lot of songs, learnt new songs and learnt about a lot of instruments.
• We learned while we were having fun!
  
  And as one parent commented:

The arts are so vital to creating healthy children who will become productive, creative adults-thank you for recognizing the value and benefit of including the arts in education.

Our Lady of the Mountains would also like to thank our sponsors who contributed funds to match the grant -- Citizens National Bank, Highlands Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Miller, and Goggans Construction. Their generous contributions made the Artist in Residency possible. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Mariam S., parent of an OLM pre-school student, who was responsible for securing the grant.

We are hopeful that similar programs will be offered in the future!