02-25-09
Traphagen Elementary SCHOOL receives grant FROM ARTSWESTCHESTER
    ArtsWestchester is pleased to announce the 2009 Arts Partners Challenge Grants.  Concordia Conservatory, the community music school at Concordia College in Bronxville, and the Traphagen Elementary School of Mount Vernon City School District were grantees this year.
     Concordia Conservatory in conjunction with the Martin H. Traphagen Elementary School in Mount Vernon were awarded a challenge grant for a program entitled “Drum Talk”. The grant includes in-school sessions with an all-school performance with Conservatory faculty member and percussionist Yousif Sheronick.  This grant provides students with exposure to world music and an extraordinary experience in a cultural context. Matching funds from Concordia Conservatory and the Traphagen School along with The Arts Partners Challenge Grant will support this collaboration.
     The Arts Partners Challenge Grants encourage schools, cultural organizations and artists to collaborate on projects that use the arts to enhance teaching and learning by providing matching funds for artists or arts organizations to integrate arts into the non-art curriculum through school residencies.  Arts Partners Challenge Grants are made possible with funds from the Local Capacity Building Initiative of the Arts in Education Department of the New York State Council on the Arts.
     The funded projects taking place in schools throughout Westchester, Sullivan, Orange and Putnam counties offer creative ways for students to learn through the arts.  Some of the projects include teaching language arts skills through creating theater performances and students designing and building architectural spaces that depict themes in their social studies curriculum.  This year, many projects focused on using music and performance to support student learning.
     ArtsWestchester founded in 1965, is the largest, private, not-for-profit arts council in New York State. Its mission is to provide leadership, vision, and support, to ensure the availability, accessibility, and diversity of the arts. In 1998, the Arts Council purchased 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, now known as The Arts Exchange, and is developing the building as a multi-use resource for artists, cultural organizations, and the community.
     Concordia Conservatory’s mission is to inspire, instruct and enrich lives through music for all people regardless of age, ability, ethnic origin or financial situation and to serve as a musical education resource for the southern Westchester County community.