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	Last updated 6.07.07

NEA Fine Arts Grants: 2007 Recipients

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AK CA CO FL GA IN LA MI MN NJ NY WA WV WI

ALASKA

Through “The Musical Heritage Project,” Ms. Mobley provides a rich musical experience that helps students grow musically, academically, and culturally. Students learn music theory through a curriculum that integrates theory activities, choir music, and mathematics and use music notation software to write or arrange music from their own diverse cultural heritages. At the culmination of the project students perform their songs at a school concert and community events.

CALIFORNIA

Michael Raytis, Oakland
9th to 12th Grade Art Teacher
Skyline High School
NEA Affiliate: Oakland Education Association  

Students in Mr. Raytis’s ceramics classes design and create relief murals depicting scenes from the cultural history of Oakland’s diverse neighborhoods. To build background knowledge, students examine the socioeconomic, political, and cultural history of Oakland’s neighborhoods and explore the history of mural painting as a means of communicating social and political messages in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. Using the historical context, students develop themes and imagery for their mural and sculpt relief tiles for murals that are permanently installed on the campus.

COLORADO

Joseph Verbeke, Commerce City
6th to 8th Grade Band Instructor
Kearney Middle School
NEA Affiliate: School District 14 Classroom Teachers Association 

Mr. Verbeke uses music composition and performance software to provide his at-risk students with the opportunity to be creatively engaged while addressing state and district curriculum standards. Students compose musical pieces, learn rhythms and musical vocabulary, and play music with computer-based accompaniment. The program’s built-in assessment system provides immediate interactive feedback on students’ work.

FLORIDA

To help students learn to utilize higher-order thinking skills, Mr. Laffin implements an art criticism unit. Students learn to describe, analyze, interpret, and judge art and create four written art critiques for artwork from Western, non-Western, and indigenous artists. Students also visit a Miami-area museum and write reviews on selected artwork. To maximize the impact of the work, students discuss how the higher-order thinking skills they’ve learned through art criticism can be used in other areas of their lives and compose an essay on the subject.

Through the creation of a ceramic mural, Mr. Vacek provides the opportunity for students from a high risk treatment/correctional facility to build interpersonal skills, appreciate intellectual and artistic products, increase motivation and decision-making skills, and develop a vision of themselves as lifelong learners. Students design, construct, and install glazed tiles to create a “Wall of Respect” with messages of dignity, respect, and responsibility.

GEORGIA

Katherine L. Savage, Douglasville
6th to 8th Grade Music Teacher
Chestnut Log Middle School
NEA Affiliate: Douglas County Association of Educators  

Ms. Savage creates a “World-drumming Workshop” to provide a cooperative learning environment for students to explore, experience, and develop instrumental skills in drumming styles of Africa, Asia, South America, and Native America. Integrating mathematical terminology and concepts with musical motifs and notation, students learn to understand polyrhythmic patterns, execute drumming strokes while reading notation, study the culture related to musical pieces, and build a Japanese barrel drum. As a final evaluation, students create, notate, and perform original drum compositions.

INDIANA

To increase student motivation, attendance, and parental support, Ms. Lawalin incorporates technology and computer graphics into her art curriculum. Students learn to use technology software, explore the role of animation in history and politics, and develop criteria to make informed judgments about art. Looking beyond the classroom, students investigate art-related professions and learn how experience with art affects daily life.

LOUISIANA

Through “Books of Expression,” Ms. Snowbarger implements a project for students at the alternative high school to make meaningful connections to other subjects through art while learning to express themselves creatively. Students research the history of printing and book-making, explore the science and mathematics concepts behind making looms, pulp, and finished paper, and develop short stories, poems, and personal journal entries around a central theme. Students create illustrations and construct hand-made books. At the culmination of the projects, students complete an oil composition based on one of the illustrations from their book.

MICHIGAN

To instill pride and confidence in the community and celebrate the school district’s 150th anniversary, Ms. Lyle’s students use art to commemorate and historically preserve local landmarks. Students digitally photograph community landmarks and create oil and acrylic paintings from the photographs. Through art shows and local events, students present their work to the community.

MINNESOTA

Ms. Michell’s immigrant and refugee students create pieces that reflect the art of their native countries to expand their understanding of the language of art. After studying abstract art, folk art, and representational art, students create symmetrical relief print pattern designs that reflect their native art in terms of geometric or organic shape and color. Students reference these patterns in designing and installing a larger pattern of vinyl tiles in the entryway of the school.

NEW JERSEY

To increase middle school students’ exposure to the arts, Ms. Katz develops “The Precise Moment,” an interdisciplinary photography unit using disposable cameras. In addition to photography, students learn the science of photograph development, develop measurement skills for mat framing, study the culture of Trenton, and compose narratives to accompany their work. Applying all of these skills, students produce a photo essay on family and culture in Trenton, New Jersey and display their work for the community.

NEW YORK

To increase the artistic vocabulary and motivation of her alternative high school students, Ms. Harpole implements an after school film program. Students film in their community, edit sound and images using computer software, and create a professional quality film. Engaging peer critics, students screen their work for the school and community.

WASHINGTON

Ms. Hanks develops a music technology class to attract at-risk students to the arts and increase achievement. Using music software, students explore music notation and sequencing, record with real and digital instruments, and compose and mix original musical pieces in several genres. At the culmination of the project, students compose and notate a piece of music to be performed by the entire class.

WEST VIRGINIA

To address students’ declining mastery of language arts skills, Mr. Richmond creates an art gallery project to help students connect visual art with language arts. Exploring careers in art, students research and select reproductions of famous artworks, as well as student and community art, for display in a permanent art gallery space. Students prepare the reproductions for display, produce an illustrated catalogue for publicity, and assume the role of docents, leading tours and discussions of the artwork. To expand language art skills, students review the display as art critics and use the art displays as inspiration for creative writing assignments.

WISCONSIN

Responding to the results of a student survey, Ms. Schullo creates an art focused student organization to help increase positive family communication and nurture a caring school climate. Working with the local chamber of commerce, students use glass mosaic tiles to decorate benches built by the school’s Technology Education Department and sell the benches at a community auction to raise money for the organization. Students also create textured ceramic magnets to be sold by local businesses and design and install a ceramic display for the school’s administration building.