Art and Art History Dept. receives federal grant

Fort Worth, TX

9/8/2008

At a recent press conference Friday, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger joined with the Fort Worth ISD and members of the Fort Worth arts community to announce the awarding of a three-year Department of Education grant to the Fort Worth Independent School District. The TCU Art and Art History Department will receive $95,000 of the $941,570 total federal funding to work with FWISD art teachers in summer workshops.

The initiative will engage Fort Worth ISD arts educators and other instructional staff in a high quality professional development program in music, dance, drama, and visual arts.

Amanda Allison, TCU’s art education coordinator, explains there will be three years of professional development training for Fort Worth art teachers. Goals will be to develop their artistic skills and further their content knowledge in areas such as art criticism, assessment and aesthetics. “During the first summer session, teachers will study various approaches to ceramics with Chris Powell and develop their art criticism skills with Terry Barrett,” Amanda continues. “The remaining two summers will focus on other studio areas such as mixed media and portraiture and art content areas such as aesthetics. Our involvement in this project allows us to fulfill our mission of being an integral professional development resource for art teachers in North Texas.”

Ron Watson (chair, art & art history) says, "This grant allows our department to increase and broaden the preparation in professional practices we offer art teachers." “The TCU College of Fine Arts is delighted to have this opportunity to partner with FWISD to enhance arts education in our city,” said Scott Sullivan, dean. “This program will pay dividends in the lives of our children for years to come.” 

The primary partners working with FWISD are TCU, the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Performing Arts Fort Worth, Casa Mañana, Fort Worth Opera, the Fort Worth Symphony and Imagination Celebration. Forty additional arts organizations from across the Fort Worth arts community are also working to make this effort a success.