ACE FAAE

are essential to the vitality and quality of life in schools and communities;
address both cultural inclusiveness and diversity;
are powerful in the education of students with special needs;
and have a positive impact in student achievement.

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ACE/Florida Alliance for Arts Education
P.O. Box 1476
Winter Park, FL 32790
phone: 407-488-8868
info@faae.org

Manatee County ACE/FAAE

The Manatee County ACE/FAAE coalition has been in existence for three years. However, several of its members have a long history with the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network dating back to the early 1990's. Our coalition is an arm of the Arts Council of Manatee County and the Council’s education committee. We receive both financial and advisory assistance from the Arts Council of Manatee County.

Model Programs:

Our second “Riders for Readers” event will take place on March 15, 2007. We are already working on fund raising for this unique program.

Last year bikers gathered at the Arts Council of Manatee County office, and were led to the Sheriff's PAL school by a Bradenton motorcycle officer. Each rider spent thirty minutes or more reading to a group of children, then the students from 1st grade through 5th grade, were given 2 books and a tee shirt of their own. Our program was presented in cooperation with Velocity Motorcycles, in Richmond, Virginia, Kiwanis Club of Bradenton, and the Arts Council.

Our last ACE/FAAE meeting was a Celebration and Welcome Party for Dr. Sherry Lawrence, the new full time curriculum specialist in performing and fine arts and gifted education for Manatee Public Schools. Our advocacy for this position has paid off.

This year’s edition of our popular “Arts Ideas Book” was recently delivered to all public and private schools in Manatee County. Updated every year, this book lists all arts venues in Manatee and Sarasota counties that offer programs for students and teachers. It includes our Professional Artists in the Classroom programs, a sample contract (approved by the schools’ lawyer) that can be used when teachers hire an artist, and grants and scholarships available through several local funders.

“Take Stock in Arts Teachers” is a continuing program. Stock certificates are sold at $25.00 a share. Four shares pays for a substitute teacher for one day so an arts teacher can attend a workshop.

Several of the members of the Manatee County ACE/FAAE Coalition are teaching as artists-in-residence in at-risk schools operated in cooperation with the Justice Department.

Four of our Coalition members are working with the Heartland Consortium (through the Van Wezel and the Kennedy Center, and funded by the Dana Foundation) to teach classroom teachers to use the arts in core curriculum classes. (This is in six central Florida counties who have virtually no teachers for the arts.)

Four Coalition members received Teacher Incentive Grants from ACE/FAAE this year, plus one cooperating school, and one volunteer was honored for her work.

Students at Electa Lee Magnet School Complete Sculpture Project

The students at Electa Lee Magnet School have just completed their “Second Season of Sculpture,” a project for art students at the middle school. With a Teacher Incentive Grant from ACE/FAAE of $1,000, art teachers Dudley Johnson (who wrote the grant), Georgette D'Amelio, and Claire Hickman were able to parley the $1,000 grant into a $30,000 project, thanks to donations from Robson Sign Corporation, Grubbs Insurance, and a gift “In Loving Memory of Lillian B. Greene.”

Students were required to make a rendering, scale drawing, three-dimensional scale model, materials list, selection of finish for the sculpture (paint color or type of metal finish), media release for the project, and written statement about the sculpture including comments on the creative process, research, and symbolism of the work.