New Haven Public Schools are working with the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, California on a special initiative aimed at sparking collaboration across the city’s arts community. The Creator’s Classroom program will bring together educators and guest presenters in music, dance, theater, and visual arts for a one-day event. CT Public Radio’s Lori Mack spoke with Patrick Smith, Fine Arts Coordinator for New Haven Public Schools and Arin Canbolat, Vice President of Education and community engagement at the GRAMMY Museum.
Here are edited highlights from their conversation:
What is the GRAMMY Museum?
AC - The GRAMMY Museum is one of six affiliates that are underneath what is the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, (NARAS). It’s the entity that awards the GRAMMY Awards. The GRAMMY Museum is tasked with preservation and inspiring the next generation. From the education side, we focus on K-12, with many programs geared toward high school, middle school, and even elementary students.
On how the idea came about
PS - 30 years of teaching in the inner city of New Haven taught me that we have to look at a different paradigm when it comes to music education. About five years ago, I began working with the GRAMMY organization to create professional development for teachers, because the connection from the Grammys to the grassroots is often distant. The best way to cultivate talent in our schools is through the teachers. When they feel supported, they pass that care on to their students.
On the Creator’s Classroom program in New Haven
AC - In New Haven, the focus will be on music industry education, particularly creating and contemporary styles and the business of that creation. Another key piece is culturally responsive education, teaching teachers how to utilize the cultures in their classroom represented by the students. In a lot of cases (and it happens a lot of times in music), you would be someone who is not necessarily what your students are. So how can reach those students of a different culture while doing it through affinity rather than appropriation? So we'll have some workshops, some talks, some panels focusing on culture in the classroom and music industry education, and contemporary styles, which is what the kids are listening to today.
On GRAMMY Museum support throughout the year
AC - In particular, this all started off around hip-hop when Pat and I first started talking. We have a hip-hop exhibit that's now traveling. It's at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but it was at the museum for celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. We'll be giving them [teachers] resources that we've created from the exhibit. So there'll be a lot of resource sharing and giving throughout the year and hope that the relationship continues with New Haven, its students, and its teachers.
On what the initiative could mean for students
PS: They will discover for themselves the love that they can have for themselves and their creativity. As a teacher, if you meet the student where they are, as opposed to where perhaps you were told they should be, you can engage with them at any age and figuratively speaking, hold their hand and guide them through the labyrinth of education. And they come out the other end, great people, great achievers, and excellent artists.
On the value of the arts
PS: Every great business person, every great scientist, every great writer, every great philosopher, every great politician was taught by a teacher. The fact that people are successful is because they can co-process information from an abstract place and a concrete place. And the arts supply the abstract side.
AC: There was an article that my mom gave me when I was in college. It was about Leonard Bernstein. They quoted Michael Tilson Thomas, then the music director for the San Francisco Symphony. And he stated this question - what is the purpose of the arts? And what it boiled down to is that it's to make people bigger and more understanding of themselves and the world.
The arts is this central piece of humanity that's universal that can help you understand cultures across the world as well as people who are right next door to you.
To learn more visit Orchestra New England
