orchestra
Inviting Partnerships for Music Education Cynthia Kiepert, WMEA State Chair, Orchestra
While I was driving between schools, I was thinking of the systems of support for music education that I have been tap- ping into for the past two decades. I dis- covered that there were many and we
have multiple systems of support for our groups, which in turn strengthens our support from the community for music education and its importance in the lives of our students.
Creating Joint Adventures
When starting out teaching at first, go to the Wisconsin State Music Conference and begin meeting teachers to find out what they are doing in their classrooms, how they are raising funds for support, taking trips to see various artists or bring- ing in clinicians and if they have parent groups for advocacy and support. Start with the area where you are teaching and send the orchestra or groups of students from an ensemble to an honors festival or a “string day” at certain colleges. Meet, discuss and say, “I would love to join on this joint adventure with all of you…I can get a quarter of the funds together.” It is a start and there you go. A new partnership is formed and then next time you will in- vite the other groups to your school for a guest clinician from, say… Massachusetts. What really occurs is a wonderful, new experience for the orchestra students of all four schools, which may not have been feasible with one school alone.
In the Central Wisconsin area, we work with the college and the Suzuki Center to form two honors orchestra festivals, one for the high school students and one for the sixth grade (or second year student) and the younger suzuki orchestra; both festivals occur on a weekend in January or February. One idea would be to hold
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your own orchestra festival and invite several orchestras that are close enough to travel and hire the clinicians. A great resource would be to call WSMA for adjudicators.
Forming partnerships with performing arts centers, children’s performing and theatre groups, or companies in your town is resourceful. Many towns bring in guest artists for performances and you can con- tact them to see if you can get your group invited for a clinic when they are in town or offer your students’ and your help in supporting the event. The next time, you may be invited to join forces and help to bring the artists into the school system or to the theater for a clinic/performance session. These kinds of life experiences will never be forgotten by the students or yourself!
Grants and Foundations
There are many grants and foundations out there to look at and fill out applications for financial support for the music programs. I have recently perused the internet and found many sites to make applications to for support. The first ones are in your own neighborhoods for instance: a local community foundation that offers multiple grants for educational purposes or student scholarships, local companies that offer grants for educator innovative initiatives or projects, companies that will help spon- sor a guest artist for a performance and multiple school visits or a clinic at one school or theater, and the school provides busing for students to that venue.
Being a music educator, start by join- ing NAfME and WiASTA, both great resources for support of grants, WiASTA mini-grant, Wisconsin Composers (could hire one for a composition project and apply for an innovative grant). Check out the NEA Foundation grants that are given three times per year and they give out approximately 120 grants to educators each year.
Here are some of the links I found helpful:
http://www.wiasta.org/ grants-and-awards.html
https://www.nafme.org http://www.neafoundation.org
https://www.neafoundation.org/ for-educators/global
https://www.thoughtco.com/ music-education-grants-2456504
The final link at ThoughtCo had several grants listed and one was specific for string education grades 5–8. This fund interested me for next year for the younger string stu- dents; as long as there is a financial need and you as the teacher, design your own project for the grant. The grants all have different due dates for the applications, so read closely for the details of rules of the grants and due dates for submission.
“Invite partnerships with colleagues, other educators
from different areas, area businesses, performing art centers, etc., and join your associations to help build
sustainability for your orchestra program.”
April 2018
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