Forestville Education Foundation receives an “Artists
in Schools” Grant from the California Arts Council

                

Funds are provided for organizations dedicated to arts education in schools
SACRAMENTO—The California Arts Council announces that the Forestville Education
Foundation has received an “Artists in Schools” grant for the 2011-2012 school and fiscal year. The “Artists in Schools” program from the state’s arts agency is designed to support professional teaching artists in residency activities in classrooms and after school programs.

The Forestville Education Foundation will support the K-3 visual arts project at Forestville Elementary School that provides hands-on art experience based on California Visual Art standards. The project is fulfilled with the students’ creation of art in the classroom under the direction of a professional artist and will culminate in a student exhibition. Students are exposed to art history, cultural arts and art vocabulary while using various art mediums. The organization received $5,415 in funding. There are 135 arts organizations that received “Artists in Schools” grants to help bring music, theater, dance, visual arts and related arts to children statewide during the 2011-2012 school year.

"The arts are crucial to a student's educational development and especially enhance the
essential life and career skills of creativity and imagination," said Craig Watson, Director of the California Arts Council. "Our agency supports standards-based arts education through the Artists in Schools program so professional teaching artists can enhance the imagination and creativity of
our state's school-age children."

Music, theater, dance, and the visual arts are at the core of these standards-based teaching artists residencies that will engage students from different socio-economic backgrounds in positive artistic expression. Examples of residencies vary from robust music programs to public art projects that involve students and members of the community to theater training and public performances.

The organizations receiving funding are in two categories: teaching-artists residency activity, or planning grants. There are 129 organizations which will receive funding to bring professional teaching artists to in-school and after-school settings, and six organizations will receive planning grants designed to assist the arts organization and school partner to plan a course of action and strategies to incorporate arts into the classroom and community. The total amount allocated for the 2011-12 Artists in Schools program is $1,099,995.

For more information about the Forestville Education Foundation, please visit
www.forestvillefoundation.org. Reporters interested in the “Artists in Schools” program may contact Mary Beth Barber, Information Officer, at mbarber@cac.ca.gov, or (916) 322-6588. Arts organizations or school administrators interested in information about the “Artists in Schools” program may contact Wayne Cook, Arts Education Administrator and Coordinator, at wcook@cac.ca.gov, or (916) 322-6344.

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A new school immunization law requires all students entering 7th through 12th grades in the 2011-2012 school year in California to be immunized with a pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine booster called Tdap.

Pertussis is a very contagious respiratory disease that can be severe and last for months. The immunity received from either early childhood immunization or pertussis disease wears off over time, leaving older students and adults susceptible again to pertussis. Immunization with Tdap can protect students, schools and communities against pertussis.

The new requirement affects all students – current, new, and transfers – in public and private schools.          The law has two phases:

• For the 2011-2012 school year, all students entering into 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grades             will need proof of a Tdap shot before starting school.
• For 2012-2013 and future school years, all students entering into 7th grade                                                       will need proof of a Tdap shot before starting school.