« Back to Partners in the Arts grants
Salem Church Middle School
Honors student Sarah Mills reads poetry in
partnership with the interactive music of VCU
student Karl Morse.
During the summer of 2007, VCU Jazz Studies Director Antonio García led a presentation for Richmond-area teachers sponsored by Partners in the Arts. Following the presentation, Salem Church Middle School faculty member Dorrie Bishop approached García in October 2007 with a proposal to link the two schools via a grant from PIA for the spring 2008 semester. The grant, titled “Remembering the 1920s,” would “provide our seventh-grade students with a meaningful understanding of the 1920s, including its history and the social impact of its literature, art and music; endow our Honors Institute students with leadership and team-building skills made more powerful and significant by their connection with music and music history; and present our entire faculty with music-based teaching strategies that can be applied in all content areas, in all grade levels and with all ability groups to enhance the learning process for all of our students.”
Salem Church Middle School students
Bradford Priestley (left) and Brea Hill at
the 2008 kickoff concert.
The grant was the joint inspiration of Bishop, SCMS English teacher and Honors Institute Program coordinator, Social Studies teacher Michael Irby, and Fine and Performing Arts Chair Patricia Bray — each of whom had attended García’s PIA workshop — as well as Visual Art teacher Steve Harris. The team worked with García on the grant application for months. It was approved by PIA in January 2008 and led to a February 2008 in-service workshop by García for the middle school teachers and a kick-off concert at VCU for the SCMS students. The concert performers were García (trombone/vocals) and VCU’s Mary Morton Parsons Jazz Masters, a faculty ensemble that presents solo and group sessions at schools throughout Richmond and beyond to acquaint children with jazz in partnership with a permanent endowment donated by patrons of jazz through a challenge grant from The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation. That group includes VCU professors Skip Gailes (saxophone), Mike Ess (guitar), Victor Dvoskin (bass) and Tony Martucci (drums), and former VCU Jazz faculty Bob Hallahan (piano).
Throughout the semester, this collaboration brought various VCU Jazz faculty and Jazz and Music Education students to SCMS to teach specific classes on Louis Armstrong, the Harlem Renaissance and leadership and communication skills. The residency concluded in April 2008 with a Student Showcase at SCMS, which featured García and VCU students improvising music to accompany a variety of SCMS student interactive presentations.
