March 20th- Monday Morning Blog

Welcome SPRING!

Here's what's up and coming in the Fine and Performing Arts...

As we move into the last two weeks of March, we begin a new trimester for elementary schools (Trimester 3 starts 3/20), and middle and high schools end their third term on Friday, April 7th. Whew! Art teachers, as we transition, remember to be collecting student work for the Arts Expo, and engage your students in this process.. Part of our Visual Arts Frameworks involve students choosing and preparing work for exhibition, so engage students in that process!
As I visited schools in CPT time, I picked up on a common thread in lesson planning- EYES. I have noticed in several art rooms the task of drawing eyes.. Here's some food for thought: Daniel Pink mentioned this type of drawing as symphonic thinking in A Whole New Mind. He said: Learn how to draw. Pink described it as “drawing is about seeing relationships- and then integrating those relationships into a whole.” In looking at these eyes, I notice the relationships between eye, lid, brow, but also the emotion that the artist is trying to depict, and this reminds me of our blog entry about "Purpose" in the arts. Above are a couple of examples of student work from Doran and Kuss.

This Friday and Saturday, the BMC Durfee High School Music Department hosts the Southeastern Massachusetts School Bandmasters Association Senior Festival! Over 30 schools from the Southeast will arrive at Durfee's Nagle Auditorium Friday morning to practice and perform together for the culminating concert on Saturday, also held here. Students from these schools will spend the day in the Performing Arts wing, meeting new friends from across the state, playing and performing together, accompanied by their music directors. Hosting this event is a herculean effort, and Matt MacMullen along with the team- Erin Erban, Gary Bigelow and Lara Beth Terry have all been instrumental in pulling this off!
Looking ahead, we are also very excited to host the 2017 All City Band and Orchestra Concerts! These huge events will be held on 3/30 (All City Band) and 4/6 (All City Orchestra). Super cool repertoire chosen, and our Directors and students have been working hard to prepare for this performance! 5th grade through 8th, with the help of their high school peers will perform their instrumental pieces for their families and the community.

DAY	DATE	EVENT
Monday	3.20	DHS ELA MCAS Pep Rally for Sophomores Period 5
Tuesday	3.21	DHS ELA MCAS Testing Day 1
Wednesday	3.22	DHS ELA MCAS Testing Day 2
Thursday	3.23	DHS ELA MCAS Testing Day 3
Thursday	3.30	DHS Senior Assembly (Proposed Period 3)
Friday	4.7	Term III Ends
Tuesday	4.11	DHS Faculty Meeting
Friday	4.14	FRPS No School - Good Friday
Monday	4.17	FRPS First Day of Spring Recess
Monday	4.24	FRPS Back to School- *Begin Hanging Arts Expo Work!*
Monday	6.26	Current last day of school for teachers (if we have no remaining snow days!)

I met with two potential arts community partners to try to bridge our system with artists in the community. Holli Faria from Studio Life Art could prove to be a great partner to work with schools who seek a meditation/mindfulness plus art venue- her studio on Globe Street provides a place for young people to practice yoga and participate in art tasks that branch off of the thought processes involved in the meditation. I also met with Ben Gilbarg from Visionary Communications (founded Third eYe Unlimited) who has several potential school based services, ranging from assemblies to murals to after school and in school programs. His goal is to engage youth through communications and the arts. My goal for this partner would be to connect him with the music/audio, FRED TV and Freedom Writers to build a potential partnership here at Durfee and possibly have him present their work at the middle schools.

Yours,

Jackie 😍