The nonprofit arts group named for Lafayette’s own famed artist George Rodrigue is working to bring a model arts education initiative to Louisiana’s public schools.
Started in North Carolina in 1995, A + Schools is an established arts education approach that “infuses art, reflection, performance and other methods of understanding into every subject of learning.”
“The network provides teachers with the essentials to think more creatively about how students can apply learning to the real world, and how they can present curricula to students in ways they learn best,” according to a release touting the program. “University research reveals dramatic improvements including elevated student achievement, better student and teacher attendance, decreased discipline problems, stronger parental and community involvement and a more creative and enjoyable educational environment.”
In addition to North Carolina, A + Schools has been successfully implemented in Oklahoma and Arkansas before recent funding cuts shuttered the Arkansas initiative.
According to the A+ Schools website, arts integration is achieved through “continuous practitioner-led professional development, statewide support networks for teachers and administrators, and school partnerships with parents, community cultural resources, colleges and universities, and the media.”
The program’s success in other states has prompted the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts to team up with LSU and Oklahoma A+ Schools in endorsing the program for Louisiana. The three groups will also be hosting information sessions across the state on the arts education movement and its viability here at home, with Lafayette’s meeting scheduled for June 6 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Acadiana Center for the Arts.
Click here to RSVP online for Lafayette’s A+ Schools information session, or call 504-324-9614 to RSVP by phone.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Subscribe to this comment's feed