The Manhattan New Music Project

The Manhattan New Music Project (MNMP) is currently collecting funding and preparing the implementation for two new major educational initiatives in New York City Public Schools:

1) INTEGRATED ARTS ACCESS (IAA)
Bringing the Arts to Special Needs Students in Home and Hospital Instruction

On behalf of District 75 of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), MNMP is seeking funding for a four-year, multidisciplinary, integrative arts initiative: The Integrated Arts Access Project (IAA), a standards-based program designed to provide arts services to students who require home and hospital instruction throughout New York City. Integrated Arts Access (IAA) will bring the arts to children who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to attend school, and is designed to encourage students’ creative inquiry and artistic expression. There is an enormous need for this project, as the students we serve currently receive virtually no arts instruction whatsoever. Through a series of professional development workshops and, in some cases, in-class support, participating teachers of grades K-8 will learn skills and strategies across all arts disciplines (drama, music, dance, and visual arts) to facilitate student artistic creation. Rather than viewing students as passive consumers of the arts, we seek to foster active, inquisitive, collaborative creators, capable of self-expression through a variety of arts disciplines and media. In the final year of the program, a group of participating teachers will be trained to train other teachers in this curriculum to disseminate the knowledge gained throughout District 75 and the entire NYC public school system.

2) ACCESS THROUGH THE ARTS (ATA)
Professional Training For Arts Teachers Working With Autistic Children

On behalf of District 75 of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), MNMP is seeking funding for a multi-year, multidisciplinary, arts initiative: the Access Through The Arts Project (ATA), a standards-based program designed to provide professional development to arts teachers working with students afflicted by Autism and Asperger syndrome throughout New York City.

Access Through The Arts (ATA) is designed as a teacher training program that helps arts educators to encourage their students’ creative inquiry and artistic expression and to develop a deeper understanding of their students personality and emotional expressions. There is an enormous need for this project, as the students we serve currently receive virtually no arts instruction that specifically addresses their disability. Through a series of professional development workshops and in-class support, participating teachers of grades K-12 will learn skills and strategies across all arts disciplines (drama, music, dance, and visual arts) to facilitate student artistic creation and gage student engagement and progress. Rather than viewing students as passive consumers of the arts, we seek to foster active, inquisitive, collaborative creators, capable of self-expression through a variety of arts disciplines and media for students of all backgrounds and abilities. The curriculum for this program will be developed in partnership with experts from the Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research. Programmatic evaluation by Dr. Rob Horowitz will provide the necessary research to demonstrate effectiveness of the curriculum to develop a compendium of best practices. A group of participating teachers will be trained in training other teachers in these best practices to disseminate the knowledge gained throughout District 75 and the entire NYC public school system.

MNMP deeply believes in demonstrating effectiveness of its curricula and training programs. It has thus secured the services of Dr. Rob Horowitz, a nationally recognized arts and education researcher, Professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College for programmatic evaluation of its work and dissemination of its findings within the national community of arts educators and researchers. Amongst many other publications he has contributed to, Mr. Horowitz is a recent contributor to Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, published by the Arts Education Partnership.