Purchase College reports that  Jon Esser, Associate Dean of the Purchase College School of the Arts, has received a $16,000 grant from the Dana Foundation’s ArtsBridge America program, via Lawrence University. The grant will fund four School of the Arts students to be ArtsBridge Scholars, teaching the arts to children in underserved schools through residencies.

Here’s more from the school: “The scholars will each be selected from one of the four visual and performing arts disciplines on campus, via a competitive process. The scholars will then assigned faculty mentors from their disciplines and will undergo training from a teaching artist in the following areas: K-12 learning environment, how to create ties between the arts and other curricular areas, how to create lesson plans and how to adapt teaching styles to be age and demographic specific.”

“Students will submit lesson plans for review and approval and will then be placed in local underserved school systems with the support of a classroom teacher as well as their Purchase faculty mentor. A residency at the local school will culminate in final performances both at the local schools and on campus. ”

… ” ArtsBridge is a network of 22 universities in 13 states and Northern Ireland, and their surrounding schools, that confronts the problem of the elimination of the arts from K-12 schools. Purchase’s award is part of a larger $60,000 grant to Lawrence University from the Dana Foundation’s ArtsBridge America program. ”