Jan. 26, 2004
Contact: Susan Duffy
(805) 756-2935
Cal Poly Awarded $30,000 Grant To Help Teachers Find Ag, Art Connection
SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Kellogg Foundation has awarded the Cal Poly
Liberal Studies Department a $30,000 grant to fund a program that will
help teachers find connections between agriculture and the arts.
The Cal Poly Agricultural Literacy and the Arts project offers a series
of professional development workshops and summer institutes for 4th- through
12th-grade teachers. The goal of the project is to raise public awareness
about the importance agriculture has in California’s economy by
training teachers to address agricultural issues in new and creative ways,
according to Susan Duffy, chair of the Liberal Studies Department.
“Professional art educators will lead workshops and discuss how
artists across the centuries have conveyed the importance of agriculture
through literature, visual arts, theater and music,” Duffy said.
The first workshop, titled “Agriculture and Medicine,” was
held earlier this month. The next workshop, “Agricultural Icons
in American Society,” will be March 13.
“In this workshop, the focus will be on artworks that serve as a
tribute to American agriculture as well as serve as metaphoric emblems
of the democratic masses of America,” Duffy said. Space is still
available for teachers who would like to participate.
In addition, a public lecture and slide presentation by internationally
acclaimed photographer Jock McDonald is set for 7 p.m. March 12 at Cal
Poly. A summer institute is also planned Aug. 13-14. Workshops are still
being planned, but topics under consideration include “Thomas Hart
Benton’s Agrarian Art,” “Textile Arts and Agriculture,”
and another that would explore the use of two California crops by professional
artists.
“All workshops incorporate the California Visual and Performing
Arts standards, along with the state content standards in applicable areas
of science, literature and social studies,”
Duffy said.
Continuing education credits are available through Cal Poly Continuing
Education. For more information on the upcoming workshops and summer institute,
contact Duffy at 756-2935 or sduffy@calpoly.edu.
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(NOTE: More information on the Jock McDonald talk and slide presentation
will be included in a forthcoming news release.)