Arts in Education

The BAAC has been sponsoring successful arts education programs in the Batesville Schools since 1988, and has been cited as a model program by the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts in the past. 

 

The goal of the BAAC Arts Education Program is to enrich the educational experiences and lives of the students and teachers in the Batesville schools by bringing a variety of professional artists into the schools to integrate the arts into the existing school curricula. This arts-curricula integration allows students to have hands-on, three-dimensional experiences that involve all the senses, and create learning experiences students will remember long after they have forgotten the material in the class textbooks.

 

To accomplish this, the BAAC provides generous funds for schools to bring in resident and visiting artists in many disciplines, such as art, music, theater, writing, and dance. The BAAC will pay 90% of direct costs for artists who visit the school. The school is responsible for the other 10%.

 

Some past artists include:

 

• Don Edwards, Indianapolis potter 

• Bonnie Stahlecker, bookmaker from Plainfield

• Sowah Mensah, master drummer from Ghana, Africa

• Tess Klibanoff, Cincinnati-based choreographer

• Troy Cummins, nationally recognized author and illustrator

• Poetry Alive!, professional poetry troop

• Naptown Jazz, jazz group from Indianapolis

• Hot Blown Glass, glass artists from Indianapolis

• Joni Fleming, caricature artist

• Karen Land, Iditarod musher

• Hanna Gundrum, San Diego-based muralist