Arts in Education

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, dance, culinary arts, graphic design, video production, cultural arts, and many more. 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 and annual favorite

• Bonnie Stahlecker, bookmaker from Plainfield, Indiana who leads workshops to create unique handmade books

• Sowah Mensah, master drummer from Ghana, Africa

• Reed Steele, mime

• Naptown Jazz, jazz group from Indianapolis

• Matthew Graham, Indiana Poet Laureate

• Chris Rasor, a professional music educator and choreographer

• Steven Harmeyer, a producer from The 812 and WLWT

• Emily Bauer, professional cake artist

The BAAC's Arts in Education Program has been cited as a model program by the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts in the past.