School Partnership Program
Our School Partnership Program sends our faculty to teach woodworking and visual arts in Boston Public Schools and non-profit organizations during the school day, after school, and over the summer. In the 2011–12 school year, we taught over 1,200 children in Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Our School Partnership Program also hosts two special initiatives:
Our Roslindale Arts Initiative is building a pathway of excellent art education for all K–8 students in one Boston neighborhood. Our teaching artists join with BPS art teachers to create model curriculum. Principals meet to strategize, and Parent Councils provide advocacy and support for the arts as a part of core education for every child. Students showcase their work in two exhibitions each year: at Roslindale Open Studios in November and a Youth Arts Festival in June.
Our Middle School Initiative brings visual arts and woodworking to students at a critical period in their lives. Visual arts engage students through self-expression, while woodworking brings them to mastery through hands-on construction and connections to the built environment.
Our Scholarship Fund was established with a private donation in 2011, and matched with additional donations each year. In 2011 we granted scholarships for in-house classes to 12 low-income students. In Summer 2012 we granted scholarships to 24 students, including 15 children in our Summer Program and 3 teens year-round.
Flexible, Excellent, Affordable
We are known for our ability to respond to each school's needs, the excellence of our teachers and our affordability. Our teachers work with school staff to create courses that complement academic curriculum. We can merge art, woodworking, sewing and other crafts with hidden math, literacy, social studies, science, community service and other interests. Classes can be as short as one session or as long as a year. We are happy to negotiate a budget that works for each school.
Contact us to explore woodworking, art and other options for your school.
Examples
- Our skill-building art class helped students in grades 6–8 prepare to apply to high schools that focus on the arts. (Murphy School)
- Our Woodworking curriculum supported state math standards for grades 3–5. (Agassiz School)
- Sixth graders made comic strips featuring their own superheroes. (Boston Teachers' Union School)
- Children in grades K-2 created illustrated books “All About Me” and “About My Neighborhood.” (Winthrop School)
- Students created new clothes by tying and sewing recycled fabric. (Fifield School)
- Kindergarteners designed, built and painted a community from wood. (Philbrick School)
- Children built birdhouses, then went to Boston Nature Center for a unit on birds. A second group built planters, then filled them and learned about seeds at Allandale Farm. (Science Club for Girls)
- Fourth graders built miniature colonial houses and corn-husk dolls, then assembled a village and enacted scenes from colonial life. (Young Achievers School)
- Our Dyeing and Weaving teachers enriched a 3rd grade unit on the Navajo. (Young Achievers School)
- Middle school students helped design and build benches as part of a Community Links Initiative, with elementary school students painting tiles to decorate them. (Irving, Bates and Sumner Schools)
Teachers
Visual Arts
Ellen Berrahmoun, Maggie Carberry, Pablo Friedmann, Rachel Maguire, Julie Martini, Ellen Shattuck Pierce, Laura Evonne Steinman, Jamal Thorne
Woodworking
Alison Croney, Teo Drake, Deymirie Hernández–Vázquez, Julio Fuentes, Michael Molinari, Jeffrey Martin, Tam Willey
Sewing & Yarn
Diane Ivey, Kelly Knight, Carol Price
Classroom Aides
Sign up to volunteer as a Teachers’ Aide this school year. Contact Maggie Carberry for more information.
Our Aides add enormous value to our program. They often use their experience with us to become teachers; some draw upon teaching experience they have gained over a lifetime.
Staff
Nicole Murray, Director
Maggie Carberry, Program Coordinator
Current School Partners
Boston Public Schools
- Boston Collegiate Charter School
- Boston Teachers Union School
- Conley Elementary School
- Dever McCormack K-8 School
- Holmes Elementary School
- Irving Middle School
- Lee Academy Pilot School
- Lee Elementary School
- Mozart Elementary School
- Murphy K-8 School
- Neighborhood House Charter School
- Philbrick Elementary School
- Sumner Elementary School
- UP Academy Charter School
Pre-Schools, Independent Schools & Special Programs
- Boston Explorers
- Boys & Girls Club at Sumner Elementary School
- British School
- COMPASS School
- Dorchester Family Initiative/DotWell
- Kids-a-Lot Country Day School Summer Camp
- Roxbury Tenants Association of Harvard
- Sociedad Latina
- UP Academy Lawrence
- Washington Heights Tenant Association
Past Partners
- Agassiz Elementary School (closed)
- Fifield Elementary School (closed)
- Henderson Elementary School
- Hernandez K-8 School
- Hurley K-8 School
- Manning Elementary School
- Tobin K-8 School
- Trotter Elementary School
- Winthrop Elementary School
- Young Achievers K-8 School
and: