The Right Brain Initiative named Partner in Education by the Kennedy Center

The Right Brain Initiative, a systemic arts education model in the Portland area, has been selected with the Gresham-Barlow School District as one of 14 new nationwide Partners in Education by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Partners in Education Program will provide Right Brain information-sharing opportunities with roughly 90 existing Partners across the country, and the latest tools available to support the Initiative’s growing professional development program. The Right Brain/Gresham-Barlow team is currently the only representation from Oregon on the roster.

Deborah Brzoska, a Kennedy Center teaching artist, serves as Right Brain’s professional development operating partner. She said, “As a consultant to The Kennedy Center, I have had the opportunity to work with Partners in Education teams in nearly all fifty states — but never my own. As an Oregon arts educator, I am excited that our own teachers, artists and school leaders will now have access to this prestigious program.”

Eloise Damrosch, executive director, Regional Arts & Culture Council; Marna Stalcup, program manager, The Right Brain Initiative; and Jim Schlachter, assistant superintendent, Gresham-Barlow School District, will attend the Partners in Education Institute in Washington, DC in early May 2010. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Committee for the Performing Arts and the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund, the Institute provides training to grow arts-focused professional development programs for teachers. The group will then have the opportunity to attend annual Partners meetings during subsequent years.

Right Brain’s professional development component is one of its primary differentiators from other area artist-in-schools programs. Through hands-on training, the professional development program enables teachers, principals and artists to bring standards-based arts learning to students, and effectively integrate the arts across the curriculum. It facilitates collaboration between teachers and teaching artists to ensure deep arts experiences in theater, music, dance and visual arts that meet school curricular goals in literacy.

"Our district's involvement with the Right Brain Initiative has opened up new opportunities for staff development," said John Miner, superintendent, Gresham-Barlow School District. "We are pleased that two of Gresham-Barlow's elementary schools are currently participating in the Initiative and that their arts planning teams have benefitted from the training sessions. Judging from their enthusiastic responses, these offerings should be available to all teachers."

About The Right Brain Initiative
The Right Brain Initiative is a sustainable partnership of public schools, local government, foundations, businesses and the cultural community, which launched its programming in Portland area classrooms in January 2009. The program’s goal is to achieve a measurable impact on learning by integrating the community’s arts and cultural resources into the education of every K-8 student in the Portland metropolitan region’s school districts. The Right Brain Initiative is a project of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, with Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington serving as Implementation Partner. Read more online at www.TheRightBrainInitiative.org.

About Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC)
RACC is a nonprofit arts services organization serving the Portland metropolitan area, including Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties. In addition to serving as the managing partner for The Right Brain Initiative, RACC provides grants for artists, arts organizations, schools and other community-based arts projects; conducts workplace giving program for arts and culture (“Work for Art”) and other advocacy efforts; provides workshops and other forms of technical assistance; shares printed and web-based resources for artists; and integrates artwork into public places. Read more online at www.racc.org.