Walton Arts Center just wrapped up another amazing year with the AWE Institute! We had such a great time meeting new participants, and welcoming old friends. We're already looking forward to next year!
Arts With Education (AWE) Institute is a week-long professional development for educators. It prepares teachers to use the arts to make teaching across the curriculum more engaging and effective (recent focus: literacy, social studies, and math). AWE involves teachers in hands-on, interactive workshops presented by John F. Kennedy Center experts, with support from local Teaching Artists.
This year marked the 21st annual AWE Institute! For one week in July we welcomed 45 teachers, 20 visiting administrators and staff from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 23 children from Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club and 5 Teaching Artists from our local region and from The John F. Kennedy Center into an incredible week of learning. This year we also spent one full day at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art learning new art forms to integrate into core curriculum teaching.
Over the years, Walton Arts Center’s AWE Institute has trained over 400 teachers. For every year these teachers include arts integration instruction in their curriculum, more than 1200 students benefit from the engaging and effective teaching techniques learned at AWE.
Visual essay by an AWE teacher depicting population
Putting their new strategies to work with children from the Boys & Girls Club in Fayetteville
AWE Institute funding is provided in part by Crayola® with additional funding from Arkansas Arts Council and Walton Arts Center supporters and benefactors.
For more information on AWE Institute, call Dr. Patricia Relph at 479-571-2773.
**This blog post brought to you by Katharine Williams in our Learning & Engagement department. Thank you Katie!**