PS 151 Students and Arts Organization Honor Councilmember Lappin as Arts Education Champion

New York, NY – April 14 -- The halls of the Yorkville Community School (PS 151) were filled with the sounds of music and laughter today, when kindergarten students and their parents sang and danced together during a joyful Parents As Arts Partners (PAAP) workshop. Before the music started The Center for Arts Education presented its “Champion for Arts Education” award to Councilmember Jessica S. Lappin, District 5, thanking her for her dedicated support to this unique family arts education program and her ongoing efforts to preserve and protect arts programming as an essential ingredient in the quality, well-rounded education every child in every New York City public school K-12 deserves.

Councilmember Lappin is a strong supporter of public schools and a vocal advocate for students’ rights to a robust arts education. She recently introduced a critical City Council resolution that calls on the New York City Department of Education to ensure that every school, across all five boroughs, has a certified arts teacher on staff. Nearly 20 percent of high schools do not have any certified arts teacher on staff, despite state mandates requiring that all students complete instruction in the arts taught by a certified arts teacher.

“Every child deserves arts education. The arts are a vital, though often a missing element of any well-rounded education. I’m happy to be able to work with The Center for Arts Education to help bring programs like Parents As Arts Partners to our schools,” Councilmember Jessica Lappin said.

The Yorkville Community School, which opened in 2009, is one of thirty New York City public schools -- located across all five boroughs -- selected by The Center for Arts Education as a 2010 Parents As Arts Partners participant. The PS 151 program features an in-class music residency, in partnership with ArtsConnection, to expand students’ learning experiences through movement, singing and improvisation, and most importantly to connect parents to their children’s arts education.

Supported by The Center for Arts Education, PAAP is a unique program that fills a distinct niche by combining arts programs with parent participation in city public schools.

Each participating school engages parents in hands-on, interactive arts education activities with their children, including workshops with teaching artists and school arts teachers, as well as visits to cultural organizations.

PAAP was created, in part, in response to research that demonstrates the positive impact of parental involvement on a child’s success in school and the effectiveness of the arts as a means of cultivating that involvement.

“We revitalized our Parents As Arts Partners program this year to more fully integrate the program within our current public engagement and advocacy efforts. This allows us to expand the legacy and reach of our teaching and learning programs, while building a constituency of engaged parents advocating for the arts in their children’s education,” said Richard Kessler, executive director, The Center for Arts Education.

“Our Parents As Arts Partners program is a creative and fun way to engage our parents in their children’s learning. We are profoundly grateful to The Center for Arts Education for selecting us this year and to Councilmember Lappin for her effort in helping to sustain this intergenerational initiative,” said Samantha Kaplan, principal, PS 151.

Since establishing the program in 1998, CAE has invested in 1,230 PAAP programs in 535 schools. These schools have partnered with organizations ranging from theater companies, dance organizations and museums, to universities and community groups.