Grassroots Grant
The Grassroots Arts Program (GAP) provides per capita-based funding for arts programming to all 100 counties across North Carolina ensuring opportunities for citizens to experience the arts in their own communities. Grassroots funds are typically awarded to local arts councils.
Grassroots funds are distributed to Davie County Schools as a Provisional County Partner. In counties without a Designated County Partner, the N.C. Arts Council has selected an organization to serve as the Provisional County Partner (PCP) to oversee the distribution and management of Grassroots funds on a temporary (year-to-year) basis.
RhinoLeap: 2022 - 2023 Artist in Residency
RhinoLeap sent two well-trained and experienced puppeteers for a week-long workshop with my technical theatre students. They were able to do some characterization and storytelling activities with puppets for the first portion. The next four days were spent on making puppets and making them physical. They made large puppets with paper and tape (where the joints would be) and created scenes with them, making them move believably using three people to manipulate the puppets. They also created rod puppets, which were made by creating a face and small body. The students were able to move them via a rod/thin stick which was attached to the head and arms. During the week, the students were able to build their confidence in the characterization of puppets and believable manipulation. We would love to have them back next year.
Senora Lynch: 2022 - 2023 Artist in Residency
Senora Lynch is nationally known for her creation of exquisite American Indian handmade pottery. She creates each piece using a traditional hand-coiling method out of red and white clay, while adding a contemporary twist with her own style of etching designs into the surface.
“The spirit of clay has always inspired me. Working in clay takes me back to my childhood days of playing in mud, a free spirit.”
Senora became interested in making pottery at age fourteen after having been previously shown ancient pottery shards and assisting with a pottery class for her Haliwa-Saponi tribal elders. She also weaved chair bottoms alongside her mother and grandfather, learned to do beadwork, and started making American Indian regalia. Years later, her passion transformed into a business that she named “Living Traditions” because the designs on her pottery are full of living traditional stories and beliefs of her people. The designs come through the Night Sky and are revealed to her in her dreams. She uses many American Indian symbols and motifs found in the natural environment, including bowls, turtles, lizards, maidens, smudge bowls, wedding vases, bears, which work in unison to convey the story being told on that piece of pottery. Senora’s pottery has evolved to include different shapes, including bowls, turtles, lizards, maidens, smudge bowls, wedding vases, bears, and plaques, among others.
Carol Krueger: 2022 - 2023 Artist in Residency
Carol Krueger provided a workshop on music literacy and helped students to better understand the link between music literacy and English literacy. What they learn in their music classes is another language. They learn the musical alphabet, A-B-C-D-E-F-G, they have “vocabulary words” which are small patterns of the pitches in a musical scale (Do-re-mi), and when you put those small patterns of pitches (vocabulary words) together, you get a “sentence” or a musical phrase. The way we teach music literacy is the exact same way that we teach a language; sound before sight before theory. It was extremely helpful to our students to understand the “why” behind what they learn in their chorus and music classes.
Cheryl Halver, Libby Brown, and Charlie Kluttz: 2022 - 2023 Artist in Residency
Libby, Cheryl and Charlie spent time working with chorus students on their concert repertoire. During their residency, each artist used their specialized skill to work vocally with the students in both a group and individual setting. Libby and Cheryl predominantly worked with the ensemble as a whole to better prepare them for their March concert and Music Performance Adjudication (MPA). Charlie predominantly worked with the lower voices in Concert Choir (beginning level choir) on octave displacement and being more confident in producing a strong vocal sound.
Steve Campbell & Dancing Drums : 2022 -2023 Artist in Residency
Steve Campbell spent the day engaging every student in the school with his drum circle! Assemblies at all 6 elementary schools were about 45-50 minutes long and were done by grade level in the gym. Every student got to play every instrument through a circle drum rotation. Instruments included Djembes, Tick Tock blocks, bongos, maracas, and wood drum boxes. The focus was on rhythmic patterns and teamwork. Steve offered two different programs, World Drumming and Character Building. The world drum offered agogo bells and Steel Drums.
Steve’s energetic teaching style left the students wanting more! A great time was had by all!
Jaki Shelton Green: 2022 - 2023 Artist in Residency
Mrs. Jaki Shelton Green introduced herself as the North Carolina Poet Laureate and allowed students to probe for more information about the prestigious honor. She then shared some of the things that encouraged and motivated her as a writer. A shared item (from her past) helped to open a writing prompt for the students. They shared a special item as well and then wrote from the perspective of that item about themselves. We learned about many things about our students through this expressive prompt and time allotted to write. The lessons continued to build on concepts that every student could share, such as where they are from or everyday sights. The students were engaged and dedicated to the writing process. She also incorporated vocabulary activities for 5th & 6th grade students, and community reflections with 7th & 8th grade. Mrs. Shelton Green challenged them to continue with the task of writing, editing, and making their writing better.