Posted September 28, 2005
DPO receives two financial grants
The Dayton Philharmonic’s SPARK Program (School Partners with Artists Reaching Kids) has won one of only two 2005 Bank of America Awards for Excellence in Orchestra Education. These awards (one for K-5, one for 6-12th grade) honor excellence, identify best practices, and share information about outstanding programs with member orchestras. Included with the award is a grant of $7,500 for the DPO’s K-5 Residency Program.
The award requirements for residency programs stipulate that such programs must include:
- No fewer than six, and no more than 10, classroom visits per class, per year
- Professional Development for teachers (classroom and/or music teachers)
- At least one event outside the school (and in addition to the classroom visits) involving the whole orchestra.
The American Symphony Orchestra League will announce the award within the next few weeks and in the next issue of its Symphony magazine and Beyond Transition II, its online report highlighting promising practices in orchestra education as represented by the Bank of America winners.
To be eligible for consideration, the program must have been in place for a minimum of three seasons.
The SPARK program also received a National Endowment for the Arts Learning in the Arts grant for the second consecutive year. The DPO was one of 178 nationwide arts programs funded (out of 628 applicants), only one of eight NEA-awarded programs that focused on integrating music into classroom curriculum, and the only Dayton arts organization to receive an NEA Arts Learning award.
Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage.