November 15, 2025 | 11:00 am-1:00pm | FREE to attend
Westbury Arts | 255 Schenk Ave., Westbury, NY

Welcome to the CCC Showcase.
Experience important local artforms and learn what happened when educators included guest artists in their classrooms this fall.
 Find out what students learned and enjoy artists’ sharing. 

Thank you for attending today!

Meet the Artists

Angie Hernandez – Angie Hernandez is a singer, poet and multi-Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer who currently serves as a national correspondent for Spectrum Noticias. She covers breaking news and sheds light on critical issues, including immigration, education, and climate change. Hernandez holds degrees in the arts, communications, and broadcast journalism, as well as a master’s degree in journalism with a concentration in international reporting from Columbia University. In addition to her journalism work, Angie is the producer and host of “Action with Angie”, and “Let’s Talk with Angie – Hablemos con Angie”, that foster dialogues on culture, social issues and community impact. She is also the founder of Angie Productions LLC, through which she offers journalism workshops to the youth and a range of media-related and personalized services designed to empower people across generations. Her mission is deeply rooted in her own journey as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Arriving in the United States at the age of 19, Hernandez learned English, pursued her education, worked multiple jobs, and supported both herself and her family back home. Angie Hernandez is a testament to how education and discipline can open doors and create lasting impact.

Oluwaseyi (Shayee) Awoyomi – Shayee is a multifaceted Nigerian artist, born into a family of visual and performing artists. She started at the tender age of three, dancing, singing, and doing textile and painting alongside her mother, Nike Okundaye. She has always found a way to infuse her artistic background and talent in every area of her life. She grew up in an artist village and can remember vividly following her mother to different textile markets in search of unique Adire cloths. Shayee derives energy from the patterns in the traditional Adire of the Yoruba people, carrying on their unspoken communication language patterns in all of her works. 

Juan Uribe – Is a Colombian musician and recording engineer living in New York, he has played with La Cumbiamba Eneye, Rebolu, Edmar Castañeda, and the United Nations Orchestra. After earning his degree in Jazz Performance (Saxophone) from City College of New York, he began working at Sean Sweeney Recording Studio, where he continues to collaborate with Juilliard students and graduates. Alongside his recording work, he teaches music workshops on Long Island, introducing children to the African and Indigenous roots of Cumbia and its traditional instruments.

Zaman – Mohamed A. Amin is a queer Indo-Caribbean, Guyanese Muslim artist commonly known as International Dancer Zaman (he/him/they) and the drag-centric activist Sundari The Indian Goddess (she/her/they). He uses performing arts to promote Caribbean Arts & Guyanese Culture along with the multiple, intersectional identities of LGBTQ Caribbean immigrants in the diaspora.

Chris Hale – Chris Hale is a master craftsman specializing in traditional wooden boats and half models, a maritime art once common on Long Island. Since the 1990s, he has worked at Weeks Boatyard in Patchogue and has experience in several boatyards across Long Island, from Shelter Island to East Quogue.

Denise Silva-Dennis – Denise (WeeTahMoe) is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based at the Shinnecock Nation in Southampton, New York. Denise is currently the workshop coordinator/ beadwork instructor at Ma’s House, a BIPOC art center founded by her son, Jeremy Dennis. Denise also presents her Shinnecock/Hassanamisco culture through her artwork which includes life-size figurative paintings, historical murals, beadwork, regalia, talking sticks, dreamcatchers, and other artifacts.

Tristan Japsi – As a steelpan musician, arranger, and educator, my work is rooted in honoring the Caribbean’s living traditions while pushing the instrument into new creative spaces. I see the steelpan as both an archive of our history and a bridge connecting cultures across the diaspora. Through performance and teaching, I aim to inspire young musicians to recognize the instrument’s power, innovation, and beauty. My artistry is guided by the belief that pan carries memory, community, and possibility—and that every performance is a chance to keep that legacy alive.

Paul Rodriguez – All of the art I make – be it children’s books, theater, or dance – is inspired by ideas that may help someone in some way. The idea is to be proactive, not reactive. I want to help children learn the life skills they need to avoid life’s pitfalls rather than be forced to learn those skills from life’s pitfalls.  Accordingly, I believe that the greatest lesson we can teach our children is how to teach themselves. I believe that social-emotional learning makes all other learning possible, and I believe in empowering children with the infinite wonder of their creativity.

Thank you for Attending the Culture, Community, and the Classroom showcase! This program happens because of the support of many important funders and individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to support these programs.

About the project

Three teachers in school districts around the region participated in a summer workshop with nationally recognized faculty from Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. These educators were selected to host artists in their schools. Learn from these local teachers and traditional artists who participated in this national initiative to incorporate diverse cultural arts and knowledge into classrooms in a lively showcase. Learn more about the summer workshop here.

Thank you to these funders who made it possible to offer this as a free professional development opportunity for teachers and artists: The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and individual donors to Local Learning.

We are grateful to our local colleagues Violet Baron and Adriana Devers-Rodriguez for their help in planning this professional development series. We also want to acknowledge the support of Ellen McHale and New York Folklore. 

Local Learning’s Culture, Community, and the Classroom programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The post Long Island CCC Showcase 2025 appeared first on Local Learning.

“Before this workshop I thought my communities lacked/were deficient, but now I think opportunities are all around us, we just have to connect and take action and make things hidden more visible and to be aware of our surrounding culture.” –2024 Teacher Evaluation

 

“It was inspiring to learn more about taking a collaborative approach (rather than a purely instructive or lecture-based one) in the classroom. I feel like it makes me better able to connect with more and different kinds of students.” –2024 Teacher Evaluation

Registration Open!

Musician and square dance caller, Elise Kelly, shares her love of Eastern Square dancing and its connection to her family and community history. She worked with teachers Sydney Wiseman and Guy Macaluso on a CCC school residency in Western NY in 2023.

Join us January 23-24, 2026 for an inspiring, interactive Professional Development Institute, presented in partnership with GLOW Traditions, and hosted by the Genesee Valley BOCES.

Register Here

Culture, Community, and the Classroom is available FREE to all teachers in New York, although registration is limited.

Funded, in part, by Rochester Area Community Foundation, this two-day workshop offers educators tools to build culturally responsive lesson plans that actively engage learners and their cultural communities. Teachers will learn alongside specialized folk and traditional teaching artists and earn 12 CTLE hours, acquiring ideas for lessons that foster inquiry and belonging within their classrooms.

Participating teachers will have an opportunity to opt-in for hosting a guest artist in their classrooms for no cost to them and their school! This opportunity is first-come first-served, so register early!

The Culture, Community, and the Classroom workshop series explores culturally responsive, engaged learning through local traditional arts and knowledge.

• Access a toolkit of activities and resources that will provide a fresh, innovative start to your school year.
• Engage the diverse communities of your students through lessons that center cultural awareness and knowledge building through inquiry.
• Experience the study and practice of material culture in both museum and community contexts. 
• …and Remember why you fell in love with teaching in the first place!

Institute Dates: January 23-24, 2026
Time: 9:00 am-3:00 pm
Location: Genesee Valley BOCES, 80 Munson Street, Le Roy, NY 14482

Access CCC lesson plans written by teachers who have participated in this professional development opportunity!

The post Culture, Community, and the Classroom in Western NY appeared first on Local Learning.

November 18, 2023 | 10:00 am-12:00pm | FREE to attend
The Albany Institute of History and Art | 125 Washington Ave, Albany, NY 12210

Welcome to the CCC Showcase.
Experience important local artforms and learn what happened when educators included guest artists in their classrooms this fall.
Find out what students learned and enjoy artists’ sharing. 

Thank you for attending today!

Meet the Artists

Pulso de Barro (Maria Puente Flores and Mateo Cano) Maria Puente Flores – I was born and raised in Mexico City, but I am currently living in upstate New York (very grateful to be surrounded by forests and rivers). My mom says I was already singing before I could even talk. Yet, despite my love for songs and music, I had always felt very intimidated by instruments. That changed when Son Jarocho became a part of my life. Son Jarocho is a folk genre from the state of Veracruz in Mexico, and people gather to play it in community celebrations called Fandangos. My first Fandango took place under a tree in Central Park in NYC. One of the musicians came up to me and gave me a jarana (a stringed instrument that looks like a small guitar). They taught me a couple of chords and suddenly I became part of the music. Filled with joy and excitement by that experience, I learnt little by little the traditional verses that are sung – now I can even compose my own! – and I also learnt the zapateado which is the dance that also functions as the percussion of the music. Being part of the Son Jarocho community demonstrated to me that I can play many instruments, but most importantly, it surrounded me with people who make me feel closer to my home in Mexico.

Mateo Cano – I am a Mexican American teaching artist and I have always loved a good story. I remember my mom telling me stories in Mexico, where I was raised, about amazing people with tremendous courage and I remember being inspired and in awe. Now I am a storyteller and I tell stories through my body with dance, through sounds with music, and in any way I can come up with! Throughout my life I have moved a lot from place to place — changing schools, states, and even countries almost every couple of years. All the changes made me realize that there are an astonishing number of good stories everywhere, so eventually I developed a keen skill for listening to what others had to say.

Altin Stoja I grew up in Albania. There, the church and nature were like a playground for me. When I was a kid, I had two passions:  to play outside and to paint. I saw the paintings and murals in the church, and they inspired me to paint. When I was old enough, I went to school to become an artist. I learned to paint iconography with a master artist in Greece. Icons are traditional, symbolic paintings of biblical stories. I also paint pomegranates, sunflowers, and beautiful landscapes of places where I like to be outside. It was my dream to paint.  It took me many years to master my art. I have been painting for more than 30 years. I made many mistakes, and many beautiful pieces of art too. I have lived in Albania, Greece, and now in America. I speak the language of each country. Now I open my eyes and I see my dream become reality. The Saint Sophia Orthodox Church in Albany is filled with my paintings. 

Shelyan Madera I was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. At a young age, my parents were my inspiration. My father is an artist and a musician. He loves to sing, play the piano, and paint things that remind him of Puerto Rico. My mother is also a talented musician who likes to sing music that represents our Puerto Rican culture. She also caters traditional food. My parents taught me everything that I know about our culture. They told me to educate and teach others our traditions to keep our culture alive. Now I teach young people to dance Bomba y Plena, an important form of traditional Puerto Rican music and dance. I also educate them about the history of this dance. The roots of Bomba y Plena came from West Africa in the 1600s, particularly from Angola and Congo. In La Bomba Puertorriquena two women and a man dance to different rhythms of the drums. Some of the dances are called Sika, Lero, Coembe, Kalinda, Hollandes, and Yuba. The African dance and music traditions behind Bomba y Plena were to have fun, to congregate in religious belief, and to communicate with others. My goals are to teach my students to feel culture through the sound of the drums and let them come into my circle to create harmony and freedom, to keep the music alive.

Jianling Yue The art of Chinese paper cut is deeply rooted in rich cultural and regional backgrounds, carrying multiple layers of meaning, normally some auspicious meaning and good wishes. Since it is customary for people in northern China to make and paste paper cut on doors and windows, I naturally learned the skill from neighbors in my hometown in Shanxi Province, China, a region abundant in Chinese paper cut culture and other folk traditions. When I was in school, during the break time, boys played outside the classroom while girls stayed inside, making Chinese paper cuts, chatting, and exchanging pattern designs. Later I joined a teacher training school, refined my techniques through a course focusing on hand crafts which included paper cut. I also started to create my own designs which have expanded contents and themes and diverse color palette.

Natalie Jay-Short I am the founder and coach of Nanny’s Double Dutch League. I teach kids and grown-ups the skill of jumping Double Dutch competitively. It’s not only for girls, boys jump as well. It takes two people to turn two ropes in a circular motion and one or two people to jump in the rope. When I was in third grade, my gym teacher asked a group of us if we wanted to learn Double Dutch and compete in a tournament. I jumped Double Dutch from third grade to high school. I won many trophies, jackets, and even savings bonds!

Ahmad Shah Wali I grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. The weather is more or less like Albany. During the winter we used to make and fly kites. When I was a little boy, I was very active and adventurous. I was always outside, making and flying kites. I spent time with family, learning the skill to make kites. Those were the most memorable activities of my childhood. When I came to the United States in 2017, I found out that there are some limited activities in terms of kite flying. I therefore decided to teach my kids and other kids how to fly. Flying a kite is one of the most exhilarating experiences a child or an adult can have. A sense of pride, joy, and accomplishment washes over them as their eyes watch this object that they built fly into the sky. Flying kites helps family bonding. What better way to spend a weekend afternoon than building and flying a kite together? Regardless of your participation level in kite flying, there really is nothing sweeter than spending an afternoon in the great outdoors with your kids.

Scott Hart My beekeeping started a while ago as a child observing bees work on a dairy farm that a relative owned. Beekeeping has always been something that tugged at my soul. Fast forward 30-ish years, I decided to get a couple of hives. The second year of having bees is what really changed how I looked at and thought about bees. I did not like using chemicals in my hives. This thought is actually what changed my beekeeping mindset from science to an art. I want to say a few things about bees and what non-beekeepers can do. People should not be scared of honeybees! They are very docile little critters. Without honeybees, our food supply would disappear. One of the best ways people can help honeybees and other insects is to leave a patch of lawn to grow wildflowers. Mowing lawns at a half-inch is probably one of the worst things we humans can do. There is a rising community of beekeepers who want to go back to a simpler way of beekeeping. What I hope to share and give back is spreading the word about what I have done with genetics and management. Treatment-free beekeeping is a very difficult thing to do, but it is also very rewarding.

The Desi Trio Our trio is made up of Daniel Wilayat, Aurelius John and Shaman Raphael.  For all three of us music is a fundamental part of life. Music was present in our families and in our communities as part of religious and social events. We all have experienced teaching music in Pakistan and  in the US. We perform traditional Pakistani and Indian music from the Asian Subcontinent.  We perform religious and popular music like Sufi songs, Ghazals, classical and folk music. The songs we perform are sung in many different languages; Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Balochi spoken by the people in the region.The instruments we play are traditional ones for these styles of music and include the Harmonium (pump organ), Bansuri Flute, and many types of drums; Dhol, Dholak, and Tabla. 

Thank you for Attending the Culture, Community, and the Classroom showcase! This program happens because of the support of many important funders and individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to support these programs.

About the project

Twelve teachers in school districts around the region participated in a summer workshop with nationally recognized faculty from Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. Eight educators were selected to host artists in their schools. Learn from these local teachers and traditional artists who participated in this national initiative to incorporate diverse cultural arts and knowledge into classrooms in a lively showcase. Learn more about the summer workshop here.

Thank you to these funders who made it possible to offer this as a free professional development opportunity for teachers and artists: The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and individual donors to Local Learning.

We are grateful to our local colleagues Maxwell Kofi Donkor and Alex Torres for their help in planning this professional development series. We want to acknowledge the support of Ellen McHale and New York Folklore, Greater Capital Region Teacher Center, and the Albany Institute of History and Art. 

Local Learning’s Culture, Community, and the Classroom programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The post Albany CCC Showcase 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

November 18, 2023 | 10:00 am-12:00pm | FREE to attend
The Roberson Museum and Science Center | 30 Front St, Binghamton, NY 13905

Welcome to the CCC Showcase.
Experience important local artforms and learn what happened when educators included guest artists in their classrooms this fall.
Find out what students learned and enjoy artists’ sharing. 

The presentations will happen in the order of the artist introductions below. Thank you for attending today!

Meet the Artists

Dhyani James I began dancing at the tender age of 4, and I began competing at National levels by the age 10. As a dancer you are taught that you are a stronger performer when you master all dance forms. I remember in 2016 moving to Broome county and being really stunned when I noticed all the similarities in the dance schools—and we have a lot of schools in our area! I was not a fan in my adolescent years of ballet or the other “traditional” dance forms, so coming to an area that was predominantly only this, I knew I would have to change that. After years of self doubt and being unsure of the outcome, in 2021 my fiancé and I started Dancing with D, or DWD. Many opportunities that arise for an artist will also come with various fees and dues for certain projects in order for a dancer to participate. We strive at DWD to keep our prices not only affordable but comfortable. Anything “in house” we can control–whether it be pricing, transportation, or making sure a kid gets a costume–if we are able to help we try, because no kid should ever miss a chance to dance!

Southern Tier Beekeepers Beekeepers are drawn to the beauty of nature, complexities of society, and fundamental necessity of the honeybee. There are hundreds are varieties of honey, but without honeybees there would be no hamburgers… pizza… apples… almonds… there would be less crayons… clothing… flowers… the world would be a hotter place to live. Beekeeping is practiced in nearly every country in the world! With different practices and techniques, the most common equipment and supplies for keeping honeybees were designed here in Upstate New York. Honeybees are beautiful and complex. Every bee has a job caring for each other, their babies, their queen, their home to support a healthy community.

Akilah Briggs-Melvin As a child, dance wasn’t an art to me. It was more of a natural way of living, like breathing. In my household, we danced to express ourselves, to celebrate, to give thanks, and so much more. It was also a tool of survival–something my family considered a way of living. I began teaching step-dance in the summer of 2020. I developed my first team in Binghamton N.Y. I teach to all students, both boys and girls ranging from the age of six to eighteen. Each member of the team is also assigned a mentor to work with. The mentor is responsible for working with the child outside of the dance studio installing some of the very skills that were installed in me when I was a student on a step team. I am very passionate about stepping and even more passionate about teaching it to children. I’m proud to have the space and grace to pour into students to provide the same avenue.

Elise Kelly My name is Elise Kelly, and I am an Eastern Style Square Dance instructor. Eastern  square dance has been a part of my town’s local history for a very long time. Although I am only 28, I have known how to square dance pretty much my whole life. Square dance calling, playing, and dancing have been in my family for years. Square dancing can be for anyone who can swing their partner round and round, period. I feel that square dancing can bridge a lot of gaps generationally, musically, and culturally. It can be a fun way to get together with people you may or may not know and share commonality.

Linda Franke  I learned about fiber arts from my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-aunts. Almost all my memories of them are with crochet hooks, knitting needles, yarn, and threads in their hands. The kind of work that I do has sometimes been viewed as “old-fashioned” or not needed anymore, but these art forms are important in our culture. I love taking very traditional fiber art forms and recreating those patterns and techniques. I also really like to change up some of those techniques and make something new and interesting. I take all the ideas and techniques that the women in my family taught me and build on them, adding in new ideas and learning new techniques to make fun things!

Kevin LaDue I make acoustic guitars in a shop about the size of a two-car garage, and I use woods that grow right here in the area where I live. What is most important to me in guitar making is to create a pleasing sound, an attractive appearance, good craftsmanship, and an instrument that is very special to each one of my customers. Each guitar is made one at a time, using many different machines and hand tools and even tools that I make. My father taught me woodworking, carpentry, and a deep appreciation for the beauty of wood and craftsmanship. I like to make all kinds of things, but I love making guitars because it combines what my dad taught me, my childhood experiences, and all that I’ve learned with my love of woodwork and music. I’ve also played guitar for almost 60 years. When I make guitars, I’m everything I’ve always wanted to be, and I learn more and more every time I make one. Making guitars is my art. It’s my dream. It’s where I live. It’s my signature in sound and aesthetics. 

Marissa Robinson (Passionn) As a recording artist, I take that energy and transform it into sound vibrations. In other words, I make music, mainly rap and hip hop, but I love all genres of music. I was inspired at a young age by the likes of artists like Missy Elliot and Tupac. After watching a show called 106 & Park Freestyle Friday, I saw people rapping and instantly was hooked. I’ve performed numerous times for all different kinds of audiences. I think this is one of my favorite parts about being a recording artist. Once you learn how to tap into the energy of a crowd, it’s like controlling a body of water.

Tony Gonyea My name is Tony Gonyea, and I’m from the Onondaga Nation, Beaver clan. I’m an artist of many media. I also do NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act). Repatriation is getting items (back) out of museums that are in their collections that should be returned to the Native Nations. Whenever soil is turned over in a project that has federal money involved, the region’s Native communities must be consulted. I do beadwork, including replica belts. I even have two belts that are a part of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s permanent collection. These art forms show that we are still here. We went to a museum one time, and all the writing about Natives was in past tense! It is important to me that I point this out—we are here and we are still a vibrant community. Next time I went to the museum they had the tenses all corrected—now it is we DO and we ARE.

Doug Maddi I used to hear my mother sing around the house and my father spent some time working at a local radio station when I was a child. However, nobody in my family dove into the world of arts as deeply and consistently as I have. While studying different forms of art during high school, I developed a deep love for music and dance that sparked a passion in myself and inspired me to begin to learn how to create music. I aspired to be the one creating the music I danced to. After attending the Institute of Audio Research for nine months, I graduated at the top of my class. I began an internship at Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan that later granted me work as an assistant engineer for the company. I began working at Manifest Vision Studio located on the west side of [Binghamton]. I work with a dynamic group of artists and personalities ranging from young as middle school children to older adults with various backgrounds of style of music. As a result of working with such a diverse set of individuals I have established an ear to create a significant sound that most artists appreciate. I have made a huge impact in this community as I have established significant relationships with the artist and members of the community I work with. 

Gayane Dadian Born in Armenia, I spent my childhood in the historical Armenian highlands of Artsakh where my grandparents indulged me in various traditional arts and crafts. I moved to the United States in 2015 when I married my husband. But my culture has stayed alive in my heart and soul, my mind and my body. I started to set up programs in various Armenian and American communities to help revive and inspire others with the songs, dances, and traditions that I brought with me. Wisdom tells us that little comes to pass by coincidence. It has been a varied and ever evolving path which made me the person I am now, and through music and song I have found a way to share the precious things that I’ve gathered over the years. Bringing together Armenian music, culture, and its Christian influences, I have researched and sung traditional Armenian Lullabies, some centuries old, some formerly forgotten. My greatest wish is that this music keeps alive the inner child within us all, telling the stories of our lives, the struggles, happiness, and emotions throughout life.

Thank you for Attending the Culture, Community, and the Classroom showcase! This program happens because of the support of many important funders and individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to support these programs.

About the project

Fifteen teachers in school districts around the region participated in a summer workshop with nationally recognized faculty from Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. Eight educators were selected to host artists in their schools. Learn from these local teachers and traditional artists who participated in this national initiative to incorporate diverse cultural arts and knowledge into classrooms in a lively showcase. Learn more about the summer workshop here.

Thank you to these funders who made it possible to offer this as a free professional development opportunity for teachers and artists: The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and individual donors to Local Learning.

We are grateful to our  local colleagues Akilah Briggs-Melvin, George Zavala, Karen Canning, and T.C. Owens for their help in planning this professional development series. We want to acknowledge the support of Ellen McHale and New York Folklore, Go-ART!/GLOW Traditions, Roberson Museum and Science Center, The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, and the Broome-Tioga BOCES. 

Local Learning’s Culture, Community, and the Classroom programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The post Binghamton CCC Showcase 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

Saturday, April 29, 9am-3pm

Hudson Area Library, Hudson, NY

Warren Street Photo: Getty Images

Occupational culture contributes to sense of place, history, and aesthetics. This 6-hour interactive, hands-on workshop offers educators of all grade levels an opportunity to visit and practice documentation of vital local occupations and to connect their experiences to the classroom. Facilitators include folklorists and local traditional artists. Through ethnographic tools such as observation, note taking, interviewing, sketching, and photography, participants will hone cultural research inquiry skills that students can apply across curricula to deepen knowledge of themselves, their region, their history. Expect a day of discovery, collaboration, and rejuvenation.

The workshop will include 6 CTLE hours of learning with instructors. All educators are welcome to register. Lunch will be provided.

Register Now

The post Hudson Field Trip 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

Wednesday, April 19, 3:30-6:30pm

Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, NY

In this workshop, middle- and high-school educators will learn how to teach using primary sources drawn from their local community. Primary sources from ethnographic and folklife collections go beyond historical documents and include photographs, recorded interviews, artifacts, recipes, music, maps, and more. Although they do often reflect historical truth, primary sources are valued as powerful reference points for understanding individual and community perspectives on memory, meaning, and identity. Participants will work with the Folklife Center’s Special Collections at Crandall Public Library and learn how to use oral histories and ethnographic materials to examine local occupational cultures surrounding farming and the Champlain Canal by comparing and contrasting life experiences, voices, and vantage points. Educators will discover how traditional arts and culture can be assets in their classroom, engage with proven tools for student inquiry, and learn with a cohort model that centers teachers’ expertise.

The afternoon workshop will include 3 CTLE hours of learning with instructors. All educators are welcome to register for the workshop, but learning activities will target middle- and high-school educators.

Register Now

The post Capital Region Primary Sources Workshop 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

Wednesday and Thursday, July 12-13, 8:30am-3pm

BOCES Glenwood Rd. Campus, Binghamton NY

Local Learning’s 6th annual New York Culture, Community, and the Classroom workshop explores culturally responsive, engaged learning through local traditional arts. It introduces concepts of cultural identity and opportunities to practice ethnographic research skills such as interviewing, note taking, and sketching. The workshop offers educators a widening perspective of their own cultural identity and models for their students to explore their cultural identity authentically. How does one’s knowledge of their cultural identity influence their learning?

The 2-day workshop (July 12-13) will include 12 CTLE hours of learning with instructors. All educators are welcome to register until space is filled. Additionally, 8 educators will have the opportunity to host a traditional artist for 2 days in your school or online in the fall of 2023 at no cost to you (indicate your interest when you sign up). Participating mini-residency artists represent local traditions of the region.

“Before this workshop I thought it was very helpful for students to share objects and topics that are important to them but now I think and realize how integral and critical it is for students to be able to share this in order to become invested in the classroom and larger communities.”

– 2022 Teacher Evaluation

Register Now

Teachers seeking CTLE hours: Please also register through Frontline here.

The post CCC Binghamton 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

Monday and Tuesday, July 10-11, 9am-3pm

Sand Creek Middle School, Albany, NY 12205

Local Learning’s 6^th annual New York Culture, Community, and the Classroom workshop explores culturally responsive, engaged learning through local traditional arts. It introduces concepts of cultural identity and opportunities to practice ethnographic research skills such as interviewing, note taking, and sketching. The workshop offers educators a widening perspective of their own cultural identity and models for their students to explore their cultural identity authentically. How does one’s knowledge of their cultural identity influence their learning?

The 2-day workshop (July 10-11) will include 12 CTLE hours of learning with instructors. All educators are welcome to register until space is filled. Additionally, 8 educators will have the opportunity to host a traditional artist for 2 days in your school or online in the fall of 2023 at no cost to you (indicate your interest when you sign up). Participating mini-residency artists represent local traditions of the region.

“Before this workshop I thought it was very helpful for students to share objects and topics that are important to them but now I think and realize how integral and critical it is for students to be able to share this in order to become invested in the classroom and larger communities.”

– 2022 Teacher Evaluation

Register Now

Teachers seeking CTLE hours: Please also register through Frontline here.

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Additional Workshops in the Greater Capital Region

Teaching with Primary Sources, April 19

A Field Trip to Hudson, April 29, 9am-3pm

The post CCC Albany 2023 appeared first on Local Learning.

November 19, 2022 | 10:00 am-12:00pm | FREE to attend
The Rockwell Museum | 111 Cedar St. Corning, NY 

Welcome to the CCC Showcase.
Experience important local artforms and learn what happened when educators included guest artists in their classrooms this fall.
Find out what students learned and enjoy artists’ sharing. 

The presentations will happen in the order of the artist introductions below. Thank you for attending today!

Meet the Artists

Zeeshan Rizvi My name is Zeeshan. I am a scientist by profession. I was born and grew up in the coastal city of Karachi, Pakistan, a country in South Asia. There, many people practice calligraphy, beautiful handwriting written with a special pen with a flat and wide tip instead of a pointed one. This makes the curves of the letters thin at times and thick at other times–and everything in between. The native language of Pakistan is called Urdu, an old language that has existed since the 12th century. It shares letters and words from other even more ancient languages, like Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. While these other languages share many alphabets, they each prefer different fonts or style of writing. Some are written with more flat letters while others are rounder. Together, these languages produce a beautiful mosaic of words when written with a calligraphic pen.

Nausheen Fatima My name is Nausheen Fatima. I come from Karachi, the largest port city of Pakistan. The first-ever memory of embroidery for me is my mother’s peach-colored kameez (traditional shirt in Pakistan) in her wooden hoop and her embroidering it with green thread. She made that dress while commuting for her teaching job. Her long commute involved being on a bus for around 50 minutes and then taking a ferry to get to the public school on an island. I would always see her either crocheting something or embroidering. I would browse through the colorful, secondhand magazines that she got from street stalls that sold used books. It was fun to see the different embroidery patterns and the instructions that came along with them.

Katrina Mackey One of my earliest memories is dancing with my cousin on our grandparents’ veranda in Finland while the radio played. Our families peeked in at us, happy to see that we were having fun even though I spoke only English and she spoke only Finnish. Another early memory is drifting off to sleep in a cabin in the woods in Spencer, New York, while a family friend played Finnish-American tunes on his button accordion, his only accompaniment being the bullfrogs croaking back and forth in the nearby pond. I have been dancing and playing music in some form ever since then.

Sue Knox I see beauty and feel warmth through food. When I prepare food it flows through my heart and into my hands to prepare the highest quality, best looking food items that I can create. Being a culinarian, my passion allows me to bring to the table things that I can be proud of and things that blow people’s minds. My inspiration comes from nature, the seasons and the memories food has brought me throughout the years. My canvas is a plate, my water colors are the foods and my final piece is the enjoyment I see on my customers eyes when the works of art I have created are brought to them. My satisfaction comes from the silence I hear when people partake in my final masterpieces.

Shahid Ejaz Flying kites is a National Pastime in Pakistan, where I grew up. Men, women, young, and old all participate and have fun with kites, especially in nice breezy conditions. Kites were my passion as a 5th grader. I just loved the feeling of controlling a piece of paper that was flying 400 feet above me in the sky. I flew kites mostly with my neighborhood friends for hours at a time. My finances as an 11-year-old were limited, so I could not afford to buy kites on a regular basis. Armed with old newspapers, bamboo sticks, and gum adhesive glue, I took up the challenge of making kites myself.

Apoorva Sonavani My name is Apoorva Sonavani. I was born in central India. I am a watercolor artist, a percussion enthusiast, and a Kathak dancer. Kathak is a classical dance form from India. In my childhood, my parents enrolled me in a dance and music class for creating a treasure to be cherished for life. Being a single child, it also helped me make more friends. Those lessons connected me with the beauty of using the space around us in the most creative way. As a child, apart from academics, I always found comfort in a mélange of colors on canvas and the anklet bells which we tie around the feet before we begin dancing. My art helped me depict the rich culture that I was being raised in. This broadened artistic mindset helped me to solve problems, be open to new ideas, and find details in the smallest things.

Joseph Gary Crance The forests in this special place called Painted Post are enchanting. I remember always being in the woods as a youth, spending thousands of hours alone—hunting, hiking, fishing—but especially chasing behind a pair of coonhounds with my father in the darkest hollows. It’s the training of each individual dog—learning their strengths, weaknesses, and quirks—that creates a bond between hunter and hound. Yet it’s also about discovering the mysteries the forest wishes to share—and many of those times happened when following the hound’s bawl deep into the night. 

Thank you for Attending the Culture, Community, and the Classroom showcase! This program happens because of the support of many important funders and individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to support these programs.

About the project

Twenty-five teachers in school districts around the region participated in a summer workshop with nationally recognized faculty from Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. Eight educators were selected to host artists in their schools. Learn from these local teachers and traditional artists who participated in this national initiative to incorporate diverse cultural arts and knowledge into classrooms in a lively showcase. Learn more about the summer workshop here.

Thank you to these funders who made it possible to offer this as a free professional development opportunity for teachers and artists: The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Corning Incorporated Foundation, Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, Inc., and individual donors to Local Learning.

We are grateful to our Corning/Elmira local colleagues Amy Ruza, Mary Mix, George Zavala, Karen Canning, and T.C. Owens for their help in planning this professional development series. We want to acknowledge the support of Ellen McHale and New York Folklore, Go-ART!/GLOW Traditions, The Rockwell Museum, The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, Arts Mid-Hudson, and Stacie Harris at the Greater Southern Tier Teacher Center. 

Local Learning’s Culture, Community, and the Classroom programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The post Corning-Elmira CCC Showcase 2022 appeared first on Local Learning.

November 18, 2022 | 5:30 pm-7:30pm | FREE to attend
Hudson River Maritime Museum | 50 Rondout Landing, Kingston, NY 

Experience important local artforms and learn what happened when educators included guest artists in their classrooms this fall. The Maritime Museum Director of Education will open the museum to participants following the program and share more about the resources of this site.  

Teachers: Learn from experienced educators in Elementary, Middle School, and High School. Earn CTLEs, gain new ideas for building culturally engaged lessons, and connect with the growing network of teachers!

Meet the Artists

Andrea Del Cid I was born in 1980 in Guatemala City in the country of Guatemala, located in Central America. I came to live in New York when I was 10 years old. I have always enjoyed art, from painting to sculpting, writing and anything, really, as long as there is a chance for creativity. My love for art started when I was about 8 years old and would go visit my grandma Julia. She lived in a very small town. They did not have toys for us and definitely no video games. What was a child supposed to do? Well, we made our own. We made kites, paper boats, and dolls, among other things. I fell in love with the idea that I could create using my imagination and whatever I had available to work with.

Vitalia Deriabina The magic of paints and brushes always fascinated my imagination as a child. When not reading a book, one could always spot me drawing. My parents, who are far from the art world professionally, kept saying that my grandfather passed his artistic genes to me. He was a self-taught artist and a beekeeper in a rural village of Ukraine, who admired life and its beauty and presented it to the community. When I was a child, I used to spend summers at my grandparents’ old traditional clay house with a straw roof filled with big paintings on the walls which created a feeling of being in the arts gallery. 

Marielena Ferrer The arts have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in an artistic household where instead of buying gifts we would make traditional crafts and wrap them in the most creative ways possible, using newspaper, burlap, cloth, or anything at hand. Being the daughter of a folklorist also made me very aware of the rich and very diverse cultures of my natal Venezuela. One of the most traditional crafts I learned at an early age was making “devil masks.”

Maia Martinez My name is Maia Martinez. I was born in a small town in Argentina. I grew up on a farm with six siblings. I am a dancer, an instructor, a performer, a groover, and a mover. I grew up around music and dance. Both my mother and father danced. My father was a farmer and a folklore instructor. My mother was a community leader and an educator. Although I was the only one who pursued dance as a career, all my siblings play guitar, dance, and sing. You may ask, Why dance? Dance gives me the opportunity to express and to connect with myself and others. I find that it is the shortcut to happiness.

John Mylod My name is John Mylod. I am the last active commercial fisherman in the Poughkeepsie reach of the Hudson River and one of only a few on the entire tidewater limits of the Hudson. I am a native of Poughkeepsie and continue to live in the house where I grew up. Originally, I started fishing for shad in the early 1970s, and with a friend, Bud Tschudin, formed the M/T Net Fishing Co. However, in 2010, due to overfishing offshore, power plants fish kills, and destruction of habitat, government regulations prevent me from fishing for shad. So now I can only fish for river herring and blue crabs.

Karen Pillsworth My name is Karen Sangaline Pillsworth and I am a storyteller and story practitioner. My home now is Kingston, New York but at one point in my life I moved 13 times in 13 years! Moving around was exciting and challenging and ALWAYS made for good stories. I am pretty sure that I always wanted to be a storyteller, but I didn’t know it. As a child I was very shy, but I loved to listen to stories. I loved the kinds of stories that were written down in books, however, what I REALLY liked, was listening around the kitchen table or sitting on the front porch as the grown-ups shared their stories.

Jing Shuai My name is Jing Shuai. My last name, Shuai, means the most powerful position in the military. My first name, Jing, means tranquil. When I was young, I didn’t quite understand the meaning of the combination of these two words. It wasn’t until my Tai Chi instructor exam in Mainland China that I realized that my name represents Yin and Yang, two opposing energies in life. The essence of Tai Chi is to seek simplicity through nature, and this guides my teaching and creative aesthetic. I hope to share the cultural origins of Tai Chi with people who love art, nature, and wellness.

Thank you for Attending the Culture, Community, and the Classroom showcase! This program happens because of the support of many important funders and individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to support these programs.

About the project

Seven artists and three teachers in school districts around the region participated in a summer workshop at Arts Mid-Hudson with nationally recognized faculty from Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. Learn from these local teachers and traditional artists who participated in this national initiative to incorporate diverse cultural arts and knowledge into classrooms.

Thank you to these funders who made it possible to offer this as a free professional development opportunity for teachers and artists: The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and individual donors to Local Learning.

We are grateful to our Mid-Hudson local colleagues Tamarah Fernandez-Bridgewater, Kofi Donkor, and Elinor Levy for their help in planning this professional development series. We want to acknowledge the support of Ellen McHale and New York Folklore, Arts Mid-Hudson, the Hudson River Maritime Museum, and JoAnn Murphy-Genter at the MidHudson Teacher Center. 

Local Learning’s Culture, Community, and the Classroom programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The post Mid-Hudson CCC Showcase 2022 appeared first on Local Learning.