arts, Community, and education:  Master of education in community arts

Program Description

Arts, Community and Education is a 36-credit Master of Education in Community Arts that provides a dynamic and interdisciplinary foundation in community arts work, including arts-based work, grant writing, arts administration, networking, fundraising, curriculum planning, assessment and advocacy. In addition the program requires students to pursue more in-depth knowledge in one of five specializations. Research and field experiences that expose students to the power of community arts as an instrument for social change are integral to the program.

Program Specializations

Arts and Literacy Specialization (AL)
The connection between the arts and literacy is emphasized in this specialization in which students focus on practical and theoretical approaches in arts-based literacy curriculum for schools, community organizations and other environments. Students work with practicing artists, writers, performers and educators.

Integrated Arts Specialization (IA)
Students interested in exploring multiple arts modalities, including art, drama, music, poetry, and storytelling, will learn to facilitate an integrated arts approach for school curriculum, community organizations and other environments.

Multicultural Education Specialization (MC)
An ideal choice for those who want a better understanding of diversity in social contexts and for work in community settings. Themes explored in related courses include social and personal identity; socio-political context; multiple perspectives; and power and privilege in social context.

Theatre Studies Specialization (TH)
Participants get an opportunity to develop artistic skills necessary to facilitate a drama-based approach for school curriculum, community organizations and other environments. Students work with practicing drama educators and directors.

Visual Art Specialization (VA)
Appropriate for current teachers, artists, or other professionals who want to develop the artistic skills to facilitate a visual art-based approach for school curriculum, community organizations and other environments. Students work with practicing artists and art educators to understand the ways in which communities are vital in our framing and teaching of visual art.

Faculty

Kerrie Bellisario earned an M.F.A. from the University of Connecticut and a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. As an artist, she engages in the arts as a mechanism for social change—bringing together ideas and images in personal narratives that prompt investigations into a larger scale of human issues. As an educator, she is interested in facilitating the voices of students and leading discussions that make us all think more about the world we occupy. She currently teaches Theory and Practice in Community Arts, Art and Culture in Community, and Art and Visual Inquiry.

Lisa Donovan is currently the Director of the Creative Arts in Learning Division. She is a theater artist and arts-based researcher who teaches arts integration, arts-based action research, and arts-based literacy courses. She has a broad range of experience working as an arts educator and arts administrator in a variety of arts organziations, including Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Berkshire Opera Company, University of Massachusetts' Department of Theater, as well as Boston University's Theater, Visual Arts and Tanglewood Institutes. She was formerly the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education. She has presented her work at national and international conferences, including the Qualitative Inquiry Group in Georgia, the American Educational Research Association in New York City, and UNESCO's World Conference on Arts Education in Portugal. Her arts-based research script, Ah-Sess, was performed as the centerpiece of the Assessment Conference at New York University in 2004. Her script, The Voices that Matter, was performed recently at the University of Massachusetts. Lisa holds a Ph.D. from Lesley University.

Priscilla Sanville received her Ph.D. from the Union Institute in Multicultural Education and her M.A. from Lesley University in the Independent Study Program. She earned her B.A. in Speech and Theatre with a minor in Education from the University of Denver. She was an elementary school teacher for fifteen years and a supervisor of a drama/theatre program for another 15 years in the public schools. She has also worked in various community organizations. Her passion is directed toward social justice through the arts in schools and community settings. She is interested in the dialogue that can occur in communities and schools cross-culturally and multiculturally. She has taught in Russia, Israel, British Columbia, Quebec, and in many settings across the United States. At Lesley, she teaches The Collaborative Symposium, Drama and Critical Literacy, Arts Approach to Multicultural Education, and the Educator Inquiry thesis class.

Robert Shreefter has an M.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received an M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he concentrated on painting and printmaking. He has done extensive work with children in schools as a special art and literacy resource teacher and as an artist-in-residence. Much of his work has been in community organizations—including work with pregnant teens and homeless people—literacy councils, and libraries. At Lesley he trains art teachers and teaches classroom teachers in using visual art to enhance literacy instruction. Robert teaches Multiple Literacies, Arts and Literacy, and the thesis course for art educators and those in the visual art specialization in the Community Arts program.

Sam Smiley earned her M.F.A. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Electronic Arts, and her B.F.A. at Massachusetts College of Art in the Studio for Interrelated Media (S.I.M.). She is a media artist and educator who works within the intersection of digital media, video art, and the sciences. She was the first assistant director for the Boston Cyberarts Festival and has worked with community media and youth in arts centers throughout New England. Her passions in community arts are media literacy, bridging the digital divide, and public media art. She has presented work in Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, France, and Holland as well as in other national and international venues. She currently teaches Arts and Technology, Arts and Culture in Community, and Power of the Image: Media Literacy.

Lesley University is a leader in arts-based education programs

Lesley's Creative Arts in Learning Division has earned a far-reaching reputation for its innovative perspective on the arts and the impact they can have on learning for children and adults.

Students in the Community Arts program have made a wide-reaching impact through the arts. Heading nonprofits, forming experimental dance programs for youth, creating after-school programs, and working in hospitals are just a few examples of the transformative work our students do.