Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 2/28/01
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   5

SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS EXPLORES ART HISTORY
     HAMMOND -- Elementary teachers can attend "Get Smart About Art," a special
institute on incorporating art history in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms, this summer
at Southeastern Louisiana University.
     Scheduled June 4-28 and conducted by Southeastern visual arts professor Kim Finley-
Stansbury, the institute will show how "Arts learning can become, through a natural web of
interactions and extensions, learning across the curriculum," Finley-Stansbury said.
     Finley-Stansbury said summer institute is open to all public and private school
kindergarten through sixth grade teachers, including generalists, language arts, social studies, art,
history, music, gifted and talented teachers, and to all elementary level principals, school
librarians and parish curriculum supervisors.  
     Twenty-five participants will be selected based on interest, letters of applications and
ability to contribute to the institute. Applications, available from the Southeastern Visual Arts
Department, 985-549-2193, in Clark Hall, must be submitted by April 2. 
     Finley-Stansbury said participants, who will receive a $500 stipend, should register, if
eligible, for the Louisiana Teacher tuition Exemption Program. They may take the course for
graduate credit.
     The institute will take place from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday. Teachers
will be asked to attend a pre-institute orientation in early May and a follow-up evaluation in
October.
     "The student of art history promotes higher order thinking skills," Finley-Stansbury said,
"because students must come up with answers on their own, through their own observations,
when discussing works of art."
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GET SMART ABOUT ART   Add One

     She said Get Smart About Art will examine art history "as a way to understand more
critically the visual artifacts left by world cultures as found in elementary school curricula such
as history, social studies, language arts and art."
     In addition to reading and discussing art history texts, teachers will prepare lesson plans,
screen videos and take field trips to the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Louisiana Arts and
Science Center in Baton Rouge. Guest speakers will make presentations on museum outreach
and how to develop an interdisciplinary arts curriculum in elementary school classrooms. 
     Get Smart About Art is funded by grants from the state of Louisiana and the Louisiana
Endowment for the Humanities.
     For additional information about Get Smart About Art, contact Finley-Stansbury at 985-
549-2193/2299 or finlstansbury@selu.edu.
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp01.htm