The College at Brockport's Interdisciplinary Arts for Children (IAC) Program is one of SUNY's best-kept secrets.  Established over 40 years ago as a way for undergraduate students to connect studio experiences in the arts with the education and development of young children, our students continue to explore the natural relationships among the arts and education, and how those relationships can inform the development of 21st century leadership through our schools and community organizations.

And our program continues to grow and thrive!  As of this January, the IAC Program has 110 students enrolled.  Approximately 70% of them are pursuing simultaneous 1st - 6th grade Child Inclusive Education certification through the College's Education and Human Development Department and will become general education classroom teachers.  The remaining 30% have diverse professional goals including speech therapy, arts administration and work as independent teaching artists.

Read on for details of student and faculty activity.  And as you'll read in the article to the right - we would love to hear from you!

Best,

Kevin Warner
Director, Interdisciplinary Arts for Children Program

Interdisciplinary Arts for Children seniors Bethany Burrows and Mallory Hart were inducted into the Alpha Chi Honor Society this past fall.  Alpha Chi induction is the College's highest recognition for outstanding academic achievement in all majors and programs.


IAC students (l-r) Melissa Maxwell, Dana Moskowitz and Emily Salvas presented  "Dance Integration:  Shaping Policy and Practice from Within the K-6 Classroom" at January's National Dance Education Organization Regional Conference. 



The Arts for Children Club, an independent student organization affiliated with Brockport Student Government, is back after a one-year hiatus.  Student officers and members are busy planning several events that give students an opportunity for community outreach, event planning and the teaching of young children. 

Christian Carson presented a lecture and workshop at the New York State Art Teachers Association (NYSATA) "Teaching Shape Through Time" exploring experimental animator Oskar Fischinger's early silhouette experiments and related techniques for teaching design elements in the classroom through stop-motion animation. 

Dr. Oh-Kon Cho and five IAC students presented the workshop "Creative Drama/Puppetry for Young Children" at January's American Camping Association Conference in Syracuse, NY.  Student presenters were Kenneth Byrd, Shannon Kerr, Rachel Kouwe, Shannon O'Brien and Shea Woodard.  Dr. Cho also continues working with IAC students to present experiential puppet workshops to children in the Brockport community.


Dr. Natalie Sarrazin presented at two conferences this fall. The first paper, "Global Inspiration, Musical Integration and Genre Transformation in Indian Film Music," was presented in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as part of the Indian Musicological Society Conference. Her second paper, "Sublimating the Sufi?: Sonic Imaging of Qawwali in Hindi Film", was presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in Connecticut.

Natalie also has a book recently published by Rowman Littlefield and the Music Educators National Conference, entitled Indian Music for the Classroom. 


Dr. Juanita Suarez began work in December on a new dance theater work based on Francisco Goya's Los Caprichos and Los Desastres de la Guerra. She will be collaborating with members of the Latina Dance Project as well as Jose Garcia Davis. 

The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) has expressed interest in the project and requested the work premiere at the NHCC in 2010.


Finally, Program Director Kevin S. Warner presented at the four-day Oklahoma Fine Arts Institute Teacher Training Seminar in Lone Wolf, OK in Fall 2008.  Warner presented a lecture and workshops to general education classroom teachers and administrators on "Making Movement Meaningful:  Integrating Dance with Literacy and Language Development."