Q & A with PIP's Founder, Tova Ackerman
Tell us about the members of the partnership (higher education faculty, classroom teachers, arts specialists, teaching artists and/or arts educators in cultural organizations) and their specific roles within the partnership.
I founded Puppetry in Practice (PIP) in 1980 with the help of the School of Education at Brooklyn College. Since then I have collaborated and partnered with New York City public schools, educators and artists to produce ongoing workshops, performances, artist residencies and professional development programs. Staff of the School of Education at Brooklyn College (CUNY) participate in many of the programs. PIP has developed many graduate courses and institutes at Brooklyn college teaching professionals to integrate arts into their curriculum. Currently we are offering two graduate seminars titled The Classroom as Theater and Imagination, the Arts and Multidisciplinary learning. PIP has hosted artists from all many parts the world including Russia, China, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Israel. Classroom teachers from New York city schools actively collaborate on ways to infuse the visual and performing arts into classroom curriculum with a focus on positive outcomes. Our main area of expertise is ESL education which has become a focal point in developing ESL through the arts programs. The primary activities of Puppetry in Practice include : 1. Artist in the schools residencies to focus on enhancing the educational curriculum through the arts. 2. Professional development workshops and teacher training. 3. Development of curriculum bringing arts into the classroom as a tool to increase both literacy and higher order thinking. 4. Performances in community spaces such as libraries and schools and at conferences and the PIP Center. PIP Performances bring folktales of other cultures to life and increase awareness of the arts. 5. English as a second language (ESL) enrichment through the arts. We currently deliver our arts enhanced ESL curriculum in several NYC Public Schools. Model programs are being developed through grants in four schools.
Describe how, when and where the partnership was established. What are the stated goals of the partnership?
For many years I worked with Active Learning Through Drama creators Mark Rittenberg and Penny Kreitzer who gave a seminar at Brooklyn College. I realized that you can't rubber stamp teaching methods but have to tailor them to the cultural backgrounds of the learners. Sources for the development of PIP methods included Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences model. Also instrumental were the methods used by educational philosopher Paolo Freire, who used theater arts to raise the literacy level of the lower classes among the poor residents of the Favelas of Rio de Janiero. Our work reinforced the original vision of PIP that what was important in learning wasn't just the different styles of learning but the ability to connect to the cultures of the learners. Using images and ideas that had cultural resonance, warmth and immediacy involved students in the learning process more quickly. Instead of reinventing the curriculum she enhanced it through the arts. Puppeteers from Brazil including troupe director Jorge Fantini of Campinas Puppet Theater joined PIP in 1980. Fantini's Popular Education workshops helped PIP develop a method of teaching English based on theater techniques. This connected with my doctoral work in teaching English as a Second Languge at NYU. Over the next several years many puppeteers from Campinas came to work with PIP to expand the programs. Since 1980 we have collaborated with many arts based education organizations including Tenpenny Players, and El Mundo de los Munecos from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.Our ongoing goals are to develop language and literacy through the arts while exploring culture through drama, folklore, music and puppetry. While we are called Puppetry in Practice the programs we offer encompass much more than puppetry.
Describe the key elements of the professional development component for the arts teaching workforce.
Staff of the School of Education at Brooklyn College (CUNY) participate in many of the programs. PIP has developed many graduate courses and institutes at Brooklyn college teaching professionals to integrate arts into their curriculum. Currently we are offering two graduate seminars at Brooklyn College.
Describe how the partners work together. Include in your description the role of higher education (administrators and faculty) in establishing and/or sustaining the partnership, strategies used to engage partners, professional development activities, and evaluation of outcomes.
PIP receives steady feedback from educators who have used our methods and who attest to the value of an arts based program. As stated previously we have hosted artists from many parts the world including Russia, China, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Israel. Classroom teachers from New York city schools actively collaborate with us on ways to infuse the visual and performing arts into classroom curriculum with a focus on positive outcomes. Assessment procedures include logs by teachers and portfolios developed with the students.
Describe the professional development of the arts teaching workforce. Where and when does it take place? Does the higher education faculty work with the arts teaching workforce in the schools, at cultural sites and/or at the university? Is the professional development offered during the school day, over the course of the semester and/or during intensive periods? What incentives or compensation are offered to the participants?
Our core team consists of seven working artists at various stages of their professional careers. They are performers, teachers, artists, musicians, authors and illustrators . They perform puppet shows, lead theater games at schools and develop arts based projects with children, teachers and parents.
Describe how the program is funded and how it will be sustained over time.
We are funded through a combination of grants, paid residencies in schools and revenues from seminars and workshops.Over the years we have received grants from the NEH, Federal sources, NYC and The Center For Arts Education.Community based organizations such as The Mill Basin Civic Association and the Meir Bernstein Foundation have also provided small amounts of non-recurring revenues. Brooklyn College provides space at no cost to us, and in return we maintain, staff and open the center as a resource room for college students and educators. Additionally Brooklyn College designates PIP as a work-study site so that students interested in working with us can be compensated for their help. We are currently collaborating with Albetac, a technical assistance center for the Asian community. It has provided a large library of English and bilingual materials focusing on the language and literature of Asian cultures.
Describe the benefits of the professional development opportunities for each of the partners. Assuming a positive impact on young people, please focus on the benefits to higher education and the arts teaching workforce.
We have been instrumental in the careers of many artist-educators. Through our partnerships at Brooklyn College we are able to offer internships for credit, seminars in professional development, and hosting for artists from multi-disciplinary backgrounds in NYC.
Describe the challenges to the partnership that were both expected and unexpected.
A current challenge is to develop a research model to validate the efficacy of arts based learning. As always, financing arts in education is challenging, and our funding streams, while reliable, are relatively modest. We are seeking grants and partnerships with other arts organizations which will help us broaden into more schools and support our work, as well as supporting our talented team of working artist-educators. Currently we are working on making the huge volume of curriculum materials available to teachers all over the world through increasing our on-line presence. We have thousands of pages of teacher-artist created materials, manuals, theater games, and videos, which we intend to transfer to digital media and serve to the community of artists, educators, classroom teachers and student learners. There is an unexpected demand for ESL classes from adults in the community. We are trying to figure out ways to bring ESL classes to the parents and guardians of the many English language learners we meet in the course of our school programs. We are currently trying to connect our program in Chinese storytelling and folk arts to the Chinese as a Foreign Language Initiative in Region seven. Together with the School of Education and the Department of Modern Languages at Brooklyn College we can bring the excitement of the arts into the Chinese programs in the schools. Explain how the partners responded to these challenges. What have you learned that you would do differently in future partnerships? We have applied for a Federal Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant, in order to formalize our research models, which will provide detailed, results oriented validation for an arts based program.We have been awarded four grants for ESL enrichment through the arts. The curriculum material we are developing will make it possible for the programs and the fantastic successes we have had in New York City public schools to be replicated throughout the country. Here is a brief anecdote that captures the essence of our work On Tuesday, April 11, at a culminating performance of The Hen and the Frog at our ESL program in PS 216 in Brooklyn a child who rarely spoke in class went to the stage, and using his self created puppet, spoke his lines for the first time. It is the thousands of these small epiphanies that make what we do every day worthwhile.
