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CARLINE MURPHY JOINS CCCA
AS ARTS IN EDUCATION DIRECTOR

Columbia County Council on the Arts (CCCA) is pleased to announce a recent grant from the Arts in Education Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), which makes possible the hiring of Carline Seide-Murphy as Director of Arts in Education.  This grant supports the designation of the CCCA as the coordinating agency for the Hudson Valley Roundtable, the newest in a network of arts in education resource centers established throughout the state by NYSCA.  The roundtables function as THE clearing house in a region for arts in education practitioners.  These include teaching artists, funders, classroom arts and non-arts teachers, administrators, cultural institutions, parents and any other interested parties.

Ms. Seide-Murphy, a native of Haiti, is a passionate advocate of the arts in society and in the schools.  She has two talented daughters participating enthusiastically in a wide variety of arts programs in the Ichabod Crane School District, at TSL, the Hudson Opera House, CCCA, and other venues.  Her late son was also an avid visual and musical artist.  She is the Founding Director of the Haitian Community Development Project, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization providing social and cultural opportunities to the area’s immigrant residents.  Besides her administrative experience, she is a former medical and social worker with experience in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Massachusetts, and Columbia County.  She is also the former director of the CCCA’s Sculpture & Nature Classroom on Wheels, a project which took all 2^nd graders from Hudson’s John L. Edwards Elementary School to The Fields at Art Omi for a series of “conversations with sculpture.”

The first task of Ms. Seide-Murphy is to organize a series of regional arts in education information-sharing sessions throughout the valley.  They will most likely take place on the border of Columbia-Dutchess, Dutchess-Putnam, Greene-Ulster, and Orange-Rockland to insure maximum accessibility.  They are planned for April 2007.  These sessions will feature guest lecturers on best practices in the field, panels at which partners in various types of residencies describe the process of developing and implementing successful partnerships, and professional development for both teaching artists and classroom teachers.  Funding trends and funding resources will also be featured, providing direct access by applicants to funding sources.  The structure of NYSCA’s various arts in education funding and networking opportunities will also be a prominent feature.  In the meantime, Ms. Seide-Murphy will be creating a database of all interested arts in education stakeholders.  She may be contacted at carline@artscolumbia.org, or 518 671 6213.

The other Roundtables are in New York City, Long Island, the Capital Region, Central New York, the Adirondacks, the Southern Tier, Buffalo, and Rochester.  Due to the impressive growth in the arts in the Hudson Valley, it became evident to NYSCA and the field that the creation of a Hudson Valley Roundtable was urgent.  Because of CCCA Executive Director Jan Hanvik’s previous extensive experience as a teaching artist, and the CCCA Board of Directors’ commitment to the promotion of the field in Columbia County, it was obvious to many professionals in the field that the CCCA would provide the experience and leadership necessary to guarantee the success of a Hudson Valley Roundtable.

Amy Duggins Pender, Director of NYSCA’s Arts in Education Program, will be personally meeting with Ms. Seide-Murphy and others on a continuing basis in planning of these conferences to guarantee the growth and stability of this effort.