EVENTSSince 2012, ArtSpeaks has enhanced community awareness for Arts Education by hosting presentations geared towards students & parents. These events raise awareness of the role the Arts play in a comprehensive public school education, particularly in developing 21st Century Skills that are essential for success. Read below to see our schedule for upcoming events, or view our video collection of past speakers .
On November 6, 2019, composer Reena Esmail and violinist Vijay Gupta presented the premiere of Esmail's new work Concerto for You with the Neuqua Valley Symphonic Strings at Wentz Hall in Naperville. This unique work incorporated the soloist within the ensemble for a more collaborative approach that broke down the typical hierarchy of a concerto. The following video is the performace portion of the evening. Please see our main page to listen to their talk about the evolution and construction of Concerto for You.
On March 1, J. Todd Frazier presented to the Fine Arts Teachers in Indian Prairie School District 204. Todd is the Director of Performing Arts Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital.
This hospital had been looking for someone to connect them to the arts community in various ways, and I was reaching out to them to do some assessments with music programs. They were looking for a way to more formally connect to the arts community here. They already had a program in place, which gave more of a health care program for artists that might be injured. They invited me into this program to think of other ways artists could share in this health care environment, but also how we could use the arts in ways that are therapeutic as far as the patient recovery, and the entire patient experience." - J. Todd Frazier
Todd explained what the hospital has achieved in the last five years incorporating the arts in the healing process. This video shows highlights of his amazing work. |
NEXT EVENTSScience Technology Engineering
Math and the ARTS Professor Dionne Nicole Champion University of Florida Professor Nina Kruass Northwestern University Monday, November 8, 7pm Community Christian Church 1635 Emerson Lane, Naperville Check out the incredible impact Vijay Gupta's February visit had on Naperville:
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Learn more about Vijay Gupta and his February ARTSpeaks event below.
PAST EVENTS - 2017
October 2017 - Ellie Rose and the Penelope Project, an Art-based Odyssey to Change Elder Care
Highlights
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Full Presentation
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Ellie Rose - Artist, Gerontologist, and Dementia Care Innovations Strategist - describes how “The Penelope Project” works to bring meaning, respect, and purpose back to the lives of elders.
The project is a live theatrical performance that takes place throughout the halls and rooms of a Continuum of Care facility, inviting its residents to contribute through art projects, such as telling stories, decorating, singing, and dancing.
By weaving the residents, their art, and the facility into the performance, the Penelope Project invites the facility’s elder residents, as well as staff, family, students, and the community to interact with elders rather than to simply be around them or just to care for them.
Ellie’s work is rooted in the process of making art have a social impact - both in education of young adults, as well as in aging services for elders.
“The Penelope Project is an immensely illuminating story of the impact of community based arts on the transformation of a long-term care institution’s systems and culture.” -Americans for the ARTS
The project is a live theatrical performance that takes place throughout the halls and rooms of a Continuum of Care facility, inviting its residents to contribute through art projects, such as telling stories, decorating, singing, and dancing.
By weaving the residents, their art, and the facility into the performance, the Penelope Project invites the facility’s elder residents, as well as staff, family, students, and the community to interact with elders rather than to simply be around them or just to care for them.
Ellie’s work is rooted in the process of making art have a social impact - both in education of young adults, as well as in aging services for elders.
“The Penelope Project is an immensely illuminating story of the impact of community based arts on the transformation of a long-term care institution’s systems and culture.” -Americans for the ARTS
April 2017 - Nina Kraus, Chip Staley, and Members of Neuqua's Tri-M Honor Society
Highlights from Dr. Kraus' Presentation:
"Music and the Brain" |
Highlights from Staley and Tri-M Members:
"Alive Inside" |
Full Presentation from Dr. Kraus
Through a series of innovative studies involving thousands of research participants from birth to age 90, Dr. Kraus's research has found that our lives in sound, for better (musicians, bilinguals, auditory training) or worse (learning disabilities, aging, hearing loss), shape auditory processing. She continues to conduct parallel experiments in animal models to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these phenomena.
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Full Presentation from Staley and Tri-M Members
Chip Staley, Retired District 204 Music Educator, and students from Neuqua Valley High School (Selena Grover, Elena Stavropoulos, Nilesh Mukherji, McKenna Jansky) highlight their experiences working with the elderly at the Naperville Senior Center through a partnership with the Alive Inside Foundation, ARTSpeaks, and District 204. Students were paired with senior citizens and made them individual playlists of favorite songs to help their elder companions discover lost memories.
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PAST EVENTS - 2016
September 2016 - Tim Lautzenheiser and Members of the Class of 2017
Highlights from Lautzenheiser: Music's relationship to self-image, self-esteem, and self-worth.
It is impossible to raise someone else’s self-image and not simultaneously raise your own self-esteem. This, as a result, raises both person’s self-worth. Playing music together, we constantly let people around us know, "I’m harmonizing with you, articulating with you, we’re one, we are all going for the same goal!" We put aside our egos and work together with music and then take this positive self-worth into every day interactions, which benefits all those around us. See below for Tim's full Sept 2016 ARTSpeaks Presentation - "Why The Fine Arts Provide The Best Way For Our Children to Develop."
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Highlights from Lautzenheiser: When life
becomes LIFE! Every child is born with the propensity to make music, which then opens the creative part of the mind and can turn knowledge into wisdom. See below for Tim's full Sept 2016 ARTSpeaks Presentation - "Why The Fine Arts Provide The Best Way For Our Children to Develop."
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Full Presentation from Tim and the Class of 2017: "Why The Fine Arts Provide The Best Way For Our Children to Develop."
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Tim Lautzenheiser is a well-known name in the music education world as a teacher, clinician, author, composer, consultant, adjudicator, and, above all, a trusted friend to anyone interested in working with young people in developing a desire for excellence. He created Attitude Concepts for Today, an organization designed to manage the many requests for workshops, seminars, and convention speaking engagements focusing on the area of positive attitude and effective leadership training. He presently holds the Earl Dunn Distinquished Lecturer position at Ball State University. Tim also is the Director of Education for Conn-Selmer, and he serves as the national spokesperson for NAfME's "Make A Difference with Music" program.
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April 2016 - Chip Staley, Ellie Rose, and Members of the Class of 2016
Highlights from Staley: Learning Is a Journey from Where
We Can't to Where We Can The ARTS can help all students imagine a future that they're creating, not one that's created for them.
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Highlights from Rose: How the ARTS Inspire Elders
with Memory Loss The ARTS have an amazing capacity to reach elders with Alzheimer's and Dementia.
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Full Presentation from Staley:
What's on Your Playlist? Chip Staley, Retired District 204 Music Educator, presents his recent TEDx Talk, "What's On Your Playlist?" Connecting us to our humanity, giving meaning to our lives, and providing the building blocks that make up our identity, music is hardwired into our brains. We are biologically connected to music and by proxy all of the fine arts. Staley explores the importance of funding in offering music and the arts in every public school across the nation.
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Full Presentation from Rose: I am happy AND successful because of my Visual Arts Ed
Ellie Rose, Visual Artist and Gerontologist explains how she paved her academic track through visual arts and health care education in her talk, I am happy AND successful because of my Visual Arts Ed. As a talented painter and mixed-media sculpture artist, Ellie will share her challenges in high school to choose the Arts OR a "more successful" track of education as she prepared for college. Little did she know choosing the arts would sculpt her into being an innovator in the Creative Aging industry, transforming lives through the Arts and long-term care practices.
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Full Presentations from Members of District 204 Class of 2016 (Jill O'Brien - Neuqua Valley HS, Abby Donaldson & Sushmitha Suresh - Metea Valley HS, Leah Williams - Waubonsie Valley HS): How the ARTS helped them get into the college of their choice.
How have the ARTS impacted your life? - Class of 2016
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How have the ARTS helped you become a successful student? - Class of 2016
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PAST EVENTS - 2015
December 2015 - Jamie Lynn White and Members of the Class of 2016
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A panel of senior students from District 204 share their views on why the arts have mattered in their schooling, and what impact the arts had in their college acceptance. Students include: Trent Calderone, Samantha Steier, Shannon McElmeel, Eric Lied.
Jamie Lynn White, Assistant Director, Office of Undergraduate Admissions - Northwestern University. An alumni of Waubonsie Valley High School, Ms. White shows how participation in the arts are crucial to changing your critical thinking, how the arts empower and equip students with complex & adaptive skills required for the 21st century, and what skills are learned in the arts that colleges are looking for in college admissions. |
April 2015 - Dr. Julie Jastrow and Members of the Class of 2016
April 2015 - Dr. Julie Jastrow, Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, shares her music education experience and how the ARTS helped her set lofty goals and be successful in her career.
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April 2015 - Members of District 204 Class of 2015 (Rachel McMullen - Neuqua Valley HS, and Ben Gruman - Waubonsie Valley HS) share their views on why the ARTS have mattered in their schooling and what impact the ARTS had in their college acceptance.
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Randy Swiggum, Artistic Director of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, presents "The Expert Noticer".
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Katrine Trantham, Asst. Dean for Recruitment and Admissions FAA, University of Illinois, presents "Make smART Decisions NOW to help with College Admissions LATER
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