DePaul University School of Education’s LINK-INitiative Professional Development School Network invites the community to join in celebrating the vibrant presence of the arts in the university’s Professional Development Schools. Artwork of students from seven elementary and high schools will be on display from May 17 to June 30 throughout the Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus.

The exhibit kicks off with an opening reception from 1 to 4 p.m. May 17 featuring four floors of visual art, student performances in dance, music, theater and a mini-poetry slam. The exhibit will feature artwork from students in the School of Education’s Professional Development Schools: Alphonsus Academy and Center for the Arts; Louisa May Alcott School; Prescott Elementary School; Oscar Mayer Elementary School; St. Benedict Elementary School; St. Benedict High School; and Nicholas Senn High School.

The art exhibit, curated by DePaul faculty member Margaret Lanterman, has been developed collaboratively as part of the LINK-INitiative Professional Development School Network, a dynamic and innovative partnership between DePaul and public and Catholic school partners designed to develop teacher quality through professional development, create a powerful pre-service teacher program and enhance achievement for all students. The network is supported by the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, the Oscar G. and Elsa S. Mayer Family Foundation and the McDougal Foundation.

Clara Jennings, dean of DePaul University’s School of Education, said there are many positive outcomes of this community celebration of cross-curricular accomplishments focused on the arts.

“All stakeholders in the Professional Development School Network, including parents of schoolchildren, pre-service teacher candidates, practicing teachers and university faculty, benefit when they work collaboratively and over time,” Jennings said. “The LINK-INitiative has facilitated successful integration of the arts into the schools, and this exhibit demonstrates the importance of educators working together for the benefit of student learning.”

The LINK-INitiative promotes the arts as integral to the education of young people, as both separate and valued disciplines and as a dynamic venue to accelerate and enrich the children’s learning process in all fields. The students’ artwork not only holds intrinsic beauty and quality as art, but also integrates with other disciplines to enhance and enrich learning in fields such as math, science, geography, social studies and literature.

“The arts provide students with the opportunity to engage in both effective and cognitive response, enabling them to see and feel connections among many areas of learning,” said Catherine Larsen, director of the LINK-INitiative and DePaul arts educator in the School of Education.

Below are some of the arts projects that students and teachers have been working on this year:

• Oscar Mayer School collaborated with Zephyr Dance Company to develop an innovative integrated arts curriculum model that uses dance to advance mathematical understanding while developing response and critique techniques in the arts.

• Prescott Elementary School students created a media project with Facets Multimedia that culminated in an animated film based on the poem, “One Single Rose.” The film was screened by the International Children’s Film Festival and recognized for excellence.

• Alphonsus Academy & Center for the Arts explored social studies, geography and cultural heritage in projects that produced very personal interpretations in Day of the Dead paintings.

• Alcott Elementary School students learned about the significance of traditional cloth patterns as they produced their own versions of African Kente Cloth.

• St. Benedict Elementary and Middle School students composed short poems and songs based on the book “The Snowman.” Eighth graders learned about baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi and the poems upon which he based one of his most famous compositions, “The Four Seasons.” They then wrote their own version of the poems, hanging them from “season trees” in the hallway.

• Senn High School students discovered cross-curricular connections through exploration of math both in an art classroom with Math Circle Mobiles, and in a math program with a Soda Can Robot, which was produced using ratios and proportion study.

For more information about the exhibit or the LINK-INitiative Professional Development School Network, please contact Catherine Larsen at clarsen@depaul.edu or visit http://condor.depaul.edu/~link/.