Project Grants in Education
Applicant Organization: UPP Arts
Participating Artists: Dan Butterworth, Sarah Cappelli, Anna Snyder, and Holly Ewald
Project: UPP Arts will facilitate a series of professional development workshops for teachers from 3 high schools–Central High School and Alvarez High School in Providence, and the Greene School in North Kingstown–to exchange ideas with teaching artists, community-based arts and environmental groups, and each other on how to build effective curricula using the lessons of Mashapaug Pond (MP) and/or place-based education across disciplines, including art.
These 3 schools all of which serve students from Providence and/or the surrounding urban area, have a history of engaging in project-based learning using MP resources gathered by UPP Arts over the last 10 years and an interest in continuing to utilize these resources. UPP Arts has worked with Central and Alvarez to fund and coordinate teaching artist workshop series in the past, but now UPP Arts is stepping back to focus on creating an archive and collaborative book to share its approach with others. As UPP thoughtfully transitions, these workshops will provide a practical way for teachers to continue to strengthen their place-based teaching through cross-fertilization of ideas and best practices between their respective schools, laying the groundwork for ongoing educational exchange and interdisciplinary curricular support over the coming years.
UPP Arts will hold a series of paid professional development workshops for teachers and teaching artists from July 2017 through June 2018. Two half-day workshops will take 
place in July at Alvarez High School. Currently, UPP’s Urban Pond Procession serves as the primary platform for students to bring their learning to the wider community. However, since UPP will not be hosting the procession in 2018, teachers and teaching artists can decide to celebrate student learning with the public in a new and different way. In November and February, they will check in, share, and plan the public event. In May, student work will be shared at the event. June will focus on evaluation
About the Organization: UPP Arts mission is to engage artists and communities in public art-making for the purpose of celebrating and building stewardship of our shared environment. UPP Arts will be successful when public art-making is a catalyst for creating healthy places and communities throughout Rhode Island.