Kennedy Center Partners in Education Professional Development

Chautauqua Institution is proud to serve as a year-round resource for arts-integrated teacher training and development, bringing best-practice educational techniques to classroom teachers to present the arts to students as part of their daily classroom activities.

2020–2021 Kennedy Center Partners in Education Professional Development Flyer

About

About Kennedy Partners

As a Kennedy Center Partners in Education team, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Lake Central School and Jamestown Public Schools present professional development workshops in Arts Integration. These workshops bring Kennedy Center national workshop leaders to help local educators learn new strategies toward achieving student learning goals. The teaching strategies introduced integrate the performing and visual arts with other core areas such as reading, math and science. Participating educators receive professional development credit towards their certification goals, as approved by their district. New in 2018-19, this program is being extended into Erie County school districts, in partnership with Erie 1 BOCES and support provided by the John R. Oishei Foundation.

Wednesday is Education Day at CHQ

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Register for Workshops

Creative Connections: Bringing School Communities Together Virtually Through the Arts
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Acting Right: Actor’s Toolbox/Concentration Circle
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Acting Right: 4 C’s: Cooperate, Collaborate, Communicate and Create
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Gr. K-6 The Power of Pictures: Reading Art Across the Curriculum
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Gr. 7-12 The Power of Pictures: Political Cartoons, Paintings and Photographs
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Teaching Artists

Deborah Sunya Moore

Deborah Sunya Moore, percussionist and arts educator, has a long history as an advocate of performing arts programs for youth and persons with disabilities. Deborah is currently the Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution and a National Workshop Leader for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally, she was awarded the designation of Fulbright Specialist in Arts Integration from 2017 to 2019. Previously, Ms. Moore held the positions of Arts Education & Community Engagement Specialist and Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (2010–2013). She served as the Director of Education and Community Engagement for the Louisville Orchestra 2004–2009 and performs regularly with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. She also was the artistic director (1999–2005) and percussionist (1996–2003) of Tales & Scales, a nationally touring instrumental quartet for youth. With Tales & Scales, Deborah commissioned and performed “musictales” for thousands of children and families in schools and theaters, and with symphonies such as the Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis, Phoenix and Indianapolis symphony orchestras. Deborah was selected for the Hermitage Artist Retreat 2013–2014 and became a speaker for the United States Department of State in 2014, representing the USA in Trinidad as a performer and speaker for Trinidad’s 2014 Arts & Disabilities Conference.

Deborah serves as an arts educator and consultant, having led educator and artist training workshops for organizations such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Florida State University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Boise Symphony, United States Marine Band and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She has developed and taught longer arts integrated courses for classroom teachers for organizations such as the Kentucky Center for the Arts, the Kravis Center (Florida), the Jefferson Country Public Schools (Kentucky) and the Peace Center (North Carolina). Deborah was named a National Workshop Leader for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2008. An arts advocate for her local community as well, Deborah was a recipient of Zonta Club of Jamestown’s Women in Leadership Award in 2018. She holds a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance and an individual major, Performance and Education in Related Arts, from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Master of Education curriculum and instruction from the University of Cincinnati.

Suzanne Fassett Wright

Suzanne Fassett Wright, arts educator, percussionist and conductor, has focused her professional work on empowering people of all ages to nurture a love of performing, creating and enjoying the arts. Currently, she serves as the Director of Arts Education at Chautauqua Institution (CI), developing and implementing the Institution’s arts education programs in music, drama, dance and visual arts throughout Western New York and Western Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a lead teaching artist and curriculum developer in CI’s “I Can Drum” School Residency, yearly reaching over 300 students with disabilities. Prior to her position at CI, she enjoyed a 20-year career as a music educator in higher education and K-12 public schools teaching in general music classrooms and as instrumental ensemble conductor. While living in Illinois, Suzanne was in high demand as conductor, clinician and adjudicator of concert and jazz ensembles throughout the state. Suzanne’s music performing career includes 21 years as percussionist in the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.