February 4, 2005

Fair to foster arts education

California State University, Sacramento will be the center for arts education for the region during the Arts Resource Fair 2005, a free one-day event focused on aiding area educators in incorporating the arts into their curriculum. The event is set for 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Feb. 26 in the University Union.

The fifth-annual fair will feature nearly 40 workshops and, new for this year, the creation of a work of public art by all participants that when complete will be displayed in the University's Eureka Hall, home to the College of Education.

Keynote speaker will be Wayne Darby Cook, manager of the California Arts Council's Arts in Education Program. He will be introduced by Muriel Johnson, new head of the California Arts Council. Cook is an accomplished actor perhaps best known for his one-man show dramatizing the poetry of Langston Hughes. Cook authored Center Stage: A Curriculum for the Performing Arts, a textbook in use nationwide and the only theater textbook adopted by the State of Texas. Cook has also taught at a number of universities, including Sacramento State.

Previous fairs have drawn more than 300 teachers and student teachers from Sacramento and the surrounding counties.

The fair is presented by Sacramento States' MOSAICS Project. The project develops strategies and resources for teachers to integrate arts into learning, serving as a systemwide proving ground for teacher arts education.
Funded by the California Council on the Arts, MOSAICS is also developing a Master of Arts in Education in Curriculum and Instruction degree with an emphasis in the arts.

Parking is free the day of the event. One unit of Sacramento State credit is available for a fee.

For more information, contact teacher education professor Crystal Olson at (916) 278-4237. Media assistance is available by contacting the public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

####