Feelin’ the Beat Drumming Program in 15 Schools During 2024–25
The 2024–25 school year has brought exciting growth in the Chautauqua Arts Education School Residency program, Feelin’ the Beat. This program was created for students with disabilities to support social emotional learning goals and to develop musical expression through drumming. Over time, the program has expanded to support students who have different kinds of learning challenges, many of whom were impacted by the effect of the pandemic on their learning experience.
This program has been offered since 2014 when it started by serving two schools. Fast forward 10 years and the program will be in 15 schools this year — adding five new schools to those served last year. The program is offered over the course of two residency cycles of 10 weeks each: the first offered from October through early January, and the second from late January through April.
Schools returning to the program this year are Chautauqua Lake BOCES Satellite Site, Hewes BOCES Educational Center, LoGuidice BOCES Educational Center, Southwestern Elementary School, Little Seeds Preschool at Southwestern, Ring and Bush Elementary and Washington Middle School in the Jamestown Public Schools, Dunkirk School 7, and Dunkirk Intermediate in the Dunkirk City Schools. New schools this year include two new Little Seeds Preschools, one in Sinclairville and one in Fredonia; two additional schools in the Dunkirk City Schools, School 3 and Dunkirk Secondary School; and Love Elementary in the Jamestown Public Schools.
In addition to serving five new schools, the program is being adapted to serve expanded audiences. New approaches include one school hosting the program for both residency cycles, each cycle serving a different group of students with unique learning challenges. Also, one school is piloting Feelin’ the Beat to serve select students whose increased social emotional learning challenges impact their ability to learn. Lastly, the curriculum is being adapted to address more specifically the needs of the youngest and oldest students with disabilities by developing new age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate activities as the program reaches new audiences.
This expansion is a direct result of the addition of Resident Teaching Artist/Arts Education Coordinator Stephanie Dawson. This new position was made possible due to funding from the Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation. Dawson and Director of Arts Education Suzanne Fassett-Wright both lead residencies independently throughout the county, allowing more schools to be served. This new role greatly expands capacity for Chautauqua Arts Education, both in terms of having more time to serve more students and an increased skill base across all Arts Education’s staff.
Additionally, this program is provided under contract with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a part of their VSA Arts Connect All – Workshop/Residency Program.
“It’s been so exciting to develop deeper relationships with schools and districts we already serve and establish new relationships with new schools,” said Fassett-Wright. “After building trust over the past 10 years, teachers are collaborating more closely with us to inform our teaching, allowing us to support their learning goals through the arts. It’s been an amazing year already!”