The Wisconsin Arts Celebration Project was created to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Wisconsin Arts Board. This unique, collaborative project between the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Arts Board offers FREE music, lesson plans, and materials created by Wisconsin artists and educators.
The materials were developed in response to creative works commissioned by the Wisconsin Arts Board in honor of its anniversary. The centerpiece of the 50th anniversary project is a poem entitled “Like the Wind” by poet Dasha Kelly Hamilton, which speaks to the creative capacity already inside each of us. The music, composed by Wisconsin composer Dr. Erika Svanoe, includes unique settings for SATB choir, orchestra, and concert band.
The lesson plans and materials were created by a team of expert Wisconsin arts educators: Visual Artist and Educator Jennifer Handrick, Media Artist and Educator Harry Kellogg, Theater Specialist and Educator Ron Parker, and Dance Educator and Fifth Grade Teacher at the Academy of Chinese Language, Yeng Vang-Strath, and Musician and Music Educator, Tony Kading.
The link to the music, poem, recordings, lesson plans, and materials can be found HERE. Please take these materials and use them in your schools and communities. We encourage you to share artifacts, recordings, photos, and videos of students and community members using these resources so that we can celebrate with you while gauging the impact. Please send any media to christopher.gleason@dpi.wi.gov
This project and the intentional connections between poetry, spoken word, music, dance, theater, visual art, and media art demonstrate this crucial throughline: Creativity is a vital human capacity that we must continue to nurture in our students and each other.
Project Overview Video (6:20)
Articles About The Project:
School, Library and Community Engagement