Think about an elementary school class without an arts program.
It’s something Heather Cook doesn’t even want to fathom.
A fifth grade teacher at Durham’s Central Park School for Children, Cook has organized the second benefit for arts education at the public charter school. The event is called Save Our Arts.
After a successful first outing in 2009, Cook is looking to make this year’s event even bigger than the last, drawing on a righteous group of Durham musicians. Megafaun, Midtown Dickens, Hammer No More The Fingers, the Beast and Tea and Tempest will all take the stage to support CPS and raise funds for arts education.
Cook, in her second year at the school, hatched the idea after arriving and finding that the part-time visual arts teachers’ funding had been cut.
“We are such a heavy arts-focused school—we honor all types of learning and all types of students—so it was surprising to me that we couldn’t come up with money for an art teacher,” Cook said.
After asking around, she was able to organize a small benefit, attended mostly by those affiliated with the school. Cook raised enough money so that each teacher could have $100 in additional funding, earmarked for arts-related education. CPS was also able to shift funds around and find enough money to hire an art teacher.
“For a classroom teacher, your budget is really this careful, cautious thing, and you never want to do anything too extravagant,” she said. “You want to make sure your kids have notebooks and pencils and some of the core things, so it gets scary when you want to spend it on instruments or CDs to listen to in the classroom.... It was nice to give those teachers the liberty to spend some extra money.”
Cook said teachers shone in their creativity with the funds, bringing in technology like GarageBand to the classroom as well as instruments like Native American flutes. If the second outing is a big enough success, she said some of the projects the school may consider include purchasing filmmaking equipment, building a stage or installing a dark room.
Regardless, the success of the first benefit, what she called her “prove-myself” year, helped highlight the importance of art and arts-related education to the administration.
“I think it also put an emphasis on how important it was because of all the teacher support that was given to the process of creating the benefit,” Cook said. “I think the admin team saw how vital [teachers] felt it would be.”
In the year since, Cook has worked as a one-person team in the foundation to put Save our Arts, striving to make year two more successful.
This year’s iteration is bigger and broader in scale and scope, from the bands to the presence of the Triangle Brewing Company to the press and target audience.
“Honestly, I kind of shot for the moon from the beginning of planning this and put it out to some of my favorite bands and all of them accepted,” she said. “I got really lucky.”
Cook roped in some of Durham’s biggest players for Friday’s concert. In addition to getting her husband Phil Cook’s nationally regarded band Megafaun on the lineup, she added Girls Rock NC product Tea and Tempest.
The bands, in spite of their different sounds, come together as friends and supporters of the Durham scene. Midtown Dickens’ Catherine Edgerton said the cause is especially resonant with the way the band approaches music.
“This project is so important to us because our whole journey as a band has been a learn-as-you-go fiasco of exploration and risk-taking through music, and the things (way beyond banjo chords) we’ve learned as a result are mind-blowing,” Edgerton wrote in an e-mail.
And although the bands are only donating their time, Edgerton said arts education is something everyone should care about.
“Basically, who could argue that arts and music education don’t make for a more critically thinking, confident, daring individual who is equipped to resist homogeneity and work towards a more vibrant and passionate community?” Edgerton said. “I can’t think of one single person, no matter what their path, who regrets taking piano lessons or painting classes as a kid. We are so grateful that there are folks in our community who are committed to integrating these absolutely essential foundations into everyday elementary school life.”
The event is especially close to Hammer No More The Fingers, whose band members met and became friends in Durham public schools. HNMTF guitarist Joe Hall and bassist Duncan Webster met in a classical guitar class at the Durham School of the Arts, setting the stage for their future relationship.
“It helped us come together and start making music,” Hall said. “You never know who you’re going to meet and will help you grow as a musician and a person.”
Save Our Arts is Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Trotter Building, 410 West Geer Street. OnlyBurger and the Triangle Brewing Company will be selling food and beverage, respectively, and there is a $10 suggested donation.
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