PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pittsfield Public Schools (PPS) announced a new and district-wide Arts Integration (AI) and Community Partnerships (CP) program.   

 

In his first year in office, PPS Superintendent Joseph Curtis envisioned a district-wide arts integration program that would provide the districts' roughly 5000 students and 500 faculty with equitable and embedded access to Berkshire County's vast cultural resources in alignment with the PPS District Improvement Plan and Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan, while synchronously targeting grade level Common Core Standards, and social emotional learning.  

 

Yvette "Jamuna" Sirker, MFA, district Coordinator for Arts Integration & Community Partnerships, was tasked with designing and administering a program that, within a few short years, includes partnerships with thirty eight Berkshire County education and cultural institutions including Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Pulse, Berkshire Athenaeum, Shakespeare & Company, WAM Theater, Jacob's Pillow, MassMoCA, Berkshire Museum, Hancock Shaker Village, Arrowhead Museum/Berkshire Historical Society, Music Art Puppet Sound, Berkshire Cultural Assets Network, BERK-12, Tanglewood, Arts Integration Studio, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Tamarack Hollow, and more.  

 

To provide equitable and consistent access to arts-based learning across all grades and schools, five components comprise Sirker's arts integration organizational infrastructure design: 

 

 

"The quality and quantity of arts integration programming available to PPS by our Berkshire County community partners is unprecedented in the USA, even when compared to major metropolitan areas," said Sirker. "Arts integration engages students in a creative process that deeply enhances their ability to comprehend, integrate, and retain core content and standards-based curricula.  It provides multiple modes of learning including the Principles of Multiple Intelligences to foster imagination, creativity, and personal interpretation of topics and ideas."  

 

"Working with students in the PPS Arts integration program - the value is clear for BSC, as we are able to reach students who normally wouldn't walk through our door with their families. So it is a great value in helping us to remove barriers that would hinder our outreach," said Jane O'Leary, Barrington Stage Company Director of Education. "A plethora of credible research demonstrates that tudents who have arts education do better at school, regulate their emotions better and are able to advocate for themselves and their community more effectively." 

 

The PPS AI Program comes out of the framework established for the new academic year prioritizing student engagement as a critical component of a student's educational experience. The 23-24 Pittsfield Public School's Mission, Vision, and Core Values plan to ensure students experience a Joy In Learning, and that all PPS students have a Sense of Belonging in the schools communities by promoting Educational Equity through Embracing Human Uniqueness, a key component of arts programming.  

 

The growing Arts Integration and Community Partnership program keeps Pittsfield Public Schools at the forefront of current governmental policies and initiatives supporting a healthy community.  The signing of the September 30, 2023 Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services by President Joseph R. Biden highlighted the importance of arts experiences to positively impact a community. Massachusetts Cultural Council publishes a roadmap for communities to develop programs that integrate arts, culture, and natural resources into local health and social care systems.