| School
Residencies
RESIDENCIES:
Sometimes a day isn't enough. Stuart Stotts occasionally
does residencies lasting from two days to four weeks. Students
have worked to write songs, publish songbooks, give public
performances and make recordings. Stuart has done residencies
with students from kindergarten to high school age.
SONGWRITING: Write
your own original song as you explore the creative process
together. Stuart works with groups or classes to compose
and perform a song. The songs can be sung later in all school
assemblies, family concerts, or at a community location,
like a senior center. Songwriting can also be part of a
Young Authors program.
STORYTELLING:
Students learn to tell stories. Sometimes the emphasis is
on folk tales. Other times, students may collect stories
from family or community members. Students get the chance
to tell their stories to classrooms, the school-at-large,
or to family members. There are also opportunities to publish
work that students have created.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES:
Stuart has worked to write musicals. Sometimes he works
in collaboration with other artists. Some residencies focus
on local or state history. Others focus on curricular themes.
What is most important is that a residency reflects a school's
interests, rather than being a cookie-cutter program superimposed
by the artist.
Some Examples of Past Residencies
Menomonie, Wi.
Worked with high school students and three other artists
to create a musical based on local history and logging in
Wisconsin.
Door County:
Worked with 4th grade students to write songs based upon
prominent local historical events and items, like cherry
orchards and lighthouses.
Manitowoc
Stuart and Tom Pease wrote verses to songs about reading
with 15+ kindergarten classes . The kids then got to sing
their songs for their families.
Stuart worked with 3-5 graders to collect
family stories, to write and re-tell. Students also worked
with the art teacher to make hand-made books of their stories.
Madison
Worked with middle school students , teaching them to tell
folktales which illustrated themes of "rites of passage."
Students told their stories to elementary school students.
Stuart wrote songs based on folk-tales with
k-5 students in Racine. Each classroom wrote a song and
then sang it at a final all-school program. |
