Settlement
Music School 
416 Queen Street
PhiladelphiaPA19147
215-336-0400215-551-0483
Program: Kaleidoscope Preschool Arts Enrichment ProgramYear Started: 1990 Focus: Multidisciplinary Arts Youth Served: 60 Ages: 2-6 Budget: $500,000 "Anyone walking into the Settlement Music School would think that this is a regular, high-quality preschool program," says Director and composer Robert Capanna. In fact, the Program serves South Philadelphia children who live in a housing project across the street from the 87-year-old Music School. One impetus for starting the Program was the fact that the School was empty during the morning hours. Working with a faculty of professional artists with training in early childhood education, six to nine times a week small groups of children go to the arts studios to explore concepts that cut across the arts: pattern, change, repetition and extremes. They also are taught specific skills, such as in music: keeping a steady beat, staying on pitch, recognizing rudimentary notation and understanding the proper physical approach to an instrument. To reinforce preschool learning, childrenĖs parents or guardians are required to attend five hour-long parenting seminars each semester. A 3-year Program evaluation reveals that children have made gains in cognitive and language development above and beyond those evidenced in a control group of preschoolers without the arts-enriched curriculum. The Settlement Music School also runs an arts in early childhood teacher training institute and an arts-focused after-school program, as well as a comprehensive community-based program at five branch locations that serves 7,000 students. |