Citizen Culture: Culture-Infused LEARNING is the largest experiential arts, culture, and heritage education program in Southern Ontario, reaching more than 7,000 students each year.
CC:CIL helps to provide students in grades K-8 with experiences that cannot be replicated in the classroom. Through this suite of programs, students have opportunities ranging from spending a semester working with professional artists, to spending a full week immersed in an authentic museum or heritage site, to having the opportunity to engage in the arts in professional arts venues.
Through my role as Education Coordinator for the London Heritage Council I am involved in this program on many levels. I oversee the Museum School London program - a program that allows students and teachers to spend a full week engaged in hands-on learning in a museum or heritage site. Together with my educational counterpart at the London Arts Council, we developed a pilot program in the Spring of 2015 that merged elements of the Museum School London program with the London Heritage Council's London Artist in Residence program. This pilot allowed students to work with professional artists in local museums - having authentic experiences in both arts and heritage. From this pilot, the Citizen Culture: Culture-Infused LEARNING program was born.
Using the success of our pilot programs, I, along with the Development Coordinator and Education Coordinator for the London Arts Council, developed a successful London Community Foundation grant for $141,500 and an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant for $341,000 to bring the CC:CIL program to life.
The CC:CIL program now works with 10 museums/heritage sites, three professional arts venues, and 15 professional artists to create new and innovative opportunities for authentic arts, culture, and heritage experiences for elementary students in the Thames Valley Region.