getty grant

07/19/00

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Cal State L.A. Receives Two-Year Getty Grant
for Service Learning Programs

Los Angeles, CA -- California State University, Los Angeles was one of six CSU campuses recently awarded a two-year grant from the Getty Grant Program to support service learning programs in which students learn from community service experiences directly tied to the academic content of their courses. The Getty grant, "Linking Service Learning and the Visual Arts," will partner Cal State L.A. faculty and community agencies to develop an array of service learning courses in the visual arts. The courses will offer Cal State L.A. students opportunities to learn more about museums and other visual arts organizations to foster a better understanding of, and increased commitment to, the nonprofit arts sector.

The $167,000 grant will fund a service-learning institute for faculty and deans at Cal State L.A. and five other CSU campuses -- Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, and Pomona. Selected faculty will then receive stipends to work with local arts organizations to develop new service-learning courses. In the future, the CSU hopes to expand this program to all of its campuses.

"The Getty has provided this outstanding opportunity for our students and faculty to contribute to the betterment of our communities throughout the Los Angeles basin, " said Ed Forde, coordinator of Cal State L.A.'s Service Learning and director of the Getty Service Learning Visual Arts Program. More than 135,000 CSU students throughout the state perform a total of about 33.6 million hours of community service annually--equaling a minimum wage value of about $193.2 million.

The Getty Grant Program is part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts. Since its inception in 1984, the grant program has given more than $89 million to over 2,200 projects in about 150 countries.

Cal State L.A. Service Learning
Service learning has been a familiar teaching approach among faculty at Cal State L.A. for more than three decades. Service learning is part of the degree requirement for a B.A. and M.A. in Theatre Arts and Dance at Cal State L.A. and has also been incorporated into business classes for the past 15 years. In collaboration with the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, the Art Department at Cal State L.A. has offered a nationally recognized course in visual literacy for prospective teachers that is based on the concept of service learning. Courses in Child Development and other programs housed in the School of Health and Human Services feature service learning opportunities in such areas as children's health. Service learning courses in such diverse disciplines as Philosophy and Engineering are being established with the assistance of the University coordinator for service learning, who works closely with faculty members and the University's Educational Participation In Communities (EPIC) office. (EPIC, which has served as a conduit to service in the community for 34 years, assists in the placement and coordination of student volunteers.)

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