On the Threshold

Here's another great article from the Dayton City Paper about our neighborhood treasure, Stivers School for the Arts!   

“Thresholds,” is described by the school as “an impressive example of public sculpture that extends an invitation to the community while enriching the visual legacy of the Stivers campus.” The intersection of blue, orange and grey painted steel planes provides the piece’s structure, and the work plays on the use of straight and curved edges. This sculpture invites the public to interact with it. Situated near the corner of Keowee and Fifth Streets, visitors can walk around and through the two main components of the structure.

Photo by Dayton City Paper

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Stivers Showcase

Stivers School for the Arts, Video and Animation Department presents The Showcase, a collection of short films by student filmmakers.See work from talented students that runs the gamut from comedy to drama to public service. Some of the short films featured have already won awards and accolades at the state and national levels.

The Showcase runs one night only, on April 20th, 2012 at 7pm, in Stivers Centennial Hall. Tickets are $3.00 in advance and $5.00 at the door. This fundraiser will help with Film, Video and Animation Department update computers, software and equipment. 

Tickets are available Monday-Friday from 8:30 am until 3:00 pm, in the Film/Video studio or in the Magnet Office.

PS.   The annual "Soup Dressed Up" event at Stivers will be April 27!   Tickets are $8.00

 

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Dance Matinee

Check it out!  More arts on the Hill...

DCDC Community Matinee

In the spirit of a festival, the Community Matinee is a special concert featuring DCDC's world- Renowned dancers in a perfomance that is ideal for the entire family, from toddlers to seniors. Tickets are subsidized through the community sponsors, making them up to 50% cheaper than tickets to other DCDC concerts.

The Community Matinee has pre- concert games and other fun activities for the youth who attend. This unique performance is more than just a come-and-see event. At one point during the concert audiance members are invited to come onstage and dance with the dancers!

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Stivers School for the Arts
1313 East 5th Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402

Phone: (937) 228-3232
Website: www.dcdc.org
E-Mail: qmcclellan@dcdc.org

Tickets
Adult $8.00
Senior $6.00
Student $6.00

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Busy Bees

From the Dayton Daily News....

Dayton spelling bee tonight at Stivers
By Margo Rutledge Kissell
Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 10:35 AM

The 61st annual Dayton Public Schools Districtwide Spelling Bee will begin at 6 p.m. tonight at Stivers School for the Arts, 1313 E. Fifth St.

Students in grades 2 through 8 are eligible to participate in the event, which will feature spelling bee winners from within the district as well as local charter, private and parochial schools, said Melissa Fowler, a spokeswoman for Dayton Public Schools.

Participants will be striving to win a chance to move on to the regional spelling bee at Sinclair Community College on Feb. 26. Good luck to all.

Stivers is located on East Fifth Street in St. Anne's Hill - just one of the many great assets in our community!


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Viva Stivers

Thru Oct. 29 • Siempre Viva: Three Points of View
Stivers Schoool for the Arts,
1313 E. Fifth St.; Monday - Friday
8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Fifth Street Gallery at Stivers School for the Arts announces Siempre Viva: Three Points of View,  an exhibition of paintings and other work by three artists; Dayton area painters Lizabeth Whipps and Julie Anderson and Chilean artist Ana Videla. This exhibition focuses on Chilean views of life, death and memorial as expressed in cemeteries, animitas and popular culture. All gallery events are free and open to the public. For more information call 542-7448.




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Day of Peace

More great news from the Missing Peace Art Space here in St. Anne's Hill!

Dayton’s celebration of the U.N. sponsored International Day of Peace will be held at the Missing Peace Art Space on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. City dignitaries will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Grand Opening of the Urban Youth Peace Academy, which will be headquartered at the gallery.

In 1981, the United Nations designated September 21 as International Day of Peace and the day has since been celebrated worldwide. “Dayton: Peace in Perspective” is this year’s local International Day of Peace theme in recognition that most of us are fortunate enough to have a high degree of peace in our lives.

The Urban Youth Peace Academy is a grassroots student organization that grew out of streetpeace, a peace and social justice education program at Ruskin School and East End Community Services. As students completed their 8thgrade year at Ruskin, they wanted to continue their peace studies, sustain the community of learners they had formed, and invite new students from the various high schools they would be attending, into the peace process. In response to this dream, they came together as a core group of student leaders to form the Urban Youth Peace Academy, with a membership representing schools throughout the Dayton Public School district.

Students in the Urban Youth Peace Academy will participate in a full curriculum on Tuesday evenings, including the study of such books as A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah; Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl; and Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozal. They will participate in discussion circles around such movies as Blood Diamond; Life is Beautiful; Schindler’s List; Gran Torino; and The Chamber. Students will have opportunities for instruction and practice in non-violent responses to real life conflict.

Ruskin Update

 FYI.... check out the new website for the school, too!

Do you have at least 1 hour a week? 

The kids are back in school and volunteers are needed!

Volunteers are needed at Ruskin School for one on one tutoring (K-8^th), grounds crew (pulling weeds, trimming bushes), and more!  If you are interested contact David Lobo at 259-1898 or email him at dlobo@east-end.org.  Each volunteer will need to complete an application, background check and brief orientation.

Amanda Arrington

Community Organizer

East End Community Services

624 Xenia Avenue

Dayton, OH 45410

937.259.1898 ext 21

Festival

FYI.... announcement from the City:

City of Dayton Recreation and YOUth Services
Summer's End Teen Festival
August 21, 2010
4 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Bomberger Park
East Fifth & Keowee
Ages 13-17

Gates Foundation

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More news from Stivers! This is an excerpt from the Dayton Daily News...

4 Dayton students names Gates scholars
By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer

DAYTON — Four Dayton Public Schools students will receive full tuition to the college of their choice, extending to graduate and doctoral work, through a scholarship program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Stivers School for the Arts seniors Sheldon Brown, Megan Edmonds and Victoria Whorton, and Dayton Early College Academy senior Jordan Davis were announced Tuesday, April 20, as 2010 Gates Millennium Scholars...

Nominees are assessed in academic achievement, community service and leadership potential, according to the Gates Foundation. Eligible students must attain a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale...

Congrats to Stivers and the students on their success. Our neighborhood is proud to have such a great school in our community!
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Stivers Events

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I thought naming this post "Desire" might lead the wrong people to this site, but check out these upcoming events at Stivers!

Stivers School for the Arts Presents:
A Streetcar Named Desire

Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is the story of Blanche DuBois, a fragile and neurotic woman on a desperate prowl for someplace in the world to call her own.

April 23-24, 2010
Starts at 08:00 PM
Cost:$6 students, $8 adults

... and mark your calendars for this one, too:

Stivers 9th Annual Photography Fundraiser
May 4-7, 2010

Fifth Street Gallery
1313 E. Fifth Street

East End

Check out the new house going up on McClure Street! Okay, technically it is not in St. Anne's Hill but just across the bridge, near Ruskin School and St. Mary's Church. Still, this is good news for the community.



The house is part of the Twin Towers Crossing project, that will build almost 40 new lease-to-own homes in east Dayton. The project is driven by East End Community Services with financial support from the City of Dayton and State of Ohio.



They are are also running the new (and very popular) De-Construction program. That program hires unemployed workers to dismantle nuisance structures by hand, and then sell the materials. Not only does it create jobs, but it reduces the waste stream going to landfills.



Just another example of the great things happening in Dayton!

Thanks and Congrats

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Big thanks to all who supported our holiday home tour! We sold well over 700 tickets for the 3-day event. There were dozens of volunteers and several generous sponsors who help make it all happen. Our neighbors at the Liederkrantz and the High Street Gallery were also key community partners. The tour is our biggest fundraiser for our 2-year budget cycle, so everyone seemed happy that it all came together again for another great tour.


This is a bit late, but I also wanted to recognize Stivers School for the Arts for once again being recognized in U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's top high schools. Due to a data glitch, they were the only school from the Dayton region that made the list. Here is the press release from Dayton Public Schools:

December 10, 2009
Contact: Jill Moberley, Public Information Officer
For Immediate Release

Stivers honored by U.S. News & World Report for second year Dayton high school for the arts among best in America for 2010

Stivers School for the Arts ranks among America’s best public high schools for the second year in a row and has moved up from bronze to silver, according to U.S. News & World Report in a study released Dec. 9.

“It’s wonderful news,” Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Kurt Stanic said. “Principal Erin Dooley, her staff, students, parents and the seedling Foundation are to be commended for their work.” Dooley, who heard the news from a parent as the school day began, was taken by surprise, but cited arts integration as one of the many factors she believes contributes to effective teaching and learning at Stivers.

“Our arts program provides opportunities for students to be creative, to be expressive, to pursue their passion, and to develop the whole person. That has a major impact on learning,” Dooley said.

The Dayton high school, located at 1313 E. Fifth St., is the only school in Montgomery County to receive the national honor this year and is one of only six schools in Ohio to be named a 2010 Silver Medal School. Nationally, Silver Medal Schools comprise 2.5 percent of the 18,743 schools analyzed in the study.

Criteria used to judge schools include the degree to which they serve all students across different ability levels, academic performance as measured by state achievement tests, and the degree to which students are prepared for college as measured through Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses.

We're number One! Go Stivers!

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Piano Concert

Found a postcard promoting an upcoming concert at Stivers...

Stivers Piano Department Proudly Invites you to:
The Four Pianists - In Concert!
November 12, 2009, 7 P.M.
Stivers School for the Arts
Concert Hall 1313 E. Fifth Street

This is a nice opportunity to support our neighborhood school!

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Ruskin, Part II

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Hot off the presses, here's another great article about Ruskin Elementary from the Dayton Daily News. The new school has created a community garden for the kids. An excerpt:

The Ruskin prototype is a 40-feet-by-40-feet garden that contains tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, squash and other vegetables. Local kids involved with Street Peace, an after-school program overseen by Ruskin teacher Julie Mcglaun, donated $1,000 in seed money to get the project off — or into — the ground.

Yet another reason why Ruskin is a great asset for our neighborhood!
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Ruskin & UD

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Thanks to an anonymous source (... okay, it was me), we learned that the summer edition of the University of Dayton alumni magazine featured an inspiring article about Ruskin School (p 16).

The school is located just across the McClure Street bridge in the Twin Towers neighborhood, but also serves the children of St. Anne's Hill and the surrounding area. Here is an excerpt:

That children and teachers were spending from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on their spring-break days in school preparing for standardized tests had much to do with the school becoming an intrinsic part of the neighborhood. A sign in a commons area proclaimed: “Change the Streets. Study.” A message being sent to the students, said Devon Berry, a 2007 UD master’s in education grad and Ruskin principal, was, “Nobody wants to send kids to a school with poor test scores.” If the students achieve, then people want to move into the neighborhood, and the streets indeed change.

What's the connection to UD? Besides the Principal being a UD alum, Ruskin School is supported by the University of Dayton's "Fitz Center for Leadership in the Community" and they work closely with the parents and teachers at the school. Their programs at Ruskin make them an important partner in our community.


Side note: this page has a great summary of how the new Ruskin School was built, as told by the architects, with an impressive investment of over $10 million by Dayton Public Schools.

So anyway, please take a moment to read this great article from UD Magazine about an important asset for our neighborhood.

-k

More Art on the Hill

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An FYI.... and another great example of the growing "arts district" we have in St. Anne's Hill!

SPAVA, the four day Stivers Performing and Visual Arts Festival, begins this Thursday, April 31.

The Ceramics Department Fundraiser on Friday Evening, Soup Dressed Up, is $10. (keep the bowl)

Tickets for the musical Little Shop of Horrors (Friday & Saturday) are also $10.

All other events are free.

Half hour tours of the buildings will be conducted hourly on Saturday commencing at 1:00 pm.

For details call Cissy Matthews @ 542-7427 or view the SPAVA web site at:

http://www.spava.info/

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Balcony Blues

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It looks like Stivers will see more construction, according to the Dayton Daily News:

School district officials say the balcony's slope prevents a full view of the stage, and there are other architectural problems that could cost up to $2 million to fix.....

Home to 850 students in grades seven to 12, Stivers continues to use the lower part of the theater, which seats 400, but not the 200-seat balcony.

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State at Stivers

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FYI....

Hearing on Strickland plan for schools set for Dayton
By William Hershey
Tuesday, March 10, 2009

An Ohio House subcommittee on Monday, March 16, will hold a hearing in Dayton to review Gov. Ted Strickland’s education reform plan.

The Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee of the House Finance Committee will meet at 4 p.m. at the Stivers School for the Arts, 1313 E. Fifth St. The hearing is open to the public.

Those submitting written testimony for committee records, should supply it to lauren.mcmillin@ohr.state.oh.us 24 hours in advance, a press release said. For questions, call 614-466-1790.

Strickland has proposed an “evidence-based” method of funding and overhauling schools which he says will make the system constitutional. Critics have raised doubts, however, about whether there is enough money in the budget to fund the plan and about how state money is distributed among schools districts. Backers of charter schools also have raised objections.

“This hearing will be an important outlet to discuss the future of education in Ohio,” Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, a Finance Committee member, said in a press release.

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Governor Visits Stivers

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From the Dayton Daily News:

Strickland to visit Stivers on Thursday

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

DAYTON — Gov. Ted Strickland will visit Stivers School for the Arts on Thursday, Jan. 29, a day after his State of the State speech in which he is expected to lay out his plans for education reform and funding, a Dayton school official said.

Strickland is scheduled to tour Stivers at 1313 E. Fifth St. for 45 minutes beginning at 5 p.m., said Jill Moberley, spokeswoman for Dayton Public Schools. Strickland's office declined Tuesday to confirm the visit.

In December, Stivers made U.S. News & World Report's annual list of America's best public high schools, capturing a bronze award. It joined three other high schools in Montgomery County that made the list — Centerville, Oakwood and Dayton Early College Academy, a Dayton district-sponsored charter school developed in partnership with the University of Dayton.

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Stivers Fundraiser

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FYI...

Stivers hosts special fund-raiser at local restaurant

A local restaurant has teamed up with Stivers musicians to create a unique fund-raiser that's food for the spirit and stomach!

Coco's Bistro, 515 Wayne Ave., will host Savor Your Sunday, a special brunch series featuring performances by young musicians from Stivers School for the Arts. The restaurant will be open especially for the occasion, and Coco's chefs are crafting a special menu for the brunches. A different group from Stivers will perform each Sunday.

The schedule is:
Feb. 1: String Quartet
Feb. 8: Chamber Choir
Feb. 15: Jazz Trio
Feb. 22: Concert Pianists

The brunches will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $30 per person; $20 of this is a tax-deductible donation to the seedling Foundation, which supports the arts at Stivers.

U.S. News & World Report recently named Stivers one of the nation's best public high schools. All funds raised during the Sunday brunches will support arts instruction at the school.

Only 100 seats are available each Sunday. Advanced reservations are required; call 228-COCO (2626).