For the second year Gateway to the Arts is partnering with Arts Educator 2.0, a year-long professional development program administered through Intermediate Unit 1 in Coal Center, PA. The class is designed to provide technology-enhanced

professional development opportunities for arts educators in the Washington, Fayette and Greene County areas. Last year twenty four teachers from impoverished school districts created personal professional development plans and were mentored to achieve their goals: they learned how to build wikis, participated in classes at the Intermediate Unit, and in webinars. Gateway offered performance programs and residencies to participants who were given mini-grants to spend.

This year there are forty two teachers from twenty districts who are working in collaborative inquiry groups that will determine their own learning focus. The groups are led by faculty from across the state and monitored on the local, state and federal level. Six day long classes begin with a work of art, inquiry and art-making. Gateway’s Programming Supervisor Kellee Van Aken is helping to determine which works of art will start the day and how to help incorporate the arts into the plans the groups develop. Originally funded for two years by the Federal government, the success of the first year earned Arts Educator a third year of support and inspired the Benedum Foundation to back the program as well. Faculty for Arts Educator 2.0 plan to present on the process and progress of the project at conferences around the country this year. Check out their wiki at http://artseducator20.wikispaces.com.