Athens, Ga. -Three educators from Cortona, Italy, are visiting Athens this week as part of an ongoing cultural exchange with the art education program in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.
Since 2001, UGA’s art education program has been working with the Scuola Elementare (elementary school) in Cortona as a component of UGA’s Study Abroad Program in Cortona. Every spring, 10 to 12 art education students provide art instruction to Italian children at the Cortonese elementary school. UGA students develop lessons in collaboration with the Italian teachers so that the instruction is integrated into the general curriculum.
By working directly with the Italian children in their classrooms, UGA students gain valuable cross-cultural experience in working with students who do not speak English.
The program has been supported in Italy by Carla Fierli Donati, the Cortonese director of elementary schools, and Alberta Casetti, the lead teacher who facilitated the program in the school each year. Donati and Casetti are visiting Athens with a third teacher from the elementary school, Maria Becciolotti.
The educators will visit elementary art programs at Chase Street Elementary School and Timothy Road Elementary School, speak with UGA art education classes and others on campus about education in Italy and visit area art facilities such as the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lyndon House Art Center.