Outstanding performers teach traditional Appalachian, African-American, and Native American dances and “play party games,” involving patterns of singing, dancing, poetry, mimicry, and play-acting. Each program features step-by-step instructions as well as a complete student performance of the game or dance. An interview with the performer gives the historical and cultural contexts of the dance.

Dancing Threads gives young people a multicultural and historical perspective, encouraging them to value their own and other cultural traditions. Additional background information is provided in the extensive teacher’s guide.

Programs 2 and 3 of this series are available online in the KET EncycloMedia.

Program of Studies
Dance: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This series explores why people dance, the elements of dance, dance styles, dance in a multicultural and historical context, and dance as an art form. It uses performances, archival photographs and footage, and interviews to capture dance’s emotion and energy and to stimulate students’ interest, understanding, and appreciation.

A chaptered DVD version of DanceSense includes bonus video segments and classroom resources and is available in the KET Dance Arts Toolkit.

Program of Studies
Dance: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

The KET Arts Toolkits offer a wealth of teacher-tested materials for teaching the arts and for incorporating the arts across the curriculum. These multimedia kits contain video pieces, including segments from KET instructional programs as well as specially produced new material; CD-ROMs; lesson plans, glossaries, and classroom handouts; and many other resources—all tied to Kentucky’s Core Content in the arts.

Dance (2004); Visual Arts (2005); Drama (revised and expanded 2nd edition released in 2006); and Music toolkits are available now for purchase by Kentucky teachers.

The Drama Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• choice of four VHS tapes or two DVDs of KET video excerpts/programs
• a three-ring binder including lesson plans for primary, intermediate, middle, “Page to Stage” CD-ROM from Stage One
• an informational CD-ROM from the Kentucky Department of Education

The Visual Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• nearly 8 hours of video in VHS or DVD, with segments that feature artists at work, explore cultural connections, and take students on a tour of an art museum
• the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum CD-ROM, which brings together images of art collections across the state
• a 3-ring binder of lesson plans and information
• full color Purposes of Art poster

The Music Toolkit includes the following materials:

• 12 hours of video in DVD or VHS format
• Doorways to Music, a sampler of traditional music representing various cultures
• Music Through Time, music performances and commentary developed to correlate to selected music periods
• A World of Music CD-ROM, an interactive CD-ROM with additional video, audio files, images, information and activities
• a binder with K-12 lessons plans, glossaries, and notated music for some of the video selections.

The Dance Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• nearly eight hours of video, available in your choice of video or DVD format, including dance performances, cultural dances, and creative movement lessons
• the DanceSense Enhanced DVD, including the entire DanceSense series produced by KET along with a “History of Dance” video and additional video
• a three-ring binder of lesson plans and informational materials
• a full-color Dance Timeline poster
• an informational CD-ROM from the Kentucky Department of Education

The Arts Toolkit web site includes additional lesson plans, links to the Kentucky Arts Council Directory of Artists, and other resources.

The Arts Toolkit project is funded in part by awards from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Arts Endowment for KET, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Charles M. and Mary D. Grant Foundation, and the Federal Title VI Innovative Educational Strategies Program.

Program of Studies:
All Arts and Humanities disciplines: Structure in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

A writer, a composer, a conductor, and an audience of young people discuss character, setting, and conflict/resolution (common elements of both stories and compositions), and illustrate the creation of these elements through words and music. Featured are Kentucky writer George Ella Lyon reading from her books, the premiere of a work by composer Lawrence Dillon, and musical performances by young Kentucky musicians.

Program of Studies:
Reading: Forming a Foundation, Developing an Initial Understanding
Arts and Humanities: Structure in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts, Humanity in the Arts
Writing: Writing Structure, Writing Content, Writing Conventions, Writing Process

This production is a multicultural exploration of the way winter is celebrated in this country and how these celebrations have been changed, merged, assimilated, or forgotten over generations. Artists from across the country explain the traditions associated with their cultures through music and stories. The holiday traditions featured are Hanukkah (Jewish), Kwanzaa (African-American), Posadas (Chicano), and European Christmas.

This KET-produced series introduces the basic elements of various art forms, providing both background information and classroom ideas for teachers and performance and discussion segments to use with students. These short, fast-paced units fuse the wisdom and experience of seasoned performers with our own solid research base. They are written to correspond with Kentucky’s Core Content as well as the National Standards in the Arts.

In addition to demonstrating how art is created, the series explores the why of doing art. Humanities Connections will help students understand the historical and cultural contexts of respected artistic works, explore the idea that art is both a reflection and a catalyst of social and cultural change, and begin to think creatively about their own experiences and about the multicultural society of the 21st century.

As further enrichment for these thematic units, KET has also produced a set of video segments titled “Class Connections,” excerpted from our Humanities Through the Arts distance learning class, that explore a variety of art forms within a particular culture or time period.

Program of Studies:
All Arts and Humanities disciplines: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This KET production celebrates the creative spirit of the Bluegrass state. The series features engaging, thoughtful documentaries about artists, issues, events, and places that reflect Kentuckians’ diverse and exciting self-expression and offer a fresh perspective on contemporary artistic life.

(Note: Check the Kentucky Muse web site for new programs and encores.)

Program of Studies:
All Arts and Humanities disciplines: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

The World’s Largest Concert is a national celebration of music in our schools. K-6 students and their teachers practice selected numbers throughout the year, and the broadcast connects these students from across the country in one simultaneous sing-along performance.

The program is produced by the Music Educators National Conference to launch Music in Our Schools Month.

This KET-produced instructional series introduces children to a broad range of music — folk, blues, Cajun, traditional — and cultures — Native American, African-American, and Appalachian, among others. All lyrics are in the teacher’s guide, inviting children to sing along. The series also introduces a variety of traditional instruments, such as the hammer dulcimer, the lap dulcimer, and the jaw harp.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This production sets the poetry of Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry to music by Malcolm Dalglish. A chorus of young people sing about a deep love for the Earth and the people and creatures who inhabit it. Both the poetry and the combination of words and music offer a wealth of opportunities for classroom discussion about the creation and function of art. The performance features the Bloomington Youth Chorus, the Lexington Children’s Chorus, The Anglicantors, Dalglish (on hammer dulcimer), and Glen Velez (percussion).

Program of Studies:
Music: Humanity in the Arts

This series introduces students and teachers to the elements of jazz, its history and pioneers, its instruments, and its contribution to American life and culture. The host is Richard Davis, a mainstay of the New York jazz scene and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davis intersperses lecture segments with questions from the KET viewing audience, samples of work by jazz masters, and demonstrations of key jazz elements on his string bass. In addition to music, each program in the series addresses topics in social studies, humanities, and African-American studies.

The first four programs in this series aired as live teleconferences during the 1997/98 school year.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

The Freedom Singers are one of the best known of the singing groups that traveled the U.S. in the 1950s and ’60s spreading the civil rights message. With full-bodied harmonic voices, they sang the songs of the civil rights movement, often stopping to tell about their personal experiences. This KET production includes highlights of the Freedom Singers’ 1993 concert in Louisville — inspirational gospel, call-to-action songs, and ballads, all sung a cappella. In interviews, group members talk about their experiences with the civil rights movement and nonviolent protest.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Gospel music has played a vital role in the life and culture of African-Americans from slavery through the civil rights movement. In the summer of 2003, 25 choirs from across the state competed for recognition as the finest gospel choir in Kentucky and proved how vibrant the music still is today. This program showcases the finalists, including gospel groups from Lexington, Owensboro, Bowling Green, Paducah, and Louisville. The program is hosted by Rev. Bobby Jones from Black Entertainment Television and Dawne Gee, a WAVE-TV anchor. The program also includes special performances, including one by nationally-known singer Kim Burrell.

Kentucky Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Through rare archival footage and contemporary performances, this series presents themes such as music and the environment, music as cultural memory, and the effect of technology on music. It also demonstrates how musical elements can express culture and create an infinite variety of sounds.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Stage One, Louisville’s professional theater for young people, presents an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book The Wind in the Willows for the stage. In this version, the irrepressible Toad is taught again and again that “animals who go rushing around too fast get into lots of trouble.” But that doesn’t stop him from pursuing his latest fancy, the glorious automobile! Despite the efforts of practical Rat, fickle Otter, ingenious Mole, and sage Badger, modernization begins to intrude upon their tranquil country life.

Little do the animals realize that there is an even worse threat lurking in the shadows. With their attention diverted to Toad’s mishaps, they are caught off guard by the malicious Weasels. Having captured poor Mole and seized that monument of grandeur, Toad Hall, the Weasels can be defeated only if the friends—including Toad—all band together.

This 1989 KET production includes a short introductory segment that explores how the stage version is transformed into a television program.

This play by Stage One, Louisville’s Children's Theatre, is set during America’s westward expansion. The heroine is a young girl who longs to escape farm life. Instead of doing chores, she hides in the woods with her rag doll and her imagination. There she meets an American hero named John Chapman—better known as Appleseed John.

Appleseed John is a 2001 KET production. The teacher’s guide provides information on how to use the play to address the Big Ideas in the Kentucky Program of Studies and to enrich students’ viewing of a professional theatrical production. It can easily be viewed in segments for classroom use.

Program of Studies:
Drama/Theater: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Kentuckian Liz Bussey Fentress’s one-woman play spans 23 years, beginning when Liz is 21 and just graduated from the University of Wisconsin. With job prospects dim in her chosen field of theater, she takes a job as ringmistress, organist, and puppet show performer with Wayne Franzen’s Franzen Bros. Circus, a brand-new one-ring circus. Through Liz’s portrayal of herself, Wayne, and an array of other circus characters and animals, she shares the trials and triumphs of the fledgling circus and her own efforts to pursue her dream of working in theater. Originally produced at Horse Cave Theatre, the play was adapted for television by Fentress and directed by Vince Spoelker.

This program has been flagged for content and/or language. KET strongly encourages teachers to preview this program.

Program of Studies:
Drama/Theater: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Words Like Freedom/Sturdy Black Bridges is a “poetic concert” featuring African-American writing and music. Words Like Freedom focuses on the role of African-American women in the struggle for racial justice and opens with Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” speech.

Sturdy Black Bridges explores the trials and triumphs of black womanhood through the words of African-American women writers, including Nikki Giovanni, Yusef Iman, Carolyn Rogers, and Priscilla Cooper.

Program of Studies:
Visual Arts: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

These programs highlight the evolution of European and American art during the last century. The story begins with the French artist Edouard Manet’s break from tradition in the 19th century and continues through Pop Art in America. Host Denise Hicks discusses selected works, commenting on the artists’ personal histories and pointing out distinctive elements in their work.

The series aims to give students the skill and information they need to recognize the works of 60 modern artists by style and subject matter. At the end of each program, the host asks students to identify several paintings by artist.

Program of Studies:
Visual Arts: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This series hooks students with modern paintings before moving back in time to make the old masters just as interesting. Host Denise Hicks provides lively commentary on the artists, connecting their styles to the literature and history of their times. She also traces religious influences on art, from the Spanish Inquisition and El Greco’s mysticism to the Protestant Reformation, with Dürer’s line drawings and woodcuts, Cranach’s portrait of Luther, and the faithful pictures Hans Holbein painted to help Henry VIII choose another wife.

Program of Studies:
Visual Arts: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Eight 30-minute programs highlight the rich cultural heritage of rural and urban Kentucky in this 1998 KET production. Each program features Kentuckians from different communities and walks of life who represent aspects of traditional culture in their work, play, art, and religious lives.

Artist-host Robert Tharsing introduces the art of painting through interviews with Kentucky artists, visits to their studios, and discussion of techniques, elements, and principles in selected paintings. Using works from Kentucky art museums by Kentucky artists and artists from other places and times, the series demonstrates how to “read” a painting.

Browse the gallery at the Looking at Painting web site www.ket.org/painting to see works by the featured artists. You’ll also find information about each artist and the genres of realism, expressionism, and abstraction as well as program outlines, classroom ideas, and lesson plans for middle and high school.

Program of Studies:
Visual Arts: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This KET production tells the story of a little-known African-American artist who, in both his life and his art, paved the way for others to come.

Born in 1899 in Mayfield, Ellis Wilson had to leave Kentucky to study art, because the segregated black colleges of the time offered only industrial and agricultural studies. After completing his studies at the famous School of the Art Institute in Chicago, he moved on to New York, where he would live and work for the next 40 years.

Wilson was part of several important periods in the history of American art. His early years in New York were during the time now called the Harlem Renaissance, and he worked for the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. During the World War II years, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship that allowed him to travel throughout the South and paint scenes from the daily lives of ordinary African-American workers. It is these paintings, along with later works inspired by trips to Haiti, that brought him several prizes and some recognition during the 1940s and ’50s.

But making a living from art was practically impossible for African Americans at the time, and Wilson worked menial jobs all his life in order to pay the rent and keep painting. Eventually, he fell back into obscurity and died poverty-stricken in 1977. It wasn’t until one of his paintings was featured on an episode of The Cosby Show in 1985 that interest in his work was revived.

The documentary puts Ellis Wilson and his work into both historical and artistic contexts. A pioneer in his choice of subject matter, Wilson was also a stylistic innovator who used bold geometric shapes and bright colors to celebrate the dignity and the hopes of ordinary people. His story also offers insights into the creative impulse and will spark discussion on the purposes, subjects, and impacts of works of art.