Landmark West! Inc., New York
The Ove Arup Foundation has agreed a grant to Landmark West! Organisation in New York to provide funding for an expansion of their programme to middle schools (grades 4-8) on the Upper West Side (UWS).
Keeping the Past for the Future (KPF), sends Landmark West educators into 90+ public and private school classrooms on the UWS, New York to build their awareness of the built environment.
KPF brings three key benefits:
- Education – the KPF curriculum introduces children to the study of architecture and the built environment, encompassing art, social studies, language arts, history, science and maths. The programme engages children’s minds and imaginations to explore how buildings and cities are designed and built.
- Civic Engagement – the community voice and dialogue between citizens and elected representatives about developments in their communities is crucial. KPF promotes observation and drawing of the built environment to foster awareness of the daily landscapes and hidden treasures that the UWS offers. Creativity is used as a tool to empower children to be more actively critical and propositional citizens, and educational resources are provided to teach children, and adults, about the value of an engaged citizenry.
- Enrichment – LW provides KPF as an enrichment program to UWS public schools. Curriculum enrichment programmes, used to supplement the daily school curriculum, are often the first to be removed when school budgets tighten. But, they are also the programmes that encourage our children to be creative, to explore, and to find a voice.
Keeping the Past for the Future provides these opportunities in the local environment.
Under the Ove Arup Foundation grant children will also study contemporary places, futuristic design and consider the Built Environment in the whole.