Back to School With LANDMARK WEST!

LANDMARK WEST! Goes Back to School

It’s official! Summer is over and thousands of Upper West Side students are returning to the classrooms this week.

And so is LANDMARK WEST!

If you have a child in an Upper West Side school, an interest in youth enrichment, or just plain curiosity about what’s happening in the neighborhood, read on…

Keeping the Past for the Future (KPF), LW’s school-based education program, is designed to foster within our city’s young people, primarily in grades 1 to 5, a strong sense of engagement, ownership, and responsibility toward their community through learning about the built environment and its history. KPF brings an LW! educator into classrooms for three to five sessions. During these sessions students, teachers, and an LW! educator go on walking tours, look at historic photographs of the neighborhood to compare “then and now”, study architectural styles and details of neighborhood buildings, and create a final preservation project.

The centerpiece of the program is our student workbook, “My Preservation Journal” which teaches students about the architecture and history of their neighborhood, while emphasizing the important role of historic preservation in sustaining the quality of life of our community for present and future generations.

We offer this program to public schools AT NO COST, thanks to the generous support of New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, Council Member Gale Brewer, and private donations.

During the 2006-2007 school year we reached over 1000 students, and this year we anticipate reaching 1,500. We have just hired our first full-time Director of Education, Elyse Newman, to expand the program and make it more central to LW’s advocacy work. We received a generous award of $15,000 from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs to support KPF – what a vote of confidence! This is a period of tremendous growth for KPF and we look forward to keeping you posted on all the program’s successes and the incredible work created by our students — a.k.a Upper West Siders of the future!

**In addition to our classroom sessions this year, LANDMARK WEST! will be giving two family-oriented walking tours on Sunday, October 7, as part of the annual openhousenewyork weekend. Call LW! for more details (212-496-8110) and check out http://www.openhousenewyork.org/ for general information about the weekend.

Spread the word to your friends and neighbors who have children in Upper West Side schools!

For additional information about KPF and to find out how your child’s school can participate in LW’s program, contact:

Elyse Newman
Director of Education
LANDMARK WEST!
elysenewman@landmarkwest.org
t: 212-496-8110