Dr. Dale Kalkofen
As a lifelong educator, Dr. Dale Kalkofen is utilizing her past educational experiences in her position as chair of the Partners in the Arts Governance Committee. Partners in the Arts is a program of the School of Professional & Continuing Studies that trains K-12 teachers to use the arts to teach all subjects and provides grants that allow teachers to carry out arts integration projects in their schools.
Most of Kalkofen’s teaching career has been in urban school districts including Richmond, Boston, and Memphis. As a principal at Mary Munford Elementary School, she applied earlier lessons learned from her first supervisory assignment of coordinating visual arts, music and physical education in Richmond City’s elementary schools.
Throughout her career, Kalkofen has used the principles of design to develop new programs that better enrich students’ education. “Understanding design principles is a great way to understand systems thinking, which has been essential to my successes in education,” she says.
As a lifelong visual arts educator in public schools, she has a keen perspective on the incorporation of arts into all aspects of education. She views the arts not only as a medium to reach out to students, parents, and other teachers, but also as a way to help students achieve academically.
Kalkofen offers these thoughts on the importance of arts in education: “The arts are a way to engage people with each other and with something meaningful to them. The arts revitalize life in schools.”
Her involvement with the Partners in the Arts program began many years ago through the Arts Council of Richmond. She still remembers one of the early projects of the program, as the visual arts teachers from Richmond Public Schools created the first set of exhibits at the old Navy Hill School, later becoming the first children’s museum in Richmond.
“The arts programs in Richmond have always been very strong, and we [Partners in the Arts] worked hand-in-hand with the Arts Council to create the Children’s Arts Festival and a book festival as well,” Kalkofen reminisces.
Community is an important aspect not only of Kalkofen’s life, but also of the arts in general. She has participated in programs similar to Partners in the Arts in Boston and Memphis with similar organizations. In general, she reflects, K-12 educators are very community-minded.
“I have been dedicated to making the arts programs a strong part of the schools and community in all of my administrative roles throughout my career,” Kalkofen says.
This community involvement, combined with her administrative capacities, molded Kalkofen into a perfect candidate to join the Partners in the Arts Governance Committee.
Being a committee member gives her the opportunity to mentor and encourage administrators to make the arts a strong part of education for all children throughout the Richmond region. The program aims to build upon the strength of the local art community and integrate the way art can be used to teach all subjects.
Kalkofen believes the arts aid students and teachers alike to find their “voice” and use this as a means of expressing original thoughts and ideas. She elaborates, “Arts in education are transformational for individuals of all ages and for all organizations. The arts help us develop perspective-taking skills.”
As Partners in the Arts helps to further develop how teachers of all subjects can use the arts in their classrooms, the program also connects local artists, arts organizations and local cultural institutions to schools. Parents and neighbors become more involved as well. This has a positive effect in enabling a broad range of people to build relationships and have a sense of community.
As a strong advocate for arts in education, Kalkofen says, “I believe the arts add meaning to daily life for all of us—young and old—and the mission of Partners in the Arts is to make the arts vital to the education of all students.” For this reason, she chooses to volunteer with Partners in the Arts.
Through the years of her experience with Partners in the Arts, Kalkofen has found her strongest passion for the newly-endowed Joan Oates Summer Institute on Partners in the Arts. The annual institute provides educators with ways to use the arts in their teaching and inspire their students to be creative. Kalkofen considers the institute “a time for teachers to renew their energy as well as to have some in-depth experiences in the arts.”
“Partners in the Arts has an impact that changes lives: one teacher impacts many students. This includes the life of a student who finds his or her passion, the student who discovers a connection through the arts, or the student who learns to express an original idea and value,” she says.
While Kalkofen continues her involvement with public education as a Special Assistant to the Superintendent at Chesterfield County Public Schools, she uses these academic and administrative experiences to empower people through the arts.
Looking towards the future, Kalkofen plans to continue on being fully immersed in connecting students and teachers with the arts through her work with the Partners in the Arts program.