River City Blues Society

Blues In The Schools - Passing It On

"Blues In The Schools" is...

Well what exactly is it? In reality, there is no cohesive, nationally directed BITS initiative that is an established program for schools grades K-12. It is more decentralized and individualized.

Does that mean it's not real? Absolutely not! There are many organizations that collectively support the BITS program. The Blues Foundation provides some direction to its affiliated Blues societies, and organizations like the House of Blues, the Seattle Experience Music Project and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have designed curriculum units and lesson plans that are ready to be plugged into any grade or discipline.

In 2006, RCBS applied for, and received, a Blues Music Foundation Grant from the Experience Music Project. Our grant application stated:

“The RCBS seeks to create a “blues package” that will include curriculum materials, recordings, documents and transcriptions, lyrics, and visual material to be used in the classroom by teachers in a variety of disciplines. Development, creation and distribution of these materials will be facilitated in collaboration with the curriculum coordinators in the Richmond region schools for humanities, social sciences and music and with selected teachers…”

And what exactly is the Blues Music Foundation? The Blues Music Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 charitable entity, created in 2003 at the behest of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and Experience Music Project, the non-profit, educationally-driven Seattle music museum, founded by Paul Allen. While there are many activities that fund the Grants program, the bulk of the current revenue comes from sales and royalties of the 2003 "Salute To The Blues" concert, available on the DVD "Lighting In A Bottle."

So where does that leave us now? As you read this, Cy Taggart MA Music Ed, James Lester and Tom Meyer along with our Society President Ellen Foster are, and will be, working with Commonwealth educators to create a well rounded program that meets the Standards of Learning requirements and makes learning fun! That doesn't mean we members get to relax though. A stipulation of the grant is that we raise matching donations on a dollar for dollar basis. We expect to announce some good news shortly, thanks to the Richmond Forum, but until then we all need to work together to support our new BITS program.

For more on BITS and how you can help, please contact us.

Thank You for Keeping the Blues Alive!