By Sahara Lyon

Back in September, 2022, teachers from Leon County had the ability to apply for COCA’s Arts Education Grant, a grant made possible by The Duke Energy Foundation. Teachers applied for funding for a specific project, supplies, or materials, and a panel of qualified experts fully funded 17 grant projects. Now, over six months later, teachers are starting to wrap up their grant proposals, and seeing the projects come to fruition is incredibly exciting.

Shannon Watkins, the music teacher at The School of Arts and Sciences on Thomasville Road, received $400 to purchase a new bass and bass amp for her rock ensemble. Watkins has worked at SAS for two years, and she leads the middle school rock band ensemble. At the start of their second year, Watkins noticed that more students were interested in joining the ensemble, and specifically in playing bass. From this need for more new equipment – students wear instruments out quickly! – came the inspiration for the grant proposal.

Watkins’ grant project culminated in a performance by her rock ensemble students at TCC’s Turner Auditorium last Thursday, April 27^th. This project took a significant amount of prepping, planning and rehearsal. Watkins first asked each student to bring them a list of 10 songs they wanted to perform, she then went through and chose one song from each student’s list, ensuring that it was appropriate and feasible for them to perform. From that master list, students voted on the songs that ended up being the performance’s set list. Watkins then needed to “look up all the music, essentially play through all the songs myself, and then make my own arrangements.” Since February, the students had been rehearsing the set list and preparing for the show.

Watkins credits teacher Jeffrey Peek from Whitney Young High School in Chicago for the basis of their program. Peek leads a rock and roll guitar program and during their time working at the school with Peek, Watkins, “was able to see how to run a rock program.” Watkins came to Tallahassee during the pandemic, and she brought her teaching experience with her. To their knowledge, SAS is one of the only middle schools in Tallahassee that is offering a rock program in the way that Watkins is.

When asked about the importance of arts education for students, Watkins responded, “the arts are part of culture, part of being human, and they’re just as important as any other subject. [The arts] teach you social skills, teach you emotional skills. I’ve noticed that my kids have really good intuition now, they can hear another instrument and pick up on cues. I feel like I’ve taught them a lot of independence… You can’t have education without the arts.”

I had the privilege of attending SAS’s Rock Band Ensemble’s Spring performance at TCC last Thursday. Watkins’ students, which total close to 40 kids, all participated in the performance. They played a selection of rock songs ranging from 90s and 2000s classics such as “Island in the Sun” by Weezer and “Creep” by Radiohead, all the way back to 1980s hits like “Call Me” by Blondie and “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure. After a selection of covers, the students were able to perform some original songs in smaller groups, giving every student the opportunity to shine on stage.

When asked about the future of the program, Watkins stated that they hope to be able to get more kids involved, and gradually continue to grow and improve the program. Getting students interested in and motivated to play rock instruments is central to her mission, and with the Arts Education Grant they were able to purchase a new instrument and amp that will last her students a long time.

Look for the article on the Tallahassee Democrat’s website, coming at a later date.