Jason Gilmore of Guilford, Conn., an art teacher at Hartford\u2019s McDonough Middle School, has been named the Neag School of Education\u2019s 2020 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund award winner.<\/p>\n
Established by Neag School\u00a0Professor Emeritus Vincent Rogers<\/a>\u00a0and his late wife, Chris, a lifelong teacher, this award provides $5,000 annually toward an innovative classroom project proposed by a Connecticut teacher at the elementary or middle-school level. The Rogers\u2019 gift aims to support and expand the collaborative work of Connecticut\u2019s schoolteachers and the Neag School of Education. This is the third consecutive year in which the award will have been bestowed.<\/p>\n The Mural Intervention Project This project, Gilmore wrote in his proposal, \u201cwill benefit the entire school community through\u00a0beautification, as well as inspiring conversations about challenging subject matter, such as\u00a0personal issues and triumphs, social issues, education, and [students\u2019] neighborhoods. Hopefully, each mural will invite discussions on what common issues exist and will start to define our hopes,\u00a0dreams, and some solutions to improve everyone\u2019s experiences in the communities of\u00a0McDonough Middle School, Hartford, Conn., and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n Freedom of Expression \u201cAfter 20 years of directing murals with various communities, I know that everyone that participates in the group creative process walks away feeling accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Jason Gilmore, The project, Gilmore says, will offer \u201ca chance for freedom of expression while improving the climate and community of the school. The Innovation Award also will help drive the reorganization of school schedule where enrichment and clubs maybe written into our students\u2019 routine at McDonough. In essence, this award will allow an artistic experience that benefits the whole school.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cJason\u00a0Gilmore\u2019s commitment to bring art to his students, and to empower their voices through their creations of murals for Hartford\u2019s McDonough Middle School is extraordinary,\u201d says\u00a0Suzanne Wilson<\/a>, Neag Endowed Professor of Teacher Education and chair of the 2020 Rogers award selection committee. \u201cHis vision of engaging students in public art in ways that allow them to express their dreams, hopes, and aspiration for themselves, their families, and their community is inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n This award funding comes a particularly meaningful at a time, Gilmore says, when resources have been scarce.<\/p>\n \u201cI now see a future where our students at McDonough will have access to artistic experiences that they would not have without the grant,\u201d he says. \u201cNot every kid, even in schools where supplies are more plentiful, gets to be part of a community mural project. After 20 years of directing murals with various communities, I know that everyone that participates in the group creative process walks away feeling accomplished. Children especially feel more ownership over their living space than before the project.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilmore will be formally recognized at the\u00a02020 Neag School Alumni Awards Celebration,<\/a>\u00a0taking place on the UConn Storrs campus later this month.*<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis art teacher\u2019s hope for developing a learning environment where art becomes part of the school community\u2019s everyday lives is now growing day by day,\u201d Gilmore says. \u201cI\u2019m so excited to see what we create together!\u201d<\/p>\n Read more about the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund at\u00a0<\/em>rogersfund.uconn.edu<\/em><\/a>. Learn more about Jason Gilmore\u2019s mural work at\u00a0<\/em>jgilmoremurals.wordpress.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n *<\/sup>\u00a0The 2020 Neag School Alumni Awards Celebration\u00a0has been postponed until Fall 2020<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Related Stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n Jason Gilmore of Guilford, Conn., an art teacher at Hartford\u2019s McDonough Middle School, has been named the Neag School of Education\u2019s 2020 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":200273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2472,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1878],"class_list":["post-200271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gifts-donors","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-04 16:57:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200274,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200271\/revisions\/200274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/200273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200271"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=200271"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=200271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>In the proposal for his project, titled \u201cThe Mural Intervention Project,\u201d Gilmore outlines his hope of giving sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders at McDonough \u2014\u00a0a low-income, 98% free\/reduced lunch school \u2014\u00a0an opportunity to take any difficult situations or feelings that may be part of their day-to-day lives and express them in the form of community murals that will be displayed throughout the school.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Award applicants, in submitting their proposals this past fall, were asked to address such questions as \u2018What is the teaching and learning problem that drives your proposed innovation?\u2019 and \u2018What benefit will the proposal work have for the students in your classroom, school, or school district?\u2019 A committee of Neag School faculty reviewed the submissions based on these and several other questions.<\/p>\n
\n2020 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund awardee<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n