Edna Seeley Booker is passionate about arts for special education - Shelby County Reporter

Edna Seeley Booker is passionate about the arts for special education

Released at 11:00 am on Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Special to reporter Sasha Johns

Colombiana – Edna Seeley Booker has been teaching art since 2006. But for over ten years, she has been teaching programming, her passion. A program that has inspired special education students in her more than 20 Shelby County schools called Artsabilities.

The program is funded in part by Community Health and is an outreach program of the Shelby County Arts Council led in 2006 by Teri Sullivan, who conducted pilot studies at Meadowview and Creekview Elementary Schools early in 2008. It was reach. This program enriched art and music. For children who have never experienced it before.

Booker eventually became the face of the program, along with Charles Tortrich, who taught the program’s music. They worked in a series of school groups where he worked once a week for nine weeks, then throughout the school year he worked in a new series of schools every nine weeks until eventually in a year he worked in over 20 schools. covered.

“The work was therapeutic, giving the children a chance to use their imaginations and giving them room to feel confident about themselves because the work was unmodified,” said Booker. , I especially liked it because I saw how happy it made the children.”

“Art existed before language,” said Booker. “It’s ingrained in you and me.”

She explained how the arts can benefit everyone, but special education students are given the opportunity to learn to work together, work on their motor skills, and overall be therapeutic for them. It was a target.

Funding ended with COVID-19, but at that time the Union Women’s Club of Colombiana provided more of the program by donating supplies to continue the program.

For more than a decade, Booker, along with Bruce Andrews, created a foothold to sustain funding by giving regular presentations and receiving grants. Losing it meant losing the program across the county, but Booker still manages to teach it in her own way.

Booker is passionate about Artibilities.

“As long as I’m here, there will be some kind of Artibilities program,” she said.

Booker is now a world history teacher at Simmons Middle School and still uses old artability ideas to teach abundance.

“This is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” she said. Seeing them grow up means that they will eventually graduate as adults who can be part of our society.”

Booker was recognized for his contributions to the Arts at the Annual Luncheon for the Arts held for the Shelby County Arts Council in early August.

“Edna has dedicated more than a decade of her life to the Artsabilities program,” said SCAC Executive Director Bruce Andrews. “We wanted to honor her achievements through her SCAC program.”

Booker said he hopes to continue teaching summer camps there and is grateful for his time spent at the Shelby County Arts Council.