Brown Bag Lunch
- Thursday, May 17 - Messengers of Music: The Legacy of Julia E Crane
It seems like common sense-teachers should have specialized training in order to teach music to school children. The woman who made this revolutionary 19th century idea possible is the topic of Doctor Caron Collins' Brown Bag Lunch: Messengers of Music: The Legacy of Julia E. Crane. This Brown Bag Lunch program will be held at noon, Thursday, May 17 at the St Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright House. Brown Bag Lunches are free and open to the public. Bring your own lunch and enjoy a beverage and dessert provided by SLCHA.
School children around the world have certainly benefited from music and the work of music teachers. In 1884 Julia Crane began teaching music education at the Normal School in Potsdam, the precursor to SUNY Potsdam and the Crane School of Music. Crane believed that with proper training the graduates of the Normal School would be able to teach music as well as they could teach reading or history to their students. Doctor Caron Collins of the Crane School of Music will speak on her recent book, Messengers of Music: The Legacy of Julia E. Crane, which chronicles Crane's life history, her contribution to today's classrooms, and the work of almost 50 music education alumni from the Crane School of Music. Collins will be on hand after her talk to sign copies of her book.
Doctor Caron Collins is a professor at the Crane School of Music, where she teaches undergraduate courses in instrumental and general music methods, as well online graduate music courses in action research and learning styles. She is director of the Campus-Community Band, and she also serves as the Crane music education liaison for early field experience at St. Mary's School in Potsdam. Doctor Collins earned her PhD in music (2007) from Ohio State University, the Master in the Art of Teaching (2002) from Marygrove College, and her Bachelor of Music Education (1978) from Indiana University.
Messengers of Music: The Legacy of Julia E. Crane is available in the SLCHA's Gift Shop. Kids can make their own music by tooting their own horn - a wooden lighthouse foghorn from the gift shop, that is; ear plugs not included. The foghorn would be great paired with the book The Lost Lighthouse, from the Adirondack Kids series. SLCHA members receive a 10% discount on these books and most other items in the gift shop.
- Thursday, September 20 - TBA
- Thursday, October 18 - TBA
- Thursday, November 15 - TBA
The SLCHA Brown Bag Lunch program is free and open to the public. Bring your lunch; dessert and beverages will be provided.
The St Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright House is open Tuesday through Saturday noon to 4 pm, Friday noon to 8 pm. Admission to the museum is free; admission to the archives is free for members and children, $2.50 for college students, and $5 for the general public.The St Lawrence County Historical Association is located at 3 East Main Street, Canton. Parking is available in the back of the SLCHA, next to the museum's main entrance.
The St Lawrence County Historical Association is a membership organization open to anyone interested in St Lawrence County history. For more information, or to become a member, call the SLCHA at 315-386-8133 or e-mail. Exhibits and programs are made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.