The $10 million building at Hodges University is the largest and most unique music school in the world.
The new Southwest Florida Center for Music Education will take over the 43,097-square-foot Gaynor Building, at 2655 Northbrooke Drive, Naples, to enhance its curriculum and expand capacity for its unique student market. Those include high school graduates with musical talent who are considered “neuropaths,” that is, their brains use different processes and time to accommodate academic and social skills.
Some well-known neurodivergences may include Tourette syndrome, dyspraxia, synesthesia, dyscalculia, Down syndrome and autism, among others.
Students at SWFLMEC are talented individuals with a unique musical background. But they may not be able to manage the schedule and social skills for the high octane life of other music schools.
Good news for the arts: Arts in Collier, Lee received full funding in the new state budget
DA: Robert Van Winkle joins the Southwest Florida Symphony in outreach
These musicians are learning in ways that are not typically used in the standard learning styles used in colleges and universities, according to Jennifer Clark, vice president of the Southwest Florida Center for Music Education.
Neurodivergent-abled curriculum a first
The school will work in partnership with the Berklee Center for the Arts and Special Needs at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. This is a first in America, as far as the man who created the idea, Rob Moher, knows. Read also : YouTube Music gets a better way to browse these ‘Mixed for you’ playlists. It is the first in the world, so far the researchers of the Berklee Institute can find out when they ask for the product.
“They (Berklee) are world-class. They say there’s nothing like it in the world,” Moher said. “So we’re kind of breaking new ground in more ways than one.”
The idea was born after Moher started thinking about the possibility of a post-secondary education for his daughter, whose piano lessons have been an important part of her life and, possibly, her future.
“We looked all over the country,” said Moher, president and CEO of The Conservancy in Naples. “We’ve got the things we want in the Northeast, but that will require us to pack up and leave our beautiful city of Naples.”
Further, he said, they are only discovering things. Even Berklee Institute has part-time programs for students; he focused on training teachers to work with them. None of them included other classes to deal with the social skills needed for a career in music as a teacher, actor or therapist.
The idea of creating a school that seemed out of nowhere came to Moher three years ago. Naples seemed like a perfect fit.
“No. 1, Naples is an artistic community. They have shown that time and time again through philanthropy and education and tourism that art is very valuable here,” said Jennifer Clark, assistant president of the Music Education Center of Southwest Florida.
Center’s beginnings small, but growing
The small school was there because Naples already had music teachers to give lessons. A weekly music development course, titled The Creative Team, started with violin instructor Jeff Leigh. This may interest you : ‘Exit Veil’ is a New Upcoming Instrumental Inspired Video Game. He brought both neurodivergent students and what are known as neurotypical students. During COVID, the partnership went online and “just kept going,” Moher said.
“I had someone approach me and say, ‘Well, when are you going to build a real school?'” he recalled. “They challenged me. They said, ‘Come up with a business plan and figure out what it’s going to cost to do this, let’s see.’
So Moher and other supporters started raising funds for the campus. An unnamed benefactor “made a commitment that allowed us to dream,” he said, then considered buying the Gaynor building in Hodges, which had come up for sale as a vacant lot. don’t use it. Part of its space already holds a Montessori school, and that won’t move, Clark said.
But most of the building, which sits on 5.8 acres, will be refitted with labs, classrooms, a library, theater stage and administrative space, which will accommodate 50 full-time students starting in fall 2024.
The building is currently named for one of the city’s most famous philanthropists, Lal Gaynor, and, while Clark isn’t sure if the name will be changed: “Many of us know Lal, who is a remarkable woman. surprise, and we love her,” she said.
The Classrooms of the Creative Communities, something of a school directed to this kind of school, are located in the space in the Toni Stabile building on the Artis-Naples campus. The school’s classrooms and curriculum will continue to be taught there until the building opens in 2024. The first class has only three, but word is getting out that at least one mother is moving to Naples with her son to take advantage of the benefits. the school.
The board is making plans that will eventually include dormitories, work space and additional program space.
It is not a traditional university. Students may or may not choose to transfer to one from there, he said.
“We’re starting a two-year and four-year certificate program, so students can choose whether they want a two-year certificate or a four-year certificate. Either way, they’ll graduate with a certificate from the Berklee Special Needs Education Center, and that’s unique.” astonishment.
“It’s not a degree. It’s a certificate program, but it’s Berklee quality. It’s what students would get in a traditional program but with more support, a scale that students can manage better in and a more structured curriculum. ad hoc.
“We’re very excited about that.”
Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com. Contact her at 239-213-6091.
