Cognition Serves up CAFE for Arts Online

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cognition Serves up CAFE for Arts Online

NEW ZEALAND, Tuesday, 13 September 2007: Schools can now connect their students with performers, musicians, actors, dancers and artists through a new initiative known as CAFE (Community Artists for Education), the latest addition to the successful Arts Online website managed for the Ministry of Education by Cognition Consulting.

CAFE is an online brokering system where community artists can profile their work and what they have to offer to students in primary, intermediate, and secondary schools. In addition, it allows community artists to work seamlessly and effectively with teachers in schools to support and enhance arts programmes for students.

Part of the ongoing development of Arts Online (http://arts.unitecac.nz - a one-stop-shop for Arts educators in New Zealand), CAFE is supported and promoted by Arts Online partners: Artists' Alliance, Dance Aotearoa NZ (DANZ), Music Education NZ Aotearoa (MENZA), Drama New Zealand and the Aotearoa NZ Association of Arts Educators.

Dr Phil Coogan, Project director for Cognition Consulting, describes CAFE as an important way to help connect students with performers, musicians, actors, dancers and visual artists and their work.

"Teachers in primary and secondary schools can search CAFE for an artist or group working in certain aspects of the arts which their students are studying, be it mime, ceramics, hip hop dance, electronic music, painting or photography," he says.

"They can search for artists suitable to work with particular age groups or who depict particular cultural perspectives and they can select artists by their arts practice medium, region or availability," he adds.

Arts Online is now inviting community artists and groups wishing to work on either a commercial or voluntary basis in schools, to help further develop CAFE by completing a profile at http://arts.unitec.ac.nz/arts-cafe/enter-profile.php Photos and sound files can be uploaded to support the online profile and any previous positive feedback from schools is encouraged for inclusion. All profiles are vetted prior to publication.

Cognition Consulting also manages other key Ministry of Education sites such as English Online, ESOL Online and is a partner in the ongoing development of TKI, the Ministry of Education's portal for education.

ENDS

About Cognition Consulting: Cognition Consulting provides education consulting services to meet individual client needs in markets around the world. It was launched in August 2006 as a subsidiary company of Multi Serve Education Trust, which has been in operation since 1989 and functions as a Charitable Trust. The consulting business operations of Multi Serve will be assigned or subcontracted to Cognition Consulting which will become New Zealand's largest independent supplier of consulting services to the global education community including new school establishment projects, policy development and review, professional development, coaching and mentoring, evaluation and development, executive recruitment and financial consulting. Cognition Consulting's services assist governments and educators to undertake significant educational reform projects and improve educational outcomes.

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