In 2008, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt launched TeachRock, a free educational initiative for K-12 classrooms, and now he’s recruited some big-name musicians to join his mission.
Billboard reports that TeachRock has a new Artist Council, made up of such stars as Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, The Go-Go’s Gina Schock, Norah Jones and DJ Khaled, along with Erykah Badu, Common, Skip Marley, Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels, Margo Price and more.
“The Artist Council is an important step toward our long-term goal — keeping the arts a vital part of public education by creating and distributing an innovative, transformative, and effective methodology for new and future generations, ultimately leading to drastically improved high school graduation rates,” Van Zandt shares. “Our dream is that one day every artist will take the opportunity to visit a classroom, whether locally or on tour, anywhere in the world, and participate in a lesson plan using our curriculum.”
As part of the Artist Council, the musicians will work to spread the word of the nonprofit’s mission. They will also take part in lesson plans, and will promote the curriculum directly to teachers and students.
TeachRock already has several famous faces in their corner. Its Founders Board includes Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Jackson Browne and Martin Scorsese.
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