The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the first 12 recipients of its inaugural Teacher Institute Awards, part of a broader plan to forge workable models for arts education in the United States. The NEA initiative, established in partnership with the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) distributes 12 awards of $40,000 each to support educational and arts organisations in New England and throughout western states to design and produce summer institutes for arts educators, classroom teachers, and teaching artists. As well as rewarding excellence and innovation, the grants aim to help develop exemplary institute models that schools across the country can use to strengthen teacher training and improve arts instruction. 'The National Endowment for the Arts is committed to advancing the quality of arts education by investing in model programs for teachers and students,' said Dana Gioia, NEA Chairman. 'Without serious and sustained arts education we deny our children the opportunity to become fully realized human beings.' The institutes will immerse participants in the study of a seminal "anchor work" of art (such as a Picasso painting, a Shakespearen play, or a score from Puccini). Each institute will forge a curriculum unit that participating educators will pilot with their students in the fall of 2005, then in December, all 12 will reconvene, enabling educators to share and critique units with their peers. The five strongest institutes will be supported for a second year. The first NEA Teacher Institute Award recipients include:

California State University (Sacramento, CA): this institute will focus on the musical piece Portrait of Lincoln by composer Aaron Copland;

The Colorado Alliance for Arts Education (Denver, CO): this institute will analyse Alambrista (1977), an award-winning film depicting the harsh realities of Mexican life on both sides of the border;

The Galef Institute (Santa Monica, CA): This institute will investigate Pablo Picasso's famous mural Guernica along with the ballet Appalachian Spring, composed by Aaron Copland;

The Nevada Alliance for Arts Education (Reno, NV): This institute will consider two landscape paintings of the Pyramid Lake area, as well as the folk art traditions of the Paiute tribe in the Pyramid Lake Reservation;

The Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA): This institute will study the poetry of Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes and Revelations, a masterpiece of modern dance from choreographer Alvin Ailey.

The Wyoming Arts Council (Cheyenne, WY): This institute highlights an exemplary work of ancient Egyptian art, contrasted with Pablo Picasso's lithograph series The Toros Portfolio (ca. 1959).

Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire (Littleton, NH): This institute will study the epic poem Shahnameh, a Central Asian literary classic written by the 10th century Persian bard Ferdowsi.

The Boston Public Library Foundation (Boston, MA): This institute examines the architecture of the Boston Public Library, a National Historic Landmark;

The Arts Literacy Project (Providence, RI): This institute will consider Walt Whitman's famous poem Song of Myself.

The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (Lincoln, MA): This institute will investigate the kinetic sculptures of artist George Rickey;

Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME): This institute looks at painter Winslow Homer's late-career seascape Weatherbeaten, created in a studio at Prout's Neck, 12 miles from the museum;

Shakespeare and Company (Lenox, MA): This institute will analyse William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. For more information, CLICK HERE.