Art Advocacy: A Video by HS Students

Art programs at Boyertown High School in Pennsylvania are in danger of being cut, so the students made a video to show the School Board Finance Committee how they feel about their art classes - they weren't allowed to show it. 


Now districts across the state are starting to use it to advocate for their own programs. It's a great video. 
See it on YouTube

Apply Now for New BASICS Program

The Iowa Alliance for Arts Education

invites Iowa Schools to apply for the

BASICS PROGRAM  
 to improve the quality of their

arts education programs.

We trained three school districts this year.  Through a second proposed grant to the Kennedy Center Arts Education Alliance Network, additional school/community teams would be trained by the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education in the Kennedy Center process:

1. auditing their arts education programs
2. creating a local arts education Strategic Plan including action steps
3. an expanded local Task Force and business partners
4. advocating for these arts education programs together while developing community bridges to sustain the quality of these programs. 

More Information...

Interested?

Please contact:

Diane Franken, Iowa Alliance for Arts Education, BASICS Program, 1610 Prospect Terrace, Davenport, Iowa 52803, artdiane0427@mchsi.com to request an application

Questions? 

Call Diane Franken at 563-324-9423

Creativity Works in Milwaukee

A 2008 survey in Milwaukee discovered that there were lots of creative things happening in the area, but the infrastructure was very fragile. Meetings of regional leaders resulted in the formation of a Creative Coalition and the designation of issue-driven task forces on education, workforce development, communications, efficiencies, planning, and other groups.  


Find out more about an outstanding example of that creativity coalition in Milwaukee: http://www.creativityworksmke.com/

New Iowa Education Blog from The Office of the Governor

Linda Fandel, the Governor's Special Assistant for Education, has invited Iowans to weigh in on how to give every Iowa student a world-class education. 

Go to the site http://iowaeducation.iowa.gov/ and respond to her posts in support of the arts in education in Iowa. Keep the IAAE point of view in mind when responding. 

The focus of a quality education for all Iowa students must include areas of rigorous study through which every student is actively engaged in an inclusive curriculum that will lead them toward becoming well rounded global citizens.  Toward that goal, a "curriculum based" arts education will be a crucial component. Through the arts, students learn to become active problem solvers, comprehensive and creative thinkers, who become enlightened participants in the workplace and society.

 

Actor Tim Robbin's Letter to Congress

In 1976, when I was 17 years old, I received a check for 50 dollars from
the National Endowment for the Arts.

I was a member of a touring theater company that performed free shows in
low-income neighborhoods throughout New York City. We rehearsed for five
weeks and performed for eight so my per hour income was paltry if not
pathetic, but I remember a great sense of pride when I cashed that check.

I was being paid by my government for entertaining people. I was proud
to live in a country where that could happen. It also gave me great
confidence in my talent. I continued to pursue this profession.

Within ten years the investment by my government of fifty dollars in
1976 was returning hundreds of thousands of dollars back to them in
taxes.

Within the next decade the government received an even sweeter bounty on
their fifty-dollar investment. And I was proud to pay these taxes. As I
have been proud to invest back into the arts with The Actors' Gang, a
30-year-old organization that provides free educational programs to
public school children and at risk teens and offers affordable and
accessible theatrical and musical events to the citizens of Los Angeles.


I am one story amongst many Americans who have benefited greatly from
the arts programs the NEA has supported over the 46 years of its
existence.

Best,

Tim


http://blog.artsusa.org/2011/04/07/an-open-letter-to-the-united-states-c
ongress-from-tim-robbins/ 

Undivided Lives: A Conversation About Career and Creativity

The Kaneko Center, 1111 Jones Street in Omaha, has announced a program on April 29, 2011 called Undivided Lives: A Conversation About Career and Creativity from 6:-7:30 (just south of the Old Market).

 

The "Conversation" panel will include:

Roger Fransecky: CEO of the Apogee Group, Psychologist and Writer

Stanford Lipsey:  Publisher of the Buffalo News, Artist and Photographer

Molly Jarboe: Online Media Specialist, Artist and Photographer

James Salhany:  Scientist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Songwriter and Poet

Tom Kaminiski: Stockbroker at TD Ameritrade and Sculptor.

 

This is but one in a series of discussions presented at the Kaneko exploring creativity in business: making that connection between business and the creative mind.   

 

Tickets are $10 in advance/ $15 at the door/ $5 for students.

 

www.thekaneko.org or call 402-341-3800

 

Prior to the program, an exhibit of the photography of Pulitzer Prize-winner Stanford Lipsey will be on display at The Kaneko.  The exhibit, entitled Affinity of Form, "reveals is keen photographic awareness of the subtleties of nature and landscape and the geometry of architecture."