Two Opportunities for your Students with Disabilities

Sustaining / Creating A National Juried Exhibition for Emerging Artists with Disabilities, ages 16-25 Deadline: July 8, 2012 Sustaining / Creating asks emerging artists to showcase work that illuminates innovative viewpoints on sustainability and contemporary creativity. Beyond its scientific definition, sustainability references notions of responsibility and stewardship of our natural world in all facets of human interaction–from the environmental to the cultural. Sustainability indicates the capacity to endure. Fifteen artists will be selected for an exhibition at the Smithsonian and will share $60,000 in cash awards. Entry deadline is July 8. Enter today!

Yo Soy…Je Suis…I am… International Art Program for Children with Disabilities, ages 5-18 Deadline: July 15, 2012 This program presents a unique opportunity for student-artists with disabilities from around the world to display their artwork side-by-side in an online exhibition. A selection of artwork from the online entries will be chosen for a live exhibition at the United States Department of Education in Washington D.C. Children with disabilities, ages 5-18, are encouraged to create a self-portrait that illustrates who they are and who they will be. Self-portraits allow artistic freedom for children with disabilities to celebrate the unique qualities they have to share with the world. Entry deadline is July 15, 2012. Enter today!

From Americans for the Arts

White House Committee Selects DM Findley Elementary School for Prestigious Arts Initiative

Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker to work in school as part of new program

Turnaround Arts will work in eight elementary and middle “turnaround schools” across the country—public schools in the lowest-achieving five percent of their state that are receiving School Improvement Grants through the U.S. Department of Education. An external evaluation will measure the impact and effectiveness of using rigorous and integrated arts education together with other educational reform efforts in high-poverty, low-performing schools.

“We are so proud of Findley for being selected for this program, adding arts to the recipe of success for our students,” said Governor Branstad. “The PCAH initiative will be an invaluable resource for Principal Owen and the good work she and her team are doing at their school.”


As part of the program, the President’s Committee and its partners will provide training and resources to Findley and the other participating schools, including an Aspen Institute summer leadership program, in-school professional development, partnerships with community arts education and cultural organizations, art supplies and musical instruments and community engagement events. Presidentially-appointed artists on the Committee, Chuck Close, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Forest Whitaker, Yo-Yo Ma, Damian Woetzel and Alfre Woodard, will “adopt” one of the selected schools for the length of the program, working with the schools and communities and highlighting their successes. 


Three studies released this month by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Department of Education and theNational Endowment for the Arts emphasized the importance of access to arts education, citing better grades, increased creativity, higher rates of college enrollment and graduation as well as higher aspirations and civic engagement. Research shows that when students participate in the arts they are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, have higher GPAs and SAT scores and show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12. They are also more likely to be engaged and cooperative with teachers and peers and are more self-confident and better able to express their ideas. These benefits are particularly pronounced in high-poverty, low-performing schools.

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Iowa View: Our budgets must remember arts, arts education

"...One has to wonder whether our elected leaders are willing to pass budgets that actually support and advance the arts and art education. [Two recent] studies conclude that as a nation, we have a long way to go in terms of arts accessibility and education."
Des Moines Register Letters to the Editor column, Written by SUKU RADIA, President of bankers Trust. Read more...

Report Finds Arts Education Availability Remains High

According to Education Week (4/12, Robelen), a National Center on Education Statistics report found that "over the past decade, the availability of music and visual-arts instruction-on average-has changed little, and remains high, when compared with a decade ago." Jared Coopersmith, a project officer at the NCES, said, "Generally, what we really found is there is no consistent trend of decline in arts education in public schools." However, "the data offer a complicated-and sometimes conflicting-narrative of the changes in arts access in public schools, with some ups, some downs, and some maintenance of the status quo." Additionally, "disparities persist in access to arts education for impoverished students." Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in prepared remarks, "The good news is that the last decade has not generally produced a dramatic narrowing of the curriculum in the arts," adding, "But there is considerable bad news in today's report, too-and especially for disadvantaged students."

Marching Band Goal

This change of the guard in Norway includes Thriller and perhaps can inspire an Iowa marching band choreographer...
Watch the video...