ArtsEd Digest

Volume 1, Issue 4 - April 28, 2009

Welcome to ArtsEd Digest, the new and improved face of the AEP listserv. The ArtsEd Digest is an online publication that allows for the easy access to vital and timely information about arts education from our partners and from the field. It will be published twice a month, on the second and fourth Tuesday. Items for inclusion in the upcoming listserv must be submitted by close of business on the first and third Fridays of each month. For example, items for the Digest to be published on Tuesday, May 12 should be submitted by close of business Friday, May 8.

New from the Arts Education Partnership

AEP National Forum Information - "Charting a Course for the Arts and 21st Century Learning"
Join us on October 2-3, 2009 in Cambridge, MA for a lively exploration of the connections and synchronicities between the arts and 21st century learning. This meeting will be hosted by Lesley University. Mark your calendars and make your plans now! The RFP for small group sessions for the Forum is now available on the AEP website. Proposals are due May 29th.

AEP National Forum Cover Art Contest
The Arts Education Partnership is seeking submissions of art to be featured as the cover design for the program of the AEP Fall National Forum, “Charting a Course for the Arts and 21st Century Learning” to be held in October 2-3, 2009 in Cambridge, MA. The winner will have his/her work displayed on the cover along with a brief biography in the AEP Fall National Forum’s program. The winner will also receive a monetary prize of $100. For more contest details and/or submission form, please click here. If you have any questions about the contest, please contact Teka Phan, Program Assistant at tekap@ccsso.org.

Arts Education: Taking Stock of the Future - June 2008 Symposium Report
The June 2008 Symposium Report, Arts Education: Taking Stock of the Future is now available for online download here. In this report, you will find a summary of the discussions about past and continuing priorities for arts education in three areas: standards and assessment; research, policy, and practice; and learning in the 21st century. Also included: the presentation of the first-ever Richard J. Deasy Award for Partnership in Education and the Arts.

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Five Recipients of the 2009 NEA Opera Honors

Contacts: For NEA Opera Honors, Mary Lou Falcone, mlfpr@att.net, 212-580-4302; For NEA, Victoria Hutter, hutterv@arts.gov, 202-682-5692

The NEA Opera Honors is the highest award our nation bestows in opera.
This year’s honorees are: composer John Adams, stage director and librettist Frank Corsaro, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, general director Lotfi Mansouri, and conductor Julius Rudel.
The awards program will be in Washington, DC, at the Harman Center for the Arts on November 14, 2009.
OPERA America will partner again with the NEA to manage the initiative and the Washington National Opera will serve as a planning partner.
For the press release, biographies, and photos, go to http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/2009-opera-honorees.html

National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation Announce the 2009 National Finals of Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest

Contact: Sally Gifford, NEA Communications, 202-682-5606

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation announce the 2009 National Finals of Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. On Monday April 27, high school students who advanced from 53 poetry recitation championships in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands will gather at George Washington University Lisner Auditorium, to match their skills in reciting classic and contemporary poetry. Twelve of the 53 state champions will advance to compete in the National Finals on Tuesday, April 28. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals will award a total of $50,000 in scholarship prizes and school stipends. Special guest judges include radio personality Garrison Keillor, actress Tyne Daly, poets Patricia Smith and Luis Rodriguez. Singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant will give a special performance of poetry-inspired songs. Scott Simon of National Public Radio returns to serve as master of ceremonies.

Poetry Out Loud National Finals - Tuesday, April 28, 7:00 - 10:00 pm, Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC. National Finalists will be available for pre-event interviews from 5:45 - 6:15 pm. Immediately after the event (10pm), Finalists and judges will be available for interview.

TWITTER LIVE BLOGGING AT EVENTS – FOLLOW US AT http://twitter.com/PoetryOutLoud

Lucy School’s Teacher Training Institute presents:
Integrating the Arts into the Early Childhood Curriculum: A Powerful Medium for Young Children
August 10-14, 2009. Call (301)293-1163, admin@lucyschool.com

Spend five delicious summer days in the cool tranquility of a seventeen- acre farm in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and the stimulation of a state-of-the-art arts-based school & teacher-training center.

Program: Through multisensory hands-on arts experiences in drama, creative movement, music, and visual arts, participants will experience the rich linguistic and cognitive potential of using the arts as a learning medium.

Instructors, Victoria Brown, Ph.D. and Sarah Pleydell, M.F.A. have over fifty years hands-on teaching and teacher training experience nationwide integrating the arts into the early childhood curriculum. They are co-authors of the award-winning book The Dramatic Difference: Drama in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom (2000), Heinemann. Victoria is founder and director of Lucy School: An Arts-Based School and Teacher Training Center in Middletown, MD. www.lucyschool.com

Lodging: Lodging is available at the Lucy School Farmhouse, a 19th century farmhouse nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Download a printable version of this page and the Registration Form. Download just the Registration Form.

Lesley University’s Integrated Teaching Through the Arts Masters Program

Lesley University transforms teaching and learning with the Integrated Teaching Through the Arts Master of Education Program, a 22-month exploration of the power of arts integrated in education. This program prepares teachers to navigate the intersection between state frameworks and subject matter, while using the arts as an approach to teaching. Integrated Teaching Through the Arts is an experiential program that recognizes and supports teachers as the primary catalyst for student engagement and success.

For more information, please contact one of our admissions counselors at:
877.4.LESLEY | achieve@lesley.edu

Texas Fine Arts Summit X- Assessment in the Arts

The Texas Fine Arts Summit X, hosted by the Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts (CEDFA), will be held Thursday-Friday, June 11-12, 2009 at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Austin. The Fine Arts Summit is the only major venue in Texas that brings together educators from each of the four fine arts content areas of art, dance, music, and theatre for professional development opportunities. The topic of the next four-year cycle of Fine Arts Summits is Assessment in the Arts. The four-year plan is to provide Summit participants with training on assessment strategies in each of the four fine arts content areas, one strand of the Fine Arts Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) per year:

Perception - 2009
Historical/Cultural Heritage - 2010
Response/Evaluation - 2011
Creative Expression/Performance - 2012

The keynote speaker for the Opening Session of the Summit will be John Tanner, Director of the Center for Innovative Measures at the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Executive Director of CEDFA is Kris Andrews, and the CEDFA Board of Directors consists of the leaders of the four major state arts education associations: Texas Art Education Association, Texas Dance Educators Association, Texas Music Educators Association, and Texas Educational Theatre Association, Inc.

For additional information pertaining to CEDFA and the Texas Fine Arts Summit X, visit the CEDFA website at http://www.cedfa.org or contact Mr. Andrews at 512-491-8087, krisandrews@cedfa.org.

Folk Arts in Education Resource Handbook II Published by Michigan State University

Folk Arts in Education Resource Handbook II, edited by Marsha MacDowell and LuAnne Kozma, and published by Michigan State University Museum with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, examines the state of folk arts in education projects around the U.S. with sample curricula from over 50 programs for youth. Order from the MSU Museum's Michigan Traditional Arts Program online store at www.museum.msu.edu and go to "MTAP Store." Available in hard copy with or without binder or as a CD-Rom.

Parents for the Arts Advisory: Outreach that Resonates and Motivates

A new research study spearheaded by Douglas Gould and Company, executed by FDR Group, and funded by the Ford Foundation, identifies what motivates parents to act on behalf of arts education. The results of this study is presented in the following arts advocacy guide: Parents for the Arts Advisory: Outreach that Resonates and Motivates, which offers messaging and recommendations on how to talk to parents about the value of arts education, and empower them to be active advocates for arts in schools.

Educational Theatre Association’s Essay Contest Winner Meets with North Carolina Senator

Lauren Caddick, winner of the Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) first student essay contest, met with Senator Kay Hagan during a visit to Capitol Hill for the 2009 Arts Advocacy Day festivities, which took place March 30-31.

Miss Caddick, a junior at Forestview High School in Gastonia, North Carolina, earned the trip to Arts Advocacy Day for her winning essay on the importance of arts education to America’s future. EdTA launched the competition to support Arts Advocacy Day and acknowledge the need for student voices in promoting arts education.

The contest was open to members of EdTA’s student honorary organization, the International Thespian Society (ITS). Miss Caddick is a member of Forestview High’s Thespian troupe 7152. Miss Caddick and the delegation from North Carolina were escorted to Capitol Hill, where they met with Senator Hagan, who came off the Senate floor during a vote to meet the group—a rare occurrence during Arts Advocacy Day meetings.

“It was really something for her to take time out to talk to us,” says Miss Caddick. “This whole experience is something I’ll never ever forget.”

This message is from the ArtsEd listserv. ArtsEd hosts discussions and communications for the Arts Education Partnership which demonstrates and promotes the essential role of arts education in enabling all students to succeed in school, life and work.