ArtsEd Digest

Volume 1, Issue 5 - May 12, 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.

***The ArtsEd Digest scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, 2009 will be released on Thursday, May 28, 2009. Please submit all posts for that issue by Friday, May 22, 2009.***

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!

New Deadline for Small Group Proposals is June 15, 2009! Please send all small group proposal submissions to Laura Smyth, Senior Associate for Communications and Partnerships at lauras@ccsso.org. Submissions for the Cover Art Contest are due June 25th to Teka Phan, Program Assistant, at tekap@ccsso.org.

Education Secretary Launches National Discussion on Education Reform: “Listening and Learning Tour” Seeks Grassroots Input on Improving America’s Schools

Contact: Sandra Abrevaya, (202) 401-1576, sandra.abrevaya@ed.gov, U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will travel to 15 or more states in the coming months to solicit feedback from a broad group of stakeholders around federal education policy in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The tour will gather input on the Obama administration’s education agenda, including early childhood, higher standards, teacher quality, workforce development, and higher education.

The tour, “Listening and Learning: A Conversation About Education Reform", officially began on May 5, 2009 with three events in West Virginia. Duncan said that the primary purpose of the Listening and Learning tour is to, “Have a national dialogue about how to best deliver a complete and competitive education to all children – from cradle through career. We want to hear directly from people in the classroom about how the federal government can support educators, school districts and states to drive education reform." The meetings and events will be taped and reports and video summaries will be published on the department’s website (www.ed.gov).

NEA Announces 2009-2010 Shakespeare for a New Generation Grants

Contact: Paulette Beete (202) 682-5601, beetep@arts.gov

Today the National Endowment for the Arts announced 37 new Shakespeare for a New Generation (SNG) grants for 2009-2010. Six of the participating theaters also will receive additional grant support through an NEA/Department of Justice partnership to bring SNG to youth involved with the juvenile justice system. SNG brings Shakespeare performances and educational activities to middle and high schools nationwide. Grants are $25,000 each to support performances and educational activities by each theater for at least 10 schools. Additional funding ranges from $10,000-20,000.

For the full press release and a complete list of participating theaters, please visit: http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/shakespeare-for-a-new-generation.html

For more information about the NEA’s Shakespeare program, please visit: http://www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org/

NEA Announces Second Round of Funding for FY 2009

Contact: Paulette Beete (202) 682-5601, beetep@arts.gov

The NEA has announced its second round of funding for FY 2009. The National Endowment for the Arts will distribute $82,477,100 to nation’s non-profit arts organizations. You can read the full release and list of grants here: http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/Announce4-09.html

Grant categories include:

Access to Artistic Excellence ($14,664,500) – To support range of projects in dance, design, folk & traditional arts, literature, media arts, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts
Learning in the Arts($7,795,000)—To support projects that provide in-depth knowledge, skills, and understanding of art to children and youth
Arts on Radio and Television ($3,700,000)—To support development, production, and national distribution of radio and TV programs on arts subjects
American Masterpieces ($4,075,000)—To support projects that acquaint Americans with best of nation’s arts/culture heritage in dance, presenting, chamber music, and visual arts.
Partnership grants to Regional Arts Organizations and State & Jurisdictional Arts Agencies ($53,242,600)

The Clarice Smith National Teacher Institutes at the Smithsonian American Art Museum - August 3-7, 2009 and August 10-14, 2009

Join colleagues from across the country for a unique opportunity to collaborate with art experts and leading technology professionals. Through gallery talks, lectures, discussion groups, and hands-on activities, you will study the social context of American art. As part of an interdisciplinary team, you’ll share models for integrating art across the curriculum using technology. The Clarice Smith National Teacher Institutes are open to educator teams of up to three members, each representing a different subject area (i.e., art, language arts, social studies, science, math, etc.) from the same school or district. Each team member must be a full-time educator working in grades 4-12 in a public, private, or parochial school. A non-refundable program fee of $200 per person helps support the cost of personal resource materials. The museum offers two $500 scholarships per Institute. Team applications must be completed and submitted electronically by May 18, 2009, 11:59 PM EDT.

Visit http://americanart.si.edu/education/dev/cs/ for the on-line application form and for more information. Questions? E-mail: AmericanArtClariceSmithInitiative@si.edu.

New Cognitive Science Journal: Cognition and the Arts

Cognition and the Arts is a new publication dedicated to the artful mind and its relationship to the full range of higher-order human cognition. All scientific approaches are welcome, including developmental, evolutionary, linguistic, and comparative. Cognition & the Arts construes artistic behavior broadly, to include not only the various recognized genres of the arts but also design, style, and performance, throughout the lifecourse.

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Cognition-Arts.html

Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Cognition-Arts

Editor: Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

EdTA Recognizes Five Schools With 2009 Outstanding School Award

The Educational Theatre Association and its student honorary division, the International Thespian Society, have announced the recipients of the 2009 Outstanding School Award, to be presented at the International Thespian Festival, June 22-27, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Outstanding School Award is given annually to up to twelve schools whose work exemplifies and promotes high standards of quality in educational theatre.

The 2009 Outstanding School Award recipients are Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona; Fort Worth (Texas) Academy of Fine Arts; Greensboro (North Carolina) Day School; Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio; and Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts in Ivins, Utah.

“Theatre is the one discipline that takes into its practice all other fields of study,” says EdTA Executive Director Michael J. Peitz. “Whether it is using literary analysis in interpreting a script, or math and science skills to build a set and create special effects, theatre requires a mastery of a variety of subject areas. Great theatre programs, like the recipients of this year’s Outstanding School Award, build their foundations on this philosophy, making theatre a vital and necessary part of the whole educational curriculum.”

Employment Opportunity: Arts for All Implementation Manager

Arts for All is a countywide strategic plan to restore dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts to 1.7 million students in Los Angeles County’s 81 public school districts. With a grant from The Wallace Foundation to expand the work of the initiative, Arts for All is poised over the next five years to make further significant and sustainable progress by implementing new initiatives that will deepen district capacity to provide quality arts instruction for students, increase the quality of arts instruction through professional development opportunities for Arts Coordinators, teachers and arts specialists, and mobilize advocates to sustain and support district-wide quality arts education. See www.lacountyarts.org for more information.

Reporting to the Arts for All Senior Implementation Manager, this position will provide analysis, development, and administration of highly complex, multifaceted initiatives to deepen school district capacity to provide quality arts instruction and increase the quality of arts instruction through professional development for district-level Arts Coordinators, teachers, and arts providers. This position works independently to administer all aspects of program initiatives.

Candidates are invited to submit via email a cover letter and detailed resume describing their relevant experience, education and qualifications. All submissions should be sent to artsforall@arts.lacounty.gov, with Arts for All Implementation Manager Job Application as the subject line.

Employment Opportunity: Kentucky Arts Council Arts Education Program Director and Arts Access Program Director

The Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) seeks a creative and motivated individual to serve as Arts Access Program Director. Responsibilities of this position include coordination of programs which provide access to the arts including the KAC’s Diversity, Accessibility, and Community Arts programs.

The Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) seeks a creative and motivated individual to serve as Arts Education Program Director. Responsibilities of this position include managing the KAC’s Arts Education programs which are designed to provide quality arts education programming and training.

Application Information: Contact Katie Hamilton, Kentucky Arts Council, by email at katherine.hamilton@ky.gov or by calling 1-502-564-3757, ext. 470. Completion of the state application can be done on the following website: http://www.personnel.ky.gov/employment/.

Fellowship Opportunity: Robert Wood Johnson Evaluation Fellowship for Retooling Professionals

The RWJF Evaluation Fellowship program invites non-profit professionals and their employers to apply for a one-year fellowship. Potential individual fellowship applicants should be from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities, which include ethnic or racial minorities, those from low-income communities, first-generation college graduates, or others who have been historically underrepresented in the evaluation field. For more information, see the application website: http://www.rwjf-evaluationfellows.org. The application deadline is June 29, 2009.

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