ArtsEd Digest

Volume 1, Issue 15 - October 13, 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 is published twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday. Items for inclusion in the upcoming listserv must be submitted by close of business on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month. For example, items for the Digest to be published on Tuesday, October 27 should be submitted by close of business Friday, October 23.

New from the Arts Education Partnership

AEP Fall National Forum in Cambridge, MA October 2-3, 2009
Many thanks to everyone who helped make this, our largest Forum ever, such a great success! We are still processing the action-packed two days of plenaries, roundtables, and small group sessions. Keep checking our website, as we will be adding follow-up information from the Forum on the Cambridge Forum homepage. We are grateful as always to our planning committee, our presenters and speakers, and our partner organizations for bringing their lively and committed perspectives to this ongoing and thought-provoking conversation. For those of you not able to be with us in person, we hope you’ll join us for the upcoming Spring 2010 National Forum in Washington, DC on April 9-10.

The evaluations have started to come in, and we’re delighted to post the first “staff choices” of your six-word impressions of the Forum:

1. Moving beyond our arts comfort zone.
2. Inspiring keynote, interesting sessions, needed networking.
3. Stop complaining. Change education, change society.
4. Good connections, rejuvenating, inspiring...I'll return!
5. Engaging minds, inspiring people, spreading creativity.
6. Culture is the water. Let's swim!

Just a reminder that if you attended the Cambridge Forum and have not completed our short evaluation survey, please take a few minutes and do so now. Just follow this link to get started: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=krhQlKzlvY2Z64rpqi9CAA_3d_3d. The survey will take less than 10 minutes of your time, but it provides valuable information that allows us to continue improving the quality and content of our National Forums.

We have had many follow-up requests for contact information for Derrick Ashong, our dynamic plenary speaker for the first morning. He has kindly agreed to let us publish that information, seen below:

M. Quentin B.L. Williams
The Butler Lappert Williams Firm PC
300 Park Avenue
17th Floor
New York, New York 10022
(212) 572-4822 Office
(212) 658-9242 Fax
info@blwfirm.com
www.blwfirm.com
www.ashongventures.com
www.soulfege.com

Additionally, Cradles to Crayons, our Cambridge Forum Day of Service site, can still accept donations from our group. Monetary donations or supplies can be sent to the below address:

Cradles to Crayons: The Giving Factory
ATTN: Lisa Hoff
82 Myrtle Street
Boston, MA 02171

“The Arts Education Effect” – Education Week features online commentary by Sandra Ruppert
On September 23, 2009, Education Week online published an online commentary by AEP Director Sandra Ruppert analyzing the results and implications of the 2008 NAEP Arts Assessment. Throughout the week of its appearance it was in the top three read and emailed articles on the site. Read it yourself here.

I3 – Invest in Innovation Fund Guidelines Announced
On October 6, The Department of Education released the guidelines for the $650 million Invest in Innovation Fund. The guidelines can be found at http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/10/10062009a.html . The funds will be allocated by a competitive grants process in three categories -- development grants of up to $5 million for new projects, validation grants of up to $30 million for established projects, and scale-up grants of up to $50 million for proven successes. The I3 Fund, as it is known, is not limited to states as the other Race to the Top funds, but is open to school districts and non-profit organizations. In a New York Times article on October 7, Secretary Duncan specifically mentioned that arts education providers are eligible for these awards.

New Arts in Education Blog Launched by Young Audiences Arts for Learning

Young Audiences Arts for Learning launched its first blog, Arts for Learning: Connecting the Arts with Literacy, Learning and Life, on Thursday, October 1st, 2009. It can be read, and responded to, at www.artsforlearning.wordpress.com.

The idea for the Arts for Learning blog emerged during discussions about how to stimulate productive attention to important issues at the intersection of arts and education. Conversations related to the Arts for Learning Lesson program of YA furthered interest in this initiative. Through the blog, Young Audiences Arts for Learning intends to strengthen connections among teachers, artists, administrators, policy makers, and organizations concerned about issues such as how to provide strong, individualized engagement in education for achievement of high common standards, building learning and life skills through curricula with high content, and nurturing individual interests and aptitudes with equitable access to public resources.

Upcoming blog topics include: Individual Achievement through Cooperative Learning, Applause for Integrating Music into the Curriculum, and Metacognition for Effective Cognition.

National Endowment for the Arts Celebrates National Arts and Humanities Month
NEA website to feature arts opportunities in every state

Washington, D.C. – In the month of October, organizations and communities across the country will join the largest annual celebration of the arts and humanities in the nation, National Arts and Humanities Month. To recognize and celebrate the important role arts and culture play in our lives, the National Endowment for the Arts encourages citizens around the country to visit their local arts organizations. To facilitate this, the NEA’s website (www.arts.gov) will provide daily highlights of arts projects happening throughout the country during the month of October by past and current NEA grantee organizations.

As an example, today’s highlighted organizations are Patrick Dougherty’s site-specific outdoor sculptures, made from saplings, at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama, and Intermountain Opera Association’s production of The Ballad of Baby Doe in Bozeman, Montana. A full list of recent NEA grantees can be found on the NEA’s web site at: http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/index.html.

Currently coordinated by Americans for the Arts, National Arts and Humanities Month is a month-long celebration that grew out of National Arts Week, which was begun in 1985 by the National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts.

What: Daily web highlights of arts projects happening throughout the country during the month of October by past and current NEA grantee organizations.
When: October 1 – 31, 2009
Where: www.arts.gov

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts –both new and established—bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.

Contact: Liz Stark (NEA), 202-682-5744, starke@arts.gov

Samuel French to Sponsor 2010 Thespian Playworks

Play publisher Samuel French, Inc. will sponsor the 2010 Thespian Playworks program.

Thespian Playworks is a playwriting and script development program for high school students. It takes place at the Thespian Festival, the annual event presented by the Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) student honorary division, the International Thespian Society. Up to four plays are chosen as finalists for the program, giving playwrights the opportunity to develop their pieces with dramaturgs, actors, and directors.

The sponsorship includes financial support for the program, as well as making publication and licensing opportunities available to finalists.

“Samuel French, Inc. is thrilled to be sponsoring the 2010 Thespian Playworks program,” says French vice president Abbie Van Nostrand. “We feel it is vital to stimulate aspiring high school authors and encourage them to develop their craft. These budding playwrights not only gain invaluable experience through practical workshops bringing the page to the stage, but can see their work live on through the prospect of being published by French.”

“It’s very gratifying that a publishing house of the stature of Samuel French finds our student writing program worthy of support,” says Don Corathers, editor of EdTA’s Dramatics magazine, which has been managing Thespian Playworks since 1994. “They’re making an investment in the future of playwriting.”

State and National Results from 2009 Nation’s Report Card In Mathematics
to be Released Oct. 14
Report Highlights the Performance of Nation’s 4th- and 8th-Graders

WHAT: Release of The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2009, presenting the performance of U.S. 4th and 8th-grade students in mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The mathematics assessment was administered to nationally representative samples totaling 330,000 students. Results are presented for each state and the nation and include comparisons to previous assessments from 1990 to 2007 where available.

WHO: Stuart Kerachsky, Acting Commissioner, National Center for Education Statistics
David P. Driscoll, Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Education
Kathi M. King, 12th grade mathematics teacher and Chair, Mathematics Department, Oakland, Maine
David W. Gordon, Superintendent of Schools, Sacramento County, Calif.

WHEN: Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 10 a.m. EDT

WHERE: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Atrium Ballroom
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
Please bring photo ID and allow extra time for building entry/security.

Copies of The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2009 and complete data from the 2009 mathematics assessment will be available online at http://nationsreportcard.gov at 10 a.m. EDT on October 14, 2009.

CONTACTS:Kari Hudnell at (202) 955-9450 ext. 314 or khudnell@communicationworks.com;
Chloe Louvouezo at (202) 955-9450 ext. 320 or clouvouezo@communicationworks.com

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative, continuing evaluation of the condition of education in the United States. It has served as a national yardstick of student achievement since 1969. Through The Nation’s Report Card, NAEP informs the public about what American students know and can do in various subject areas, and compares academic achievement among states and student demographic groups.
The National Assessment Governing Board is an independent, bipartisan board whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the general public. Congress created the 26-member Board in 1988 to set policy for NAEP.

Case Studies Report on L.A. County’s Arts For All Districts Fills Knowledge Gap about Arts Education Efforts

The case studies and cross-case analyses in Arts for All: The Vanguard Districts – Case Studies from the First Five Years offer new insights about the differences between planning to restore arts education and making that plan a reality. While there is much research on the impact of arts education on learners, there is little on effective strategies for translating blueprints into action in the classroom. There is much to learn from the experiences of Beverly Hills, Burbank, Castaic, Compton, Culver City, Hacienda La Puente, Los Angeles County Office of Education, Norwalk-La Mirada, Pasadena, Rosemead and Santa Monica-Malibu school districts. They have made admirable progress toward implementing their plans but challenges and needs remain. The report is available online at http://lacountyarts.org/artsed/casestudies.html.

Educational Theatre Association Awards Five Grants to its National Conference

The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) awarded five grants to its 2009 Annual Conference. This year’s event, held in conjunction with the California Educational Theatre Association (CETA), took place September 10-13 in Anaheim, California.

Derrick Davault and Wendy Renée Bosick, students in the theatre education program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), were the recipients of the grant for pre-professional members.

Katie Alpert of the Woodburn (Oregon) Arts and Communications Academy; Cassandra Conley of Newton (Kansas) High School; and Chelsea Cunningham of Hoover High School in Des Moines, Iowa were the recipients of the grant for new educators.

“Theatre educators are just as passionate about learning as they are about teaching,” says Diane Carr, manager of the EdTA Annual Conference and grant administrator. “They know that improving and renewing themselves enables them to give even more to their students. We are happy to have been able to offer the next generation of theatre educators access to an event that will contribute to their growth as professionals.”

The 2009 EdTA Annual Conference was sponsored in part by Dolphin Entertainment, Savannah College of Art and Design, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, and The Broadway League.

Jim Leonard, Playwright and Screenwriter, Honored with Educational Theatre Association’s Founders’ Award

Renowned playwright and screenwriter Jim Leonard has been named the recipient of the Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) Founders’ Award.

The Founders’ Award recipient is selected by the EdTA Executive Director and presented to an individual or group of individuals whose significant contributions to the growth and development of theatre education, research, and practice support the principles and mission of the EdTA founders to promote and strengthen the field.

Mr. Leonard has published a variety of plays, including The Diviners and Anatomy of Gray. As a screenwriter, Mr. Leonard co-wrote the screenplay for Mira Nair’s award-winning film My Own Country, and created a number of television series.

“All of the stories that come alive on the stage and screen share one important thing in common—they couldn’t exist without a writer with the vision and desire to first bring them to life on paper,” says EdTA Executive Director Michael J. Peitz. “Jim Leonard’s body of work is the embodiment of his vision and desire to tell a story. His contributions to the theatre and television have left both media much richer.”

The Phillipis Collection Announces Emily Rauh Pulitzer as the Winner of the 2009 Duncan Phillips Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 8, 2009

Media Contact: Sara Durr, 202-215-1811, sara@durrcommunications.com;
Shira Pinsker, 202-387-2151 x220, spinsker@phillipscollection.org

Washington, D.C.—Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection, announced today that Emily Rauh Pulitzer, founder and chairman of The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis, Mo., has been selected to receive the tenth Duncan Phillips Award. For more than 40 years, Mrs. Pulitzer has been a champion for the arts, helping to shape the nation’s cultural landscape through her work as a distinguished curator, collector, and arts patron. The award will be given at a ceremony on Oct. 10, 2009.

The Duncan Phillips Award was created in 1999 to celebrate the spirit of collecting and philanthropy represented by the life of museum founder Duncan Phillips. For more than 50 years, Phillips played a critical role in defining the American tradition of public philanthropy. His collecting practices merged with an extraordinary commitment to the public interest. In 1921, he opened his home so that visitors could personally experience his collection of modern art.

After earning a degree in art history from Bryn Mawr and spending a year at the Ècole du Louvre, Mrs. Pulitzer started her notable career as a curator at the Fogg Art Museum. She served as the assistant curator of drawings from 1957 to 1964 during which time she earned a master of arts from Harvard. In 1964 she began working at the Saint Louis Art Museum, where her tenure was defined by her insightful scholarship and discerning acquisitions.

Mrs. Pulitzer and her late husband, Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., a distinguished collector and the former publisher and editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, built one of the nation’s premier collections of modern art. The works span more than a century, ranging from Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso to Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra.

In an effort to strengthen the cultural experience in St. Louis, Mrs. Pulitzer founded The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. It opened in 2001 to international acclaim in a building designed by the renowned architect Tadao Ando. Today, the Foundation presents a wide range of exhibitions, concerts, symposia, and cultural collaborations, serving as a resource to artists, architects, scholars, students, and the general public.

“With this award, we honor Emily Pulitzer for her keen sensibility, infinite generosity, and unyielding commitment to the visual arts,” said Kosinski. “As a collector, her steadfast refusal to be bound by the traditional limitations of chronology and style very much reflects the experimental spirit of Duncan Phillips. She is the hidden hero among us because the singular combination of her dedication and philanthropy ensures that the arts will continue to play a vital role for generations to come.”

Mrs. Pulitzer joins a distinguished list of recipients that includes Leonard Lauder, David Rockefeller, Virginia and Bagley Wright, and HRH The Duke of Bavaria.

ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

The Phillips Collection offers an intimate encounter with one of the finest collections of impressionist and modern American and European art, with works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cé zanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Honoré Daumier, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Diebenkorn, among others. The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, has an active collecting program and regularly organizes acclaimed special exhibitions, many of which travel nationally and internationally. The museum also produces award-winning and in-depth education programs for K–12 teachers and students, as well as for adults. Its Center for the Study of Modern Art explores new way of thinking about art and the nature of creativity, through artist visits, seminars, and classes. Since 1941, the museum has hosted concerts in its wood-paneled Music Room. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum supported primarily by donations.

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