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In This Issue
- California Districts Bracing for Cuts
- Demand for Instruments Grows As Budgets Shrink
- Painful Cuts Looming in Hayward
- Arts Integration in Inland Empire
- Schwarzenegger Announces $727 Million for School Facilities and CTE
- Oakland Project Builds Dance Participation
- Harvard Study Makes the Case for Arts
- Art's Power to Teach 21st-Century Skills
- Economic Stimulus Should Create Jobs for Teachers, Artists, Service Workers
- Time for Revolution: Arts Education at the Ready
- Study Finds That Creativity Is Important But Neglected
- NEA Arts Now Available
- National Arts Advocacy Organizations Submit Policy Brief To Obama Transition Office
- Teaching Artist Research Project Wants YOU!
- New Book RElease by Sir Ken Robinson
- CETA Announces Its Annual Fall Conference
CONFERENCES, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- CAM Annual Conference
- National Arts Advocacy Day
RESOURCES, FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- Call For Submissions: VSA Arts and CVS Caremark All Kids Can… Create!
- Young Artists & Writers and Scholastic Art Awards
December 18, 2008
ArtsEdMail provides all the latest information to connect the Arts Education community in California. Our free e-newsletter is published every two weeks.
We rely on you to support our efforts.
Become an advocate or make a donation today!
California
Budget Update
This is the final edition of ArtsEdMail for 2008. We would
prefer to go out on a more festive note, but like many of you, we are
hearing reports from advocates throughout the state about school districts
anticipating cuts in their budgets and freezing spending for arts education.
The cloud of uncertainty surrounding budget negotiations among legislative leaders and the Governor in Sacramento remains unchanged. Each day without a revised budget pushes the state deeper into its fiscal crisis. We know that cuts are coming – but we don’t yet know what the impact will be for arts education.
As we’ve been reporting, one of the areas of greatest concern to the Alliance has to do with proposals to increase flexibility for categorical funding. This would free school districts from restrictions requiring that those funds be spent for their intended purpose. The proposal is intended to give districts more control of their budgets to deal with anticipated cuts, but could be devastating to the ongoing investment for arts education.
Your immediate advocacy efforts are best directed at the local level. While we await the decision on the state budget, there are actions you can take locally, where critical decisions will soon be made about the delivery of arts education in your school district. Click HERE to access a letter template directed to local school district leaders and for talking points. Click HERE to learn how to be strategic in your arts education advocacy efforts at this critical time.
The Alliance sends you good wishes for the holiday season. As 2008 comes to an end, we thank you for your commitment to arts education and for your tenacity to face every obstacle with new determination and creativity. And we look forward to working with you in 2009!
California
Districts Bracing for Cuts
A new proposal by the state Legislature would spread the burden
to "basic aid" districts that draw most of their income from
local property taxes. Under the proposal, the state would cut funding
from the categorical programs used by all districts, rather than the
per-student funding it supplies to "revenue limit" schools.
Those categorical programs could include tutoring, teacher training
and programs to aid English language learners as well as art, music
and physical education classes.
Click HERE for
the article.
Demand
for Instruments Grows As Budgets Shrink
Gale Bjelland, instructional services specialist for the visual and performing
arts in the Riverside Unified School District, said many music teachers
have seen an increase in the need for instruments, as many parents are
unable to buy or rent an instrument for their children. Funding from a
state block grant has helped close the gap, while teachers are also borrowing
instruments from each other's schools to meet the need. Click
HERE to read more.
Painful
Cuts Looming in Hayward
To reduce the school budget, school board trustees are considering drastic
cuts, including the possibility of closing the Faith Ringgold School
of Art and Science and eliminating music programs at Bret Harte Middle
School. Click
HERE for more.
Arts
Integration in Inland Empire
The Montclair elementary school students are involved in activities that
make the curriculum come alive and provide them with opportunities to
be creative as they learn the required subject matter. One of their new
teachers this year, Charles Jett, has a background in theater and used
his theatrical experience to design a learning unit for sixth-grade students
that made learning both fun and exciting. Students participated in a
unit of study that enabled them to integrate drama into language arts. Click
HERE for the article.
Schwarzenegger
Announces $727 Million for School Facilities and CTE
Furthering Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commitment to improving school facilities
and stimulating the economy with infrastructure projects, the California State
Allocation Board (SAB) announced today it has directed $727 million in Proposition
1D (Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities) funds and other bond
money to build or modernize 331 schools throughout the state. Included in the
allocation are more than $201 million in funds for career technical education
(CTE) programs. Click HERE.
Oakland
Project Builds Dance Participation
For the last 15 years, Oakland has been rebuilding its arts programs
through various initiatives to increase access to the arts. The goal
of their new arts education plan is to build an infrastructure in the
district to sustain high quality arts instruction for all of Oakland’s
public school students. Click
HERE.
Harvard
Study Makes the Case for Arts
A concerted effort should be made to put the arts at Harvard University
on par with the study of the humanities and sciences, according to a report
released on December 10 by a University-wide task force that examined the
role the arts play in campus life. The report makes a powerful case for
the role of the arts within a research university. Harvard, as an institution,
values creative thinking and leadership. The arts provide direct experience
of these values, both in how to imagine the new and how to turn fresh ideas
into reality. If Harvard is to continue to be a place where dreams are
born and exciting collaborations push the boundaries of knowledge, it must
do more to include the practice of the arts in the curriculum and embrace
it as an integral part of intellectual life on campus. Click
HERE.
Art's
Power to Teach 21st-Century Skills
A recent report calling for Massachusetts schools to develop 21st-century
skills is cause for both optimism and unease. The promise is that all
children, no matter their ZIP code, will benefit from more expansive
educational goals, including access to the arts. The concern is that
the call to teach and assess more than a narrow set of academic skills
will translate into a longer list of high-stakes hoops for teachers and
students to jump through. Click
HERE.
Economic
Stimulus Should Create Jobs for Teachers, Artists, Service Workers
Randy Shaw proposes that President-elect Obama should make an "investment
in the nation’s 'human needs' infrastructure" alongside his proposed plan
to invest in "brick and mortar" infrastructure projects. "Why
shouldn’t the stimulus package fund arts groups and schools to hire at least
100,000 cultural workers? These workers can paint murals, teach art, dance, music,
and theater, and provide the level of art support that existed in the United
States from the New Deal through the Carter Administration."
Click
HERE.
Time
for Revolution: Arts Education at the Ready
As a tool for learning in the 21st century, arts have a renewed purposefulness
within education, namely as a language for teaching and learning. If
we can have our cake and eat it too, which is what we should aspire to
in educating our children, each child should have access to an education
that integrates the arts as well as a chance to learn a specific arts
discipline.
Click
HERE.
Study
Finds That Creativity Is Important But Neglected
In a recent report, educators and employees agree that creativity is
increasingly important in U.S. workplaces. But the report suggests a
disconnect between what survey respondents say they believe and how they
act. Findings have indicated that most high schools and employers provide
creativity-conducive education and training only on an elective or “as
needed” basis. Click
HERE.
NEA
Arts Now Available
NEA ARTS is the 16-page newsletter of the National Endowment for the Arts,
published five times a year. Each issue includes recent information on the
NEA's national initiatives, sponsored programs, awards and grants. Click
HERE.
National
Arts Advocacy Organizations Submit Policy Brief To Obama Transition Office
Americans for the Arts joined other national arts advocacy organizations
in submitting this policy brief to the Obama Transition Office, and to
former NEA chairman Bill Ivey, who heads the arts and cultural review team
for the Transition. The brief outlines and provides policy recommendations
for six topic areas: National Endowment for the Arts; Cultural Exchange;
Arts Education in School, Work, and Life; National Service and the Arts;
Appoint Senior-Level Administration Official to Coordinate Arts and Cultural
Policy; The Role of the Arts in the Not-for-Profit Community. Download
the policy brief: Click
HERE.
Teaching
Artist Research Project Wants YOU!
The Teaching Artist Research Project, the first national study to examine
the world and work of teaching artists, is currently building lists of
teaching artists for its survey samples in its twelve study sites. If you
are a teaching artist or if you manage a program that hires teaching artists
please register at the study web site. TARP hopes to provide fresh new
ideas for sustaining and supporting the development of teaching artists
and for maximizing their potential to contribute to making high quality
arts education widely available. Click
HERE.
New
Book Release by Sir Ken Robinson
From one of the world’s leading thinkers and speakers on creativity and innovation,
a book about talent, passion, and achievement. The element is the point at which
natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they
feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. It
explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence,
the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to
our own capabilities. The author will conduct a talk and book signing at The
Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on January 28, 7:00 p.m. and at the Los Angeles
Public Library at 8:15am – 9:15am. Click
HERE.
CETA
Announces Its Annual Fall Conference
The California Educational Theatre Association (CETA) and the national Educational
Theatre Association are co-presenting their annual conference, The Power of Leadership:
Shaping the Future of Theatre Education,
in Anaheim September 10-13, 2009. More information, including registration,
will be posted soon at: CETA's
web site. CETA
will also be presenting a panel at the conference based on its award-winning
position paper entitled Evaluating the Present: Envisioning the Future of Theatre
Arts Education in California. CETA was honored to receive the Lin Wright Award
from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) which honors persons
who have established special programs, developed experimental works, made distinctive
educational contributions or provided meritorious service thus furthering theatre
and drama for young people. The paper was authored by CETA leaders Carolyn Elder,
Carol Hovey, Gai Jones and Amanda Swann.
Conferences, Professional Development
CAM
Annual Conference
The California Association of Museums Annual Conference, Building Bridges:
Collaboration / Innovation / Risk, will be held in San Francisco February
25-28, 2009. The conference will feature over 32 educational sessions and
several half and full-day workshops - with presenters from over 50 museums.
To learn more, visit www.calmuseums.org/conferences.
National
Arts Advocacy Day
Bringing together a broad cross section of America's cultural and civic
organizations and hundreds of grassroots advocates to underscore the importance
of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased funding
for the arts. Washington, DC; March 30–31, 2009. Click
HERE for more information.
Resources,
Funding Opportunities
Call
For Submissions: VSA Arts and CVS Caremark All Kids Can… Create!
For the second year, VSA arts and CVS Caremark All Kids Can are encouraging
children to share their creativity by submitting artwork to “All Kids Can…
Create!” a national call for children’s art. The theme for this year’s artwork
is “Celebrating Who I Am,” with all submitted artwork to be featured in an
online gallery on Artsonia’s web site. By submitting artwork, art teachers
are eligible to receive $1,000 for use in their classroom. Click
HERE for more information.
Young
Artists & Writers and Scholastic Art Awards
Ovation TV, the network dedicated to art, culture and creativity, and Time
Warner Cable have partnered with the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena
to fund the re-launch of the Los Angeles Affiliate of the Alliance for
Young Artists & Writers and the Scholastic Art Awards. Click
HERE to learn more.
ArtsEdMail provides all the latest information to connect the Arts Education community in California. Our free e-newsletter is published every two weeks.
We rely on you to support our efforts.
Become an advocate or make a donation today!
Redistribution of this e-mail news bulletin is encouraged.
Copyright. California Alliance for Arts Education.