News from Americans for the Arts

All about Arts Education

The Americans for the Arts website has a plethora of information including this  overview: Americans for the Arts serves, advances, and leads the network of organizations and individuals who cultivate, promote, sustain, and support the arts in America. Founded in 1960, Americans for the Arts is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education. Below is information that was provided in their Weekly News Roundup.

 

• Sign The Petition – Support Arts Education
  Join us in asking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to clarify that the arts are eligible for federal funds. This action will especially help new school administrators, who, in an age of overwhelming education reform, may not know what is possible. With most states now operating under waivers from outdated federal education law, now is a great time for the secretary to set the record straight. Let’s raise our voices in chorus to show that we value a well-rounded education for all students! Read more.
• Stubhub Supports Arts Education
  StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, is partnering with The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation to raise awareness and support for keeping music education alive in schools across the United States. Watch and share this moving film featuring Trombone Shorty, Grouplove, arts teachers and students on the importance of supporting music education. Read more.
• Building Social Harmony, One Woodwind At A Time
  The Massachusetts Cultural Council announced this week that it has launched a new music education initiative for underserved students throughout the state — the first statewide program of its kind in the United States. It blends a forward-thinking attitude toward music and arts education and a focus on multiculturalism and community empowerment that, taken together, can dramatically change students’ lives. Read more.
• Grade Schools Use The Arts To Improve Science Education
  Through an innovative new program developed at UC Irvine, the arts and the sciences – which often occupy opposite ends of the grammar school curriculum – are being integrated to help young students better grasp the basics of Earth, life and physical sciences. Read more.
• STEM Vs. STEAM: Do The Arts Belong?
  A tug of war is currently looming between proponents of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) and advocates for STEAM lessons, which add art to the mix. Whichever side you come down on, here are some ideas for you to mull over. Read more.
• Universal Music Classics Partners With U. Miami’s Frost School Of Music
  Universal Music Classics (a subsidiary of Universal Music Group) and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music have announced plans to forge a business-academic partnership called Universal Music U @ Frost, intended to grow the next generation of artists and audiences for classical music. Read more.
• UNM Professor Advocates STEAM Instead Of STEM
  Anne Taylor, who taught art education at the university, served as dean of the graduate school and taught in the School of Architecture and Planning, thinks that STEM’s science, technology, education and math aren’t enough. She would like to see an “A” for “Arts and Architecture” added to the acronym. Read more.
• National Center for Creative Aging Invites Applications for Technical Assistance Program
  Grants of $5,000 will be awarded to help organizations host and provide onsite technical assistance to a MetLife Foundation Leadership Award winner. The Leadership Award Winner will mentor senior staff and will help train staff, partnering organizations, and community members in developing an arts program. The grant also is intended to support the production of a half-day best practices forum that brings together programs, organizations, and community partners dedicated to the arts, education, health, social work, and aging in the community. Read more.
• These 12 Childhood Art Techniques Can Help Adults Relieve Stress
  Making art doesn’t necessarily sound like a stress reliever. Finding inspiration, keeping concentration, finding your artistic voice — these things demand extreme attention, time and effort. Yet there is something about expressing your creative side that can help put your mind at ease. Read more.
• The Arts Inspire Success
  Arts education develops a passion for music, painting or acting. Students with a passion for one subject tend to do better academically across the board — an excitement about learning spills over into other areas of the curriculum. Even students who do not develop a lifelong interest in the arts benefit from the skills taught through study of the arts — self-discipline, teamwork, creative thinking and problem-solving. Read more.
• Why Music Majors Make Some Of The Best Entrepreneurs
  Learning how to play a musical instrument and becoming a musician is an exercise in developing good listening skills, experimenting, overcoming repeated failure, self-discipline, and successful collaboration. It is simply impossible to become a successful music professional unless one also masters certain theoretical concepts, develops good presentation and improvisational skills and, ultimately, attains that elusive quality of originality that only comes once fear of failure is overtaken by the desire to acquire a new insight, a fresh perspective, and a unique voice. Read more.
• “Art Without A Roof” Supports At-Risk Artists
  Through Educational and Sustainability Initiatives It has often been said that the greatest art is produced by troubled souls. Whether this is true or not, the reality is that many artists do struggle with issues like mental illness, poverty, homelessness and emotional trauma from war experiences. The Art Without a Roof (AWR) brand helps these at-risk artists by offering them the opportunity to obtain a scholarship that can be used on basic needs, tutoring, GED completion, and/or a college scholarship. Read more.