Young Audience Arts for Learning

April 9–April 22, 2017

Washington DC; USA: The Capitol Building, legislative branch of the US government
Photo copyright Lee Foster Photo # 3-washdc83009

Young Audiences Arts for Learning will Host more than 150 Events and Programs across the US in Celebration of National Young Audiences Arts for Learning Week, April 9–April 22, 2017

New York, NY – February 14, 2017 – Young Audiences Arts for Learning (YA) is proud to announce the National Young Audiences Arts for Learning Week (YA Week), an annual advocacy and awareness campaign. The Young Audiences Arts for Learning network celebrates National YA Week to raise national and local awareness about arts-in-education initiatives in school and community venues through public programming, special events, and long-term residencies. It will be observed around the country by the entire network of 30 Young Audiences affiliates in 22 states. More information about upcoming affiliate YA Week events will be available at http://www.youngaudiences.org.

The YA network is the largest and oldest arts-in-education network in the country reaching more than 5 million students each year. A core value of Young Audiences is to provide access to high quality arts-in-education programming to young people regardless of their zip code.

“The YA network is in a strategic position to advocate for all students by publicly advancing the value of using the arts to enhance academic achievement. YA Week focuses on showcasing and highlighting this deep and demonstrable impact of the arts on education,” states David A. Dik, YA’s National Executive Director.

Established in 1952, Young Audiences’ mission is to inspire young people and expand their learning through the arts. The YA national organization also addresses policy makers directly to emphasize the importance of arts integrated residency programs. In Washington D.C., Young Audiences’ STEM-to-STEAM advocacy campaign continues to gain momentum along with the bipartisan efforts such as the Congressional STEAM Caucus. Each YA affiliate will be releasing information about their events and festivities in the upcoming months. Please see the list below of the participating affiliates.

The Young Audiences Arts for Learning Network:

Alliance for the Arts, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Arkansas Learning through the Arts
Arts Council of Kern/Arts for Learning, Bakersfield, California
Arts for Learning Connecticut
Arts for Learning Indiana
Arts for Learning Miami, Florida
Arts for Learning San Diego, California
Arts Partners, Wichita, Kansas
Big Thought, Dallas, Texas
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, Chicago, Illinois
Center for Arts-Inspired Learning, Cleveland, Ohio
Kansas City Young Audiences, Missouri
Springboard, St. Louis, Missouri
Think 360 Arts for Learning, Denver, Colorado
Young Audiences Arts for Learning Maryland
Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania
Young Audiences New York
Young Audiences of Abilene, Texas
Young Audiences of Houston
Young Audiences of Louisiana
Young Audiences of Massachusetts
Young Audiences of Northeast Texas
Young Audiences of Northern California
Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington
Young Audiences of Rochester, New York
Young Audiences of Santa Cruz County, Arizona
Young Audiences of Southeast Texas
Young Audiences of Southwest Florida
Young Audiences of Virginia
Young Audiences of Western New York

CONTACT:
Young Audiences Arts for Learning
Jarred Hoyt
T: 212-860-1563 X107, E: jarred@ya.org

Monhegan Residencies

Open to Maine Artists and Teachers – Deadline March 17

2016 resident and art teacher Krisanne Baker night painting on Monhegan.

MONHEGAN—The Monhegan Artists’ Residency is pleased to announce its 2017 residency programs. Residencies are available to Maine-based visual artists during the weeks of May 27 to June 30, and September 2 to October 7. To accommodate the summer schedule of Maine K-12 teachers, there is also a two-week residency from July 2 to 14 open exclusively to art teachers. Applications are now being accepted online at www.monheganartistsresidency.org through March 17.

Krisanne Baker, art teacher at Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, was the 2016 Monhegan Art Teacher Resident. The body of paintings she produced during her two weeks on the island depict land, ocean and expansive skies at night that include planets and constellations.  She often worked outdoors at night wearing small LED lights, with her color palette laid out in consistent, planned manner so as to know what to reach for in partial darkness.

Krisanne Baker Little Spruce Sentinel at Lobster Cove, 2016, Oil on panel, 24 x 24 inches

In addition to making a body of paintings during her two-week residency, she also did some underwater filming for her next water art activism short.  This continues her way of combining many of her interests through her art practice, her teaching and her environmental work focusing on protecting water sources and water quality.  She is involved with the Medomak Valley Land Trust and engages her high school art students in environmental work. Krisanne is currently showing her work at Husson University in an exhibition titled ‘Water is Life’: Art & Science on behalf of our oceans (January 20 – March 31, 2017). See more about Krisanne at http://www.krisannebaker.com/paintings_drawings__printmaking

Krisanne Baker working on the deck of her Monhegany residency studio, 2016

Not just for landscape painters, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency is open to artists working in new media, photography, sculpture, drawing, painting, and multi-media. This year’s jurors include Chris Stiegler, curator, art historian, and chair of the MFA in Studio Art at the Maine College of Art, Portland; Hilary Irons, artist, and co-founder/curator of Able Baker Contemporary, Portland; and Kelly Finlay, a Monhegan Artists’ Residency board member and museum educator at the Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland.

Founded in 1989, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency program is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by donors, art galleries, corporate sponsors, and foundation grants.     

Photos taken by Bradley Beukema.  

In Today’s News

NCCAS Releases Update on State Arts Standards Adoption

February 16, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) has released a report entitled “The Status of Arts Standards Revisions in the United States since 2014.” The report is the result of an analysis of states who have revised their standards since the publication of the National Core Arts Standards in June 2014.

The National Core Arts Standards for dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts, were created in a transparent inclusive process engaging over 130 arts educators as writers and 6,000 reviewers. These PreK-12 grade-by-grade standards were written to guide educators seeking to provide quality arts education for America’s students, define artistic literacy, and support 21st century skills and college and career readiness.

Commencing in January 2015, NCCAS member organization Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education, began conducting the research culminating in this report. With the assistance of other NCCAS member organizations, Americans for the Arts interviewed and collected information from more than 270 individuals and organizations from across the nation, including state department of education arts curriculum directors, state arts agencies, and several other public sector partners with expertise in state arts standards revisions.

Jane Best, executive director of the Arts Education Partnership said of the report, “It is affirming to see so many states reviewing, revisiting, and renewing arts education standards. This is a meaningful step to ensuring that all children have exposure to the arts as part of a well-rounded education.”

The report may be downloaded from the resources section of the National Coalition for Core Arts standards interactive home at http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/resources.

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards is an alliance of national arts and arts education organizations dedicated to ensuring quality standards-based arts opportunities for all students. Members include the American Alliance for Theatre in Education; Americans for the Arts; Educational Theatre Association; National Art Education Association; National Association for Music Education; National Dance Education Association; NCCAS Media Arts Committee; and Young Audiences Arts for Learning.

Contact: Cory Wilkerson
Tel: 800-587-6814
Email: projectmanager@seadae.org

So Long Dahlov!

Maine treasure

“I find it hard to explain my art, but then it doesn’t really need explanation. It may seem mysterious or challenging, but all you need to do is to open your heart to the joy and excitement of a new visual experience, to accept a new vision of a world full of the unusual, a world of the creative imagination.”
~ Dahlov Ipcar

Nov 12, 1917 – Feb 10, 2017 painter, illustrator, author

Maine has lost a treasure! For me, Dahlov epitomized the meaning of, “Love what you do, do what you love” creating every day, even painting on the morning she passed away at age 99. I was fortunate to meet Dahlov Ipcar at a Maine Art Education Association spring conference many years ago. I believe it was held at USM Gorham. Anyone remember attending that conference? Dahlov provided the key note and she was brilliant. I remember feeling like we were having a regular personal conversation, exchanging ideas, and discussing life.

From the Portland Press Herald…
In an interview with the Portland Press Herald last fall, Ipcar said she was prepared to die at age 80, but after that milestone she decided she wanted to see the year 2000. Since then, it was “lots of rich cream and milk and butter and eggs and red meat.”
Ipcar had a sharp wit, and was fond of telling people who asked about her age, “I hope I die before I run out of vermilion.”

Take a look at this video that was made when she was 97 years old.

https://vimeo.com/85082665

Arts Ed Partnership

Symposium in D.C.

The Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a center within Education Commission of the States, is hosting the 2017 AEP State Policy Symposium on Saturday, March 18, 2017, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Continuing the momentum for implementation of the 2020 Action Agenda for Advancing the Arts in Education, this annual event is an opportunity for national and state-level leaders to roll-up their sleeves and focus on the implications of pressing federal and state education issues for the arts in education.

The Arts Education Partnership, along with Americans for the Arts and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, will welcome more than 100 national and state leaders from the arts, business, cultural, education, philanthropic and public sectors for a daylong conversation about the intersection between the arts and education policy. In addition to learning from engaging keynote and plenary presentations on the education landscape, participants will gain insights from experts through in-depth workshops on tools and strategies for expanding access to and participation in the arts in their own states.

AFTA Conference

San Francisco

As we start 2017, the arts—and your day-to-day work— remain as vital as ever. Whether it’s young students learning problem solving skills during their daily art class, communities brought together by locally-produced projects or veterans finding solace in art therapy, you understand how critical the arts are to our nation.

On June 16 – 18, arts professionals, community leaders, artists, and students are all invited to the 2017 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention to support creativity and discuss the future of art in our country. Join more than 1,000 of your colleagues in San Francisco and explore ways to encourage greater equity, access and activism in the arts!

Your 2017 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention will feature:
100+ speakers at 35+ sessions
3 keynotes
2 preconferences
10 ARTventure Tours across the Bay Area

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Register today to save up to $150 with our special Early-Bird registration rate—the deepest discount we have for Annual Convention! Early-Bird registration ends Wednesday, April 12, 2017 and is available online, by fax, or by mail.

REGISTER NOW BY CLICKING HERE.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Recycled hearts

I know that some of you follow Cassie Stephens blog at https://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/. Cassie teaches elementary visual arts in Nashville, Tennessee. She is known for her artsy outfits that she is constantly designing. She definitely stands out in a crowd. Recently, Cassie did a lesson with first graders recycling hearts. You can learn all about it and see more photos of the project by CLICKING HERE.

Mega Message from Suzanne

Teaching as a Craft

Skills, collaboration, support, and innovation –

Quality professional development for educators is characterized by the above areas demonstrating the understanding of introducing, reinforcing and supporting deeper understanding of knowledge and skills. Our profession is a craft.

Mega-Regional Professional Development opportunities with the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative, in support with your Maine Arts Leadership Associations, are exponential in value for learning about best practices or expanding your skills to bring back to your school, colleagues, and classroom/studio/stage/rehearsal room.

This is educator to educator professional development – what you need, and when you need it.

Suzanne Goulet

Yes, the next one is during a weekday – for some an in-service day. Yes, this sometimes means that you will be away from your students artists/performers for one day. And YES, you will be glad you did.  This is the catcher/pitcher conference on the mound – a time to come together, share, and grow. I always leave with gems that impact my students, my practice, my craft, immediately

Please join us, and consider asking someone to join you – for our profession, for your craft.

Looking forward to meeting you at the next Mega-Regional.

• Friday, March 17, 2017 Hebron Station School, Hebron, Information and Registration at http://mainearts.maine.gov/Pages/Education/MALI-Mega-Regionals-Hebron-2017#Hebron

Thank you to Suzanne Goulet, MALI teacher leader and visual art teacher at Waterville Senior High School and Maine Art Education Association Teacher of the Year, for writing this blog post!

Dance Moving

Watching dance move forward

During the last three days the blog posts have been about the dance education residency that happened during December 2016 in MSAD #33.  The “Hopes for the Future” funding came about thanks to the Thornton Academy dance program and seven dance programs in southern Maine. Almost $3,000 was awarded to MSAD #33 in Aroostook county where students in K-12 benefited from the expertise of a teaching dance artist. This year over $3,500 was raised by this same group of programs at a performance at Thornton Academy.

Next month another school will be having a performance and contributing the funds to the “Hopes for the Future” to provide dance education grants to other schools/districts. The Maine Arts Commission (MAC)will administer this grant. Please watch for the information on this blog and the weekly MAC arts ed list-serv.

Photo from the NEFA site. Click on the tag line below for the information.

The information below is from the New England Foundation for the Arts and is about how dance is moving forward.

In November 2016, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) released a report by Metris Arts Consulting, entitled Moving Dance Forward: NEFA’s National Dance Project at 20 & Critical Field Trends. The report is located at http://www.nefa.org/moving-dance-forward.

The report is a comprehensive evaluation of the National Dance Project, incorporating new research about current needs of the dance field on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the program.

Major findings and trends of significance to the field include:

• NDP’s intertwined support for creation and touring has provided robust and sustained support in an environment of increasing resource scarcity and rising costs; investing in artists to make work is regarded as the highest priority for the program.
• Dance presenters credit NDP support with improving their reputation locally, their knowledge of dance, and enabling them to take risks by introducing new artists to their audiences.
• Data reveals NDP has consistently supported artists of color, but focus group findings speak to continued systemic inequities that exclude some artists and ways NEFA and other grantmakers can further equitable and inclusive grant-making.
• Artists tour to an average of six communities for each five-year period of NDP’s grantmaking from 1996-2016, revealing that tour subsidies are a high-impact bulwark to a field-wide decline in touring opportunities over the past two decades.
• Touring is no longer motivated by economic considerations; instead, artists are primarily motivated to tour to connect with new audiences, and organizations cite mission-based commitments and dance’s ability to connect audiences to diverse cultures and ideas.
• Artists and organizations value community engagement as an important component of touring and foresee deepening this practice over the next five to ten years.

The full report may be found online at www.nefa.org/moving-dance-forward.

Dance Grant Series 3

Dance education funding – “Hopes for the Future”

This is the third of three blog posts included, February 9 – 11, describing the dance education residency that took place in December 2016 from a special grant called the “Hopes for the Future” funding. Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) Teacher Leader and dance educator from Thornton Academy Emma Campbell collaborated and planted a seed and it grew into a dance education opportunity for Maine students. Thank you to John Morris, teaching artist and dancer for contributing this post. He describes the work that he did in MSAD #33 with the grant funding. Please note: funding will be available again during 2017. Please watch the blog and the Maine Arts Commission arts education list-serv for information.

A Teaching Artist’s Perspective

John Morris

Thanks to a dance grant created by the Thornton Academy Dance Program and the Maine Arts Commission, in December of 2016 I conducted a week-long arts residency for MSAD #33, in Northern Aroostook County. My approach in working with students in dance is creative, student-centered and standards-based. I give students foundational movement tools to invent and explore their own movement, and I guide them through the process of making their own dances.

In collaboration with visual arts teacher Theresa Cerceo, I worked with a group of middle and high school students, and with S.L.A.M.!, the high school arts advocacy group directed by Ms. Cerceo, to create dances based on a theme of identity and community. The dances were shared during an end of week holiday performance put on at Wisdom Middle/High School.

During the week, I also worked with music classes at the elementary school in the district. Along with music teacher Charles Michaud, we explored connections between the elements of music and dance. In addition, I worked with Ms. Cerceo’s visual arts classes to explore the same theme of identity and community.

It was a full week working with every grade level, from Pre-K through grade six, to explore their class content in movement. The students created dances based on poems and visual art works they had made individually and as a group in the weeks before the residency. Their dances incorporated the elements of dance movement, including use of different shapes, change of speeds, and variation of high, middle and low levels. We worked together to structure their dances with clear beginnings, middles and endings. We also addressed the crucial life skills of collaborating with others, building confidence, and evaluating work – all in one class session.

I encountered students in the elementary school at every age and developmental level who were eager to move, explore, and make connections to other content areas, including music, visual art and language arts. They were curious, inventive, and open to exploring the arts in a structured way to express their thoughts and feelings.

The middle and high school students, having more time together, were able to more deeply explore the dynamics of working collaboratively, the process of making artistic choices, and polishing artistic work for performance.

The week went by in a blur, and before I knew it, the performance (a full house!) was over, and I was making the long drive toward southern Maine. I felt both satisfied and inspired by the students’ work. What made this residency so successful? Three factors, which I believe are important for the success of any arts residency in the schools, stood out.

Planning and prep work in collaboration with the teacher

Ms. Cerceo and I were in contact long before the residency began, brainstorming ideas together using a shared Google Doc that allowed us to work around our busy schedules. We arrived at a theme (identity and community) that would be timely for her students to explore in visual art and writing, and that I could work with easily in dance.

As the residency drew closer, we continued to share documents, trade emails, and supplement with a few timely online conference calls. Ms. Cerceo articulated her plan for exploring the theme with her students before my arrival. I shared an outline of how I would approach the theme in movement based on her work and the student samples she posted online. This step was critical, helping me to be ready with a flexible plan for each class, and know what to expect when I walked into each classroom.

Full support of the school administration

Ms. Cerceo maintained regular contact with her administrators about our plans. As a visiting teaching artist, it was both reassuring and freeing for me to know that I had their support. I felt free to fully engage with the students in the creative process of dance-making.

The administrators introduced themselves and welcomed me to their schools. The superintendent of schools in the district sat down with me early one morning before classes began to talk about the residency. The teachers I met expressed their support for the project, and turned out in force for the performance on Friday night.

 

Classroom culture

I could tell that the students were used to focusing on the process of structured creative exploration in their classes. Also, because their teachers had prepared them for my visit, they were excited and positive about our working together. One fourth grade student even sent me a video in advance, inviting me to create a dance with her!

This expectant, growth-oriented mindset set the tone for our time together, and was supported by the collaborative planning Ms. Cerceo and I did beforehand. The connections she and I found between our ways of working helped her to guide the students with confidence that my work with them would integrate with their classwork, and deepen their connections to the arts.

Thank you John Morris for providing this blog post and the work that you did before and during the dance education residency in MSAD #33. I am sure that the learning that you provided will be felt for the lifetime of those involved.