The Ross Sisters

Solid Potato Salad

A real treat – amazing dancing and singing from a different era.

Under the Full Moon

Bellini Opera Aria-amazing

Maestro by Illogic Studios and Bloom Pictures is a lush, short film about beautifully animated woodland creatures putting aside creature differences, to perform together a gorgeous, revolutionary operatic aria under a full moon.

Beautifully Animated Woodland Creatures Perform a Gorgeous Bellini Opera Aria Under a Full Moon

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

NH Arts Ed Conference

Culturally Responsive Leadership

Martha Piscuskas

Recently Martha Piscuskas, Interim Director of Arts Education at the Maine Arts Commission attuned the New Hampshire Arts Education conference. The theme was Culturally Responsive Leadership. There were great discussions and learnings on how to create more inclusive  creative spaces, for educators and the young artists we mentor.

Martha returned with several resources to share – some listed below with Martha’s comments included. Martha suggests that you take a look and consider how to use them in your classroom and/or with policy makers.

• The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement Great cogent argument for focusing on the wholistic approach rather than defining our students by what’s happened to them.
• RACE – The Power of an Illusion: Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race Yup, it’s a cultural construct, and if we want to work towards inclusiveness these points are a fast-track to looking deeper.
• Anti-bias terminology A good up-to-date primer on how folks are defining themselves, and what they mean.  Bottom line, if you’re not sure – listen to how people define themselves and go from there.  You could even respectfully ask!
• On a plate, a comic about privilege  In a nutshell, this is a clear visual depiction of how privilege, specifically class-based, works over time.
• White Privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack  This is an expanded update on a classic handout, an excellent resource for digging deeper into our own assumptions, with notes for facilitators.
• It’s about Money, Not Education Here’s a statistical analysis of what that comic about class privilege says in pictures.

If you have any questions please contact Martha at martha.piscuskas@maine.gov.

Support for the Arts

Bumper sticker of the season

A few days ago I pulled into the parking lot of Hannafords in Topsham. I happened to park next to a car with the bumper sticker you see in the photo below. I’ve seen the car before and wondered who it belonged to. I was in luck, when I came out of the store there was the owner of the car putting her groceries into the back. Turns out it was Amy Crosby who is an art teacher in Brunswick at the elementary level. Thanks Amy for promoting the arts!

This seems like a good opportunity with Thanksgiving a day away to say THANK YOU to visual and performing arts teachers and let you know how grateful I am for the work you do impacting young people in eduction and beyond!

Do You Think Kids Are Stupid?

Abhijit Sinha

Founder and CEO of Project DEFY, Abhijit Sinha, has created the Nook Self-Learning model in a small village near Bangalore and leads Project DEFY.  He and a team have enabled many communities to develop and run their own Nooks. Abhijit believes that high-quality​ education should be accessible in every ‘Nook’ & corner of the country. He is a proponent of the Makerspace concept where each individual is responsible for his or her own education. In this TED talk, Abhijit focuses on how Project Defy which came into existence and has been successfully running without school teachers albeit with internet connection & local volunteers.

What started as an experiment at the age of 22, has now become a functional format of scalable self-learning that is taking shape in the grassroots of the world. He is attempting to de-colonize mindsets by deconstructing education and bringing the control of learning and life back into the hands of the people. He is a habitual optimist and a forever-learner, who has a lot to say, but usually prefers keeping his head down and working. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Choir Choir Choir

David Byrne

Choir! Choir! Choir! is a Canadian musical organization. Instead of a traditional model, the choir is structured so that basically anybody who wants to attend an event is welcome to perform. They are known for their tributes to musical legends like Leonard Cohen and Chris Cornell, which are usually performed by choirs upwards of 200 people.

David Byrne was curious about the organization and the performances. He performed David Bowie’s Heroes as part of the Under the Radar Festival in New York with a background of singers who were strangers. His response: “One becomes a part of something larger than oneself, and something in our makeup rewards us when that happens. We cling to our individuality, but we experience true ecstasy when we give it up. So, the reward experience is part of the show.”

Renaissance Paintings

Auto Mechanics 

Photographer Freddy Fabris had always wanted to pay homage to the Renaissance masters with his photos in some way, but he wasn’t sure how until he stumbled upon an auto–mechanic shop in the Midwest. This led to a brilliant series of funny portraits with auto mechanics. You’ll definitely want to share THESE IMAGES with your students.

Encore/Coda

Horn opportunity for students

Camp Encore/Coda is offering summer programming for horn players, ages 9 – 17 in beautiful Sweden, Maine. Click on the information below and learn more at the Camp Encore/Coda website. Early bird discounts until December 1.

National Ceramic Exhibition

Calling all teachers who teach ceramics

The 23^nd Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition

Opens on March 25, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia 

We Welcome Your Entries starting November 28, 2019

Please use our website to enter your students at www.k12clay.org.

Our system is based upon, and devoted to, our teachers, who submit student entries on line and are advised of all details via email.  If you teach the ceramic arts and have students you would like to enter, join us so your students can be part of this wonderful showcase experience.

Last year we awarded more than $500,000 in Scholarships, plus hundreds of Awards and Prizes to both students and teachers.

The entry period will close at midnight on January 6, 2020

Teachers are able to see their progress after carefully logging in to register and then following the prompts.  For entering your students work, log into www.k12clay.org.  If you have any problems entering the work of your students, please let us know so we can help you. You can Also contact Russell Kahn at : russell.kahn@fivetowns.net

We are again sending this reminder to all teachers on all of our contact lists. We thank you for your past interest, registering your name, and hope to see you enjoying the benefits of association with us.  If you know other ceramics teachers, organizations, or schools that have not yet registered with us, please pass this opportunity on to them and urge them to respond positively. 

Work submitted will be gathered in preparation for judging by our internationally recognized independent juror who will make the final selection decisions for the exhibition.

This year our juror is Professor Keith Williams of Concordia University. Juror details and more info: www.k12clay.org

From the Board of Trustees of  The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation, Inc.