The Lewis Prize

For music

community – collaboration – leadership

Are you an organization that empowers youth through music in after-school and out-of-school settings? Then this opportunity is for you!

The Lewis Prize for Music is now accepting 2022 Accelerator Awards applications. Accelerator Awards are open to Creative Youth Development (CYD) music organizations seeking to influence youth-serving systems so all young people have access to learning, creating, and performing experiences that reflect their culture and identity. 

Applications are open from May 18-July 16, 2021 at 5pm PST.

Connect with UsWe will be hosting informational sessions to help cover any questions you may have about this process.

• May 27 at 9:30am PT/12:30pm ET, join us for an interactive informational webinar about the application process. Sign up for Webinar #1 Here. 
• June 10 at 1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET featuring a conversation about key language and intentions in the Application. Sign Up for Webinar #2 Here.
• June 24 at 1:30pm PT/4:30pm ET featuring 2021 Accelerator Awardee DeLashea Strawder of the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit describing the experience of going through the entire Lewis Prize application process. Sign Up for Webinar #3 Here.

CLEAR HERE TO LEARN MORE

Relief Funding for Music

Information from NAfME

The National Association for Music Education website includes on their blog a post about the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding. Read the entire post at THIS LINK. Excerpts below.

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding is currently on its way to school districts across the United States. This funding, passed by Congress in December as part of a COVID-19 relief bill, amounts to approximately $54.3 billion of support for K-12 schools.

How can COVID relief funding support music education? 

The law identifies 12 types of spending as allowable uses of ESSER funds, the first of which is “any activity authorized by the ESEA of 1965” and other federal education laws. This means that if funding an activity is authorized under any well-rounded education programs, such as the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant authorized under Title IV-A of ESSA, that purchase would be allowable with ESSER funds as well. Other federal laws for which ESSER funds can be used include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act, and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. 

How to Access Education Relief Funds to Support Music Education

On Tuesday, April 20 at 3 p.m. a webinar will be provided for you to learn more. Called How to Access Education Relief Funds to Support Music Education. The American Rescue Plan Act includes $126 billion for K-12 education. These funds can help support music education programs which may need additional assistance due to the pandemic and education budget shortfalls. In addition, the funds can also help more students participate in music and arts education. Join NAMM, the NFHS, and NAfME in this interactive webinar to learn about how much stimulus funding your state is getting, hear from those who have successfully used prior stimulus dollars to support students and music programs, and identify the people in your district who can help you make the case and access funds to support and sustain music and arts education. To attend please REGISTER HERE!

American Rescue Plan

Afterschool Arts Education can Benefit from American Rescue Plan

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Congress passed in March, a fantastic opportunity is available for cultural non-profits and teaching artists to partner with schools to provide after-school or summer camp enrichment programs for students.  This latest round of COVID relief for education, ESSER III (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) calls for 20% of funds to go towards learning.  This is new.  In ESSER I and II, funds mostly covered direct prevention measures such as sanitation, air quality upgrades, facility/ space restructuring, and technology.  Also, ESSER III offers at least twice as much funding as before.  For Maine, this means over $82 million, 20% of our State’s allocation, needs to address “learning-loss.”

Dance education program Central School, South Berwick

We know that students have suffered in many ways from the COVID disruption to their learning, and the loss of opportunities for creative self-expression may be amongst the hardest.   In-person singing or making music, collaborating on art pieces, performing dance, theater or spoken word — together – has been non-existent or greatly altered this year, despite teachers’ best efforts.

Studies show that the arts inherently provide social and emotional learning, so critical at this time.

Now is the time to reach out to your local schools.  They are crafting programs themselves, arranging to bring subcontractors in, or a combination and welcome partnering to address students’ learning needs. 

The Maine Department of Education is also providing a webinar on the subject on Tuesday, April 20^th at 2 pm.  To learn more about this event and to register, click here.   More information can also be found here from EdNotes or here from the Afterschool Alliance.  Readers are also invited to contact Martha Piscuskas, Director of Arts Education at the Maine Arts Commission to discuss further: martha.piscuskas@maine.gov

American Rescue Plan

The Art of Ed webinar

Interested in applying for the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding available? If so, The Art of Ed University is providing a free webinar facilitated by Anneliese Pixton, MEd. She will review ARP and its benefits specific to art education.

Wednesday, April 14, 11:00

With the American Rescue Plan (ARP) comes unprecedented federal funding for education that will help reopen schools and address the learning loss and social-emotional needs of students impacted by COVID-19.

REGISTER and receive the link to the webinar recording. If you’re not sure about this opportunity CLICK HERE for the article called What Art Teachers Need to Know About the American Rescue Plan.

Teaching Artists Residencies During Covid

Possible and yes, happening!

In December 2020 Martha Piscuskas, director of Arts Education at the Maine Arts Commission (MAC), moderated a discussion with teaching artists and a middle schooler called School Arts Residencies During COVID? Yes We Can! Included in the discussion were teaching artists: Bridget Matros, Alicia Phelps, Tim Christensen, and Dana Lagawiec with student Theo Forcier, Mt. Ararat Middle School. They discussed keys to success for remote school artist residencies and what they’re doing during the pandemic to further connections and learning opportunities for Maine learners.

The webinar was recorded and archived on YouTube and can be viewed below. The video opens with Martha sharing a land acknowledgment. Bridget Matros (starts at 4:30) is the Kids & Family Outreach Manager at Waterfall Arts and she is in the middle of a residency in Brunswick provided by the well established Arts Are Elementary program. She shares the set up in how she is teaching multiple learners in more than one space at one time. Alicia Phelps (starts at 12:00) teaches piano and voice and is Director of Community Partnerships and Special Programs at the community music center in Yarmouth, 317 Main. She is a recipient of a MAC grant. Tim is a ceramic artist (starts at 22:00) and became a Teaching Artist Leader with MAC’s Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) in Phase 6, 2016-17. Dana (starts at 31:15) does creative theater and became a Teaching Artist Leader with MALI Phase 7, 2017-18. The session finishes with circus artist MALI Phase 6, 2016-17 MALI Teaching Artist Brigid Rankowski monitoring questions. During the summer of 2020 MALI transformed into Maine Arts Education Partners in Leadership (MAEPL). Tim, Dana, Bridget, and Brigid are on the Maine Arts Commission Teaching Artist Roster.

RESOURCES FROM THE WEBINAR

• Handout: Tips for Remote Residencies compiled by Bridget Matros, attached and here.
• Land Acknowledgement: USDAC, the United States Department of Arts and Culture (no connection to the US government), has a great guide  https://usdac.us/nativeland.
• 317 Main Soundcloud –https://soundcloud.com/user-83776051-760585697.
• Wizard of Oz Promo for the remote school play at Bowdoinham Community School:  https://youtu.be/fTGEpcjY1c8.
• Tim Christensen website https://www.timchristensenporcelain.com/
•  Arts Are Elementary website https://www.artsareelementary.org/
• Compiled Resource List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oh9o22SOECy-1Y1PV2XHU_McFK_6rcD2h_GSeIHrpI4/edit#gid=0

MAC has the following education specific grants available with a deadline of April 1, 2021. Learn more by clicking on the grant title. Arts Learning, Creative Aging, Dance Education. If you have any questions please contact Martha at Martha.Piscuskas@maine.gov.

School Emergency Relief Fund

Applications being accepted by schools

This blog post provides information on obtaining federal funding that has come Maine’s way. These funds are earmarked as “relief funds” to help support educational programs because of the pandemic. The Maine Arts Commission encourages you to make a list of materials, supplies, instruments, tools, software and whatever else you have needed or still need during the pandemic. We all know that your programs have been impacted greatly. Please make a list and an appointment to see your administrator so your needs can go into the school/district application.

From the Maine Department of Education

We are pleased to share an exciting update with our partners in education regarding the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER II) funds. Maine has received $183,138,601 for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER II) through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act. The ESSER II application is now available in Maine’s Consolidated Federal Grant portal. Completed applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning Tuesday, February 2, 2021.  

The current ESSER FAQs from the U.S. Department of Education are available here and here. As a reminder, CRRSA also provides support for non-public schools through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER II) funds.

Earlier this week the U.S. Department of released the Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools (EANS) webpage available here. Maine has been allocated $12,751,099 for eligible non-public schools based on the State’s relative number of children aged 5 through 17 at or below 185 percent of poverty who are enrolled in non-public schools. More information regarding the EANS application is forthcoming. 

Please contact Karen Kusiak at Karen.Kusiak@maine.gov with any questions.  

Maine Arts Commission Funding

Deadlines for grant applications

The Maine Arts Commission has a variety of funding opportunities for educators and artists. Below are the dates that you may be interested in so please check out the information at THIS LINK to see all the grant descriptions or click on one of the grant titles below. You will need to establish an account if you don’t already have one in order to view the application and detailed information. The required match for all grants in the FY22 grant cycle is waived.

DEADLINES

• February 18 – Relief grant for Organizations and Artists
• April 1 – Arts Learning, Creative Aging, Dance Education, Organization Project, Arts & Humanities grants
• April 8 – NEW Grant for New Artist Applicants: Springboard Grant

DEADLINE December 1

UMaine Scholarship

A message from Phil Edelman. If you have questions please email him at Philip.Edelman@maine.edu.

At UMaine, we currently have a few Visual and Performing Arts scholarships that we can still award for students entering next year. The only requirement for these awardees is that they perform in a large ensemble each semester (they do not need to be a music major).

We do have a hard deadline of December 1 for these scholarships. With that in mind, you can imagine the demand is high. We used to be able to award an unlimited amount of these $12,000 scholarships ($1,500.00 per semester for four years), but we can currently only award 20 of them. I am not 100% sure how many we have left at this point.

If your student is interested in UMaine and performing with our large ensembles (regardless of major), please let me know! If there is anything that our faculty can do to help you as we all navigate this pandemic together, consider us “on call!” My cell is 207-745-0125. Please reach out anytime. 

Resources Supporting Arts Education

Amazing work

I know how time consuming it can be for teachers to collect resources so I’ve put together another list to help support your work – this one compiled over the last several weeks. Hopefully you’ll find the information informative!

1. Neuroscience and Music written by Cassandra Sheppard – At a time when singing in school is marginalized this article/research reminds us that we need to sing!
2. ArtsEdSearch A hub for research on the impact of arts in education where you’ll find academic studies and resources
3. pink portfolio exercises As in Daniel Pink who I heard speak about the importance of the creative thinking people.
4. Onion Foundation Funding source for Maine education
5. STE(A)Mrolled Blog post from Americans for the Arts. Writer Daryl Ward is the principal of the Harrison School for the Arts in Florida. 
6. Teaching Arts Education Advocates Blog post for Americans for the Arts. Written by Jennifer Katona, Director and Founder of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York (CCNY), oversees the certification of pre and in-service Theatre teachers and training of non-certified theatre educators.
7. The Teaching Channel has outstanding resources. Here’s one: Post Modern Art: Everything Is Information 
8. Collective Impact in the Arts – Createquity. One persons information on the possibility of developing a collective impact model for the arts. Written by Ian David Moss a few years ago but information is still relevant for those interested in this work. 
9. Deeper Learning: Why Cross-Curricular Teaching is Essential written by Ben Johnson for Edutopia. More difficult but so many benefits that outweigh not doing this type of teaching.
10. Unlocking Passion in Education written by Tom Segal for Education Week. Another older article but good information. 

COVID-19: Accessing Federal Relief

NEFA info

On March 27, 2020, the $2 trillion CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) was passed by Congress. We want to encourage artists, cultural organizations, and creative businesses to access these benefits during this challenging time. Individuals: As the unemployment rate increases, state unemployment offices may be overwhelmed; find your state’s unemployment office website and start the process early. Organizations: Support may be accessed through the SBA’s Disaster Loan Assistance and the Treasury Department’s Paycheck Protection Program. Visit NEFA’s COVID-19 page for more information and related links.

LEARN MORE

The CARES package includes $300 million in economic relief to support nonprofit cultural organizations like museums, libraries, public broadcasting, and state and local arts and humanities agencies, as well as for nonprofit organizations and small businesses. It also includes $260 billion in enhanced and expanded unemployment insurance (UI) to thousands of creative workers throughout the country who are being furloughed, laid off, or finding themselves without work through no fault of their own. Most of the COVID-19 economic relief funding will be distributed through state UI programs.