A Sampling of Useful Websites

After-School Resources

Knowledge Institutes/ Professional Development

Funding

Awards

Opportunities

New Publications

Upcoming Workshops/ Conferences'

Send us your feedback!  Tell us what you think of the ACA Arts Learning newsletter, send us a story or suggest something you'd like to see in the next issue.

This online newsletter from ACA is published periodically and intends to provide you with current, important information from the field of Arts Learning and to support vital, substantive arts learning throughout the State.  Please feel free to send your comments and requests for content information.  We look forward to serving your arts education interests and needs.

Commission bids fond farewell to Arts Learning Director, Alison Marshall
May 7, 2007

After almost nine splendid, action packed years, I will be leaving my position as Arts Learning Director at the Arizona Commission on the Arts in August. I will complete the presentation of the Artist Teacher Institutes and fulfill other important commitments that I have made as Arts Leaning Director before I leave the Commission. Then, in addition to continuing my university teaching and work as a teaching artist, I’ll be pursuing some of my other interests, including performance, choreography, program design, and consulting locally, nationally, and internationally. So there may yet be other opportunities to work with some familiar faces.

I am so appreciative of the opportunities I have had to support and impact the design, delivery, vitality and sustainability of arts learning throughout Arizona. It has been an honor and an engaging challenge for me to enact the Commission’s vision of an Arizona where people broaden, deepen and diversify their engagement with the arts in ways that are satisfying and integral to their lives, focusing especially on the meaningful roles that arts learning plays throughout our lives.

Chiefly, the opportunity that I have appreciated most has been the chance to work with the exemplary ACA staff—and to work with you. My thanks to you all.

Fare forward. My best to you,

Alison Marshall

“Art is nothing if not teaching, for it teaches us, in various ways on various levels, about nature, about ideas, about ourselves, and about itself.”
Robert Grudin, -- “The Grace of Great Things”
 

back to top

back to top

New Arts Education Leaders Institute
In many U.S. schools, art teachers and art programs are struggling to maintain a place in the regular schedule.  The National Endowment for the Arts just launched the Education Leaders Institute to help school leaders and policymakers improve arts education in the states.

Transforming Arts Teaching:  The Role of Higher Education
The recent Dana Foundation forum examined the role of teacher education colleges, conservatories, fine arts colleges, and other higher education institutions in preparing and advancing those who teach the arts to young people, grades preK-12.  The seven forum sessions are now available as webcasts at
www.dana.org

back to top

Focus on Results Grant: 2007-2008
Focus on Results Grants are now available! Middle schools and High Schools in Phoenix are eligible to apply for up to $12,000, the deadline to submit applications is June 29, 2007. The goal of the grant is to support programs and activities that provide constructive activities for teens. The proposals must also address the goals that were established from the Youth Town Hall report. You can view the report online  http://phoenix.gov/EDUCATION/yth2007.pdf  or visit the Focus on Results website at http://phoenix.gov/YOUTH/diverse.html for more information. A Grant Workshop will be held on June 7th from 2:30pm - 4:30pm at the Burton Barr Library Auditorium. Please call 602-495-0314 to RSVP.

back to top

back to top

Tell Us What You Think! Satisfaction Survey.
We are nearing the end of our fiscal year and are actively planning for the next. Please help us as we plan, by clicking on the following link (ACA Survey) to complete a Satisfaction Survey - rating our programs, customer service, grant making process, et cetera. Your participation will help us become a more effective public agency and partner. Specifically, the information you provide will be used as we construct our annual reports to the governor and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as for our own internal performance measures. With 40 questions, this confidential survey should take 10 to 20 minutes to complete, depending on the complexity of your comments. Please complete the survey by July 15, 2007.
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226K5N7C4CY

back to top

Parents, Arts and School
A new book by Michael E. Sikes looks at the pivotal relationship between arts education, parental involvement and school success.  Building Parent Involvement Through the Arts (Corwin Press) show principals and teachers how to create an arts-rich school.  It's a toolkit that explores why and the how of implementing an arts program.
www.corwinpress.com/

City Schools: How Districts and Communities Can Create Smart Education Systems
In City Schools, Robert Rothman and his colleagues at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and Brown University put forward a vision of "smart education systems that link a highly functioning and effective school district with a comprehensive and accessible web of supports for children, youth, and families.
www.harvardeducationpress.org

Arts & Economic Prosperity III
Americans for the Arts announced today the results of the most comprehensive economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry ever conducted in the United States. Entitled Arts & Economic Prosperity III, the report reveals that the nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year, resulting in $29.6 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues. The nation’s nonprofit arts and culture industry has grown steadily since the first analysis by Americans for the Arts in 1992, expanding at a rate greater than inflation. Between the second study conducted in 2000 and 2005, spending by organizations and their audiences grew 24 percent, revealing the nonprofit arts industry as a formidable business and economic driver for communities across the country.
http://www.AmericansForTheArts.org/EconomicImpact 

School with Arts Scores Higher than Non-Arts
Art Works did a comparison study of an elementary school that has integrated arts education and a comparable school without arts education. The one with arts instruction scored about 25% higher.
http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/NEWS01/705220310 

Call for Arts Education Survey
Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have written the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.) requesting a study on access to music and arts education in the American public school system since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. The request calls on the G.A.O. to investigate evidence of the possible link between participation in music and arts education and increased student engagement, positive behavior, high school graduation rates, and academic achievement for all students, including minority and low-income students and students with disabilities. This type of research was advocated for by Americans for the Arts on Arts Advocacy Day 2007, and we will provide policy direction as Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. For more information, please contact Director of Federal Affairs Narric Rome at nrome@artsusa.org
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3873

back to top

Teaching Artist Workshop present by the Arizona Commission on the Arts
July 2nd 10am - 12pm at Phoenix Theatre, presented by Alison Marshall.  To RVSP contact Kim Willey, kwilley@azarts.gov , 602-771-6521.

Arts Education Conference: Pin the Tail on the Assessment
October 8, 2007, Creating Meaning via the Intersection of assessment and the arts. Join with your colleagues and the Arizona Department of Education for a day-long conference focused on arts education and arts assessment in Arizona. This year's conference will focus on assessment and the myriad of ways in which the arts are and can be assessed in the classroom. Who Should Attend: Music, dance, visual arts and theatre teachers, school administrators, parents, teaching artists, arts organizations and others interested in arts education.  Cost $75.  For more information or to register visit
https://www.ade.az.gov/onlineregistration/EventLocationSelection.asp?EventID=1113

back to top

Thank you for subscribing to The Arizona Commission on the Arts, Arts Learning online newsletter. To modify or cancel your subscription, please send an e-mail to artslearningnews@azarts.gov  For more information about The Arizona Commission on the Arts, visit our web site at www.azarts.gov

Arts Learning Staff

Alison Marshall Arts Learning Director amarshall@azarts.gov

Mandy Buscas Arts Learning Programs Director mbuscas@azarts.gov

Kim Willey Arts Learning Associate kwilley@azarts.gov

 

This document is available in alternative formats by contacting the Arts Commission at (602) 771-6501