Dr. Jane Chu Confirmed as Chair of "the other" NEA

WASHINGTON - Today the U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Jane Chu as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Chu is currently the president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo. She fills a chair position left vacant at the NEA since Rocco Landesman stepped down in 2012.

“Today’s confirmation of Dr. Jane Chu is great news for not only the National Endowment for the Arts, but also for the arts in our country,” said Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Dr. Chu brings an insightful combination of expertise to the position—experience in arts education, business administration, and philanthropy. She also understands the value of art at the community level and how the arts are transformative to individuals as well as places.”

Before joining the Kauffman Center in 2006, Chu served as fund executive at the Kauffman Fund for Kansas City, vice president of external relations for the Union Station Kansas City, and vice president of community investment for the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. She holds degrees in visual arts, piano performance and piano pedagogy, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in philanthropic studies. Nonprofit Connect in Kansas City recently named her their Nonprofit Professional of the Year.

92 Schools Lose Art Positions; 54 Schools Cut Music Postions; 58 Cute PE and 40 Fire Librarians

By John Byrne
Clout Street
3:04 p.m. CDT, August 6, 2013

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday defended the choices he has made on the Chicago Public Schools budget, but did not directly address reports that neighborhood schools will face deeper cuts during the coming year than charters or other kinds of schools.

CPS estimated classroom cuts in the upcoming budget to be about $68 million. But the Tribune found that the cuts to district-run neighborhood schools is more than $100 million for instruction and operations. CPS came up with its lower figure by including budget increases at charter and contract schools that in many cases saw enrollment rise and seats added.

Asked about the differences Tuesday, Emanuel initially laid the blame with Springfield's failure to deal with the school district's unfunded pension obligations. "Look, we have a challenge. That challenge is pensions," Emanuel said.

The mayor also pointed out two charter schools were shut down recently for academic shortcomings, saying that's "never been done before, because they failed academically."

And though Raise Your Hand, a parent group critical of the school district, said the new budget has forced 92 schools to cut art positions, 54 to cut music teachers, 58 to cut physical education positions and 40 to fire librarians, Emanuel sought to focus Tuesday on his push to increase full-day kindergarten and the longer school day. "That's what we're going to be doing throughout the city and all our schools," he said.

Arts Funding Alert--Act Now!

40! That’s how many years that federal support for the arts and humanities would be set back as a result of the devastating cuts in the FY 2014 Interior Appropriations bill currently moving through the House.

This FY 2014 funding bill would cut the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 49 percent, leaving them each with only a $75 million budget. This budget reduction would represent the biggest cut in the history of these agencies, even worse than the cuts experienced during the Culture Wars of the 1990s. The last time the NEA’s budget was this low was in 1974.

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Last week, we reported the cuts made in Subcommittee and this week, the House Full Appropriations Committee maintained the cuts in the bill. Yesterday, Ranking Democrat of the Committee Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Rep. David Price (D-NC) offered an amendment in committee to restore the NEA cuts, but it was rejected along party line votes.

Grant will allow students to sample working with professional artists

by Maggie Neil / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Principal Ken Lockette wants the walls of Avonworth High School to be alive and vibrant -- not drab and institutional.

He also wants his students to know what it's like to work in the professional world and to prepare them for an increasingly competitive environment.

Thanks to a $10,000 grant from The Sprout Fund's Hive Fund for Connected Learning, the high school in Ohio Township is hoping to fulfill Mr. Lockette's visions through the Avonworth Pittsburgh Galleries Project.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-north/grant-will-allow-students-to-sample-working-with-professional-artists-697692/#ixzz2arvqRpDo

The plan is to connect 30 to 50 high school students with five arts institutions in the Pittsburgh region: The Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh Glass Center and Toonseum of Pittsburgh.

House Disproportionately Cuts National Endowment for the Arts Funding by 49%

YOUR VOICE MIGHT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.

Today, the U.S House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved its initial FY 2014 funding legislation, which includes a proposed cut of $71 million to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This would bring funding of the NEA down to $75 million, a level not seen since 1974!

Please take two minutes to send a customizable message to your members of Congress rejecting these dramatic cuts to NEA funding.

While the subcommittee bill includes a 20 percent reduction in total spending as a part of the House budget plan, the proposed cuts of 49 percent to the NEA are significantly disproportionate. The arts community recognizes the challenges our elected leaders face in prioritizing federal resources, but funding for the NEA has already been cut by more than $29 million over the past three years. These disproportionate cuts recall the dramatic decline of federal funding for the arts in the early 90s, from which the agency has still not recovered.

In her statement during today’s markup, senior appropriator Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) said these cuts “harken back to a time when a misguided war on the arts and culture ignored the educational and cultural benefits they provide our communities.”

	Final FY 2013 (includes 5% sequester cut)	FY 2014 President's Request	FY 2014 House Subcommittee Proposal
National Endowment for the Arts	$138.4 million	$154.466 million	$75 million
National Endowment for the Humanities	$138.4 million	$154.466 million	$75 million

Report Examines School Strategies for Devoting Extra Time for Arts

by Erik Robelen on June 11, 2013 9:13 AM
EDUCATION WEEK * Curriculum Matters

A new Wallace Foundation Report takes a close look at five public schools it sees as doing exemplary work to make the arts a high priority as part of a redesigned and expanded school day.

So, what does this look like in practice?

The arts are not considered "extras" in these schools, according to the report, issued last week. Students get at least one hour daily of arts-specific instruction (and in two of them, it's often closer to three hours). Teachers routinely seek opportunities to integrate the arts across core disciplines. The schools hire arts specialists who are both talented artists and educators. They connect with museums and other cultural institutions. Students have access to a menu of different arts opportunities, from visual and performing arts to multimedia and design projects. These are just a few examples of what the researchers learned in studying these schools in depth.

Schools Adding Time to Teach the Arts

by Nora Fleming EDUCATION WEEK
June 5, 2013 12:15 PM

The arts—said to be neglected by schools since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 pressured them to focus on literacy and mathematics instruction—may no longer be side-swiped for other disciplines.

Some expanded learning time schools are now using their longer school days not just for additional instruction in math, reading, and the like, but for arts education (dance, drawing, theater, and music), according to a new report released by the Boston-based National Center on Time & Learning.

The report, which received support from the Wallace Foundation, profiles five schools, which serve mostly low-income students, that have prioritized arts education as a key component of their students' education when they redesigned their school day. In addition to added time for the arts, appropriate staffing and resources have been dedicated accordingly, the report says, as the schools see the arts as valuable to improving student engagement in school in addition to achievement in other subjects. (The Wallace Foundation also underwrites coverage of arts education and expanded learning time in Education Week.)

National Core Standards for the Arts on the Horizon

A newly formed partnership of organizations and states will lead the development of new core arts standards for the United States.

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) plans to complete its work and release new, national voluntary arts education standards in early 2014. The standards will describe what students should know and be able to do as a result of a quality curricular arts education program.

The current National Standards for Arts Education have been adopted or adapted by forty-nine state departments of education, and have become the benchmark document by which K-12 arts learning is measured. Curriculum designers, teacher training programs, funders, and federal and state policy makers have relied on the original 1994 national arts standards and, more recently, the 2005 Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance in the Arts to help guide their decision-making.

Sequestration and the Arts

As you have no doubt been following in the headlines, specific parts of the federal budget, including that of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), will be impacted by a budgetary control called “sequestration” beginning today. This sequester, totaling $85 billion, will reduce funding to almost all areas of domestic social programs by about 5 percent, which would mean about $7.3 million at the NEA.

This cut has been expected ever since the congressional “supercommittee” of 2011 failed to find agreement on how to achieve $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, either through spending cuts, raising revenue, or by a combination of both. Since the possibility of the sequester was triggered, the White House’s Office of Management & Budget has alerted impacted federal agencies to prepare for it by withholding grant competitions, utilizing employee furloughs, reduced service and other budget cutting actions.

Because the sequester is an “across-the-board” cut to federal agencies, it reaches indiscriminately into every identified program and activity. The NEA, the U.S. Department of Education (which administers the federal Arts in Education program) and many other cultural agencies such as the Smithsonian, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and others will be forced to order these cuts by 11:59 p.m. ET.

This is just another step in a series of spending showdowns. Looking ahead to the rest of the month, Congress will need to address the unfinished business of FY 2013 which is set to expire on March 27. As details about implementation of these cuts or alternatives to reduce the sequester’s impact on future budget negotiations become available, we will be sure to share this information.This year, the annual National Arts Advocacy Day on Tuesday, April 9 will take place during this critical timeframe. It is imperative that arts supporters participate in this event which will be the largest arts advocacy convening of the year. Register now to ensure that your voice will be heard on Capitol Hill!

Teach the beat: D.C.’s go-go heritage making its way to the classroom

At a seminar, go-go musicians taught social studies and music teachers from D.C. public schools how to lace the city’s signature sound into their lesson plans.

By Susan Svrluga, THE WASHINGTON POST Published: February 16

Denise Dumas, a world history teacher from the Midwest with gray curls, pale skin and
granny glasses, had not heard of go-go before she moved to the District.

Now she knows Sugar Bear, David “32” Ellis and Sweet Cherie — and she’s going to bring some of that old-school funk to her classroom.

On Saturday, go-go musicians taught social studies and music teachers from D.C. public schools how to lace the city’s signature sound into their lesson plans, an effort to celebrate the students’ cultural heritage and better engage them in class.

The program — “Teach the Beat: Go Go in DC” — had the usual
trappings of a professional-development seminar: name tags,
fluorescent lighting, Post-it notes. But it also had hints of the sweaty,
dance-crazy club scene, with thumping pocket beats and swiveling
necks, and more than a few answers to teachers’ questions spun off
into long, improvisational riffs.It's hard to capture go-go on
a recording, John “JB” Buchanan told the teachers. The music is a
lot about jamming and the intense reaction from the crowd,
the arm-waving, hip-shaking and call-and-response.

For Dumas, that means she can try using the music to get students not only to listen but also to participate in class. She knows most of her ninth-graders at Cardozo High School — some of whom are 17 because they have repeatedly failed courses — don’t see the history she teaches as relevant to their lives in the city.

Measuring Student Creativity Topic of New Report

by  Erik Robelen on February 1, 2013 4:55 PM

from EDUCATION WEEK

Can student creativity be assessed in a meaningful way? Should it even be evaluated? And if so, how? These are some of the questions explored in a new working paper published by the global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"Creativity is widely accepted as being an important outcome of schooling," according to the paper, by researchers at the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester in England. "Yet there are many different viewpoints about what it is, how best it can be cultivated in young people, and whether or how it should be assessed."

The research comes at a time when U.S. political and business leaders increasingly are raising concerns about the need to better nurture creativity and innovative thinking in young people. In fact, last year I wrote about a push in several states to develop a "creativity index" for schools.

London's 2012 Cultural Olympiad

The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Since 2008, the Cultural Olympiad has featured programmes and projects inspired by London 2012, funded by our principal funders and sponsors. As part of the Cultural Olympiad:

• More than 16 million people across the UK took have taken part in or attended performances.
• Over 169,000 people have attended more than 8,300 workshops.
• More than 3.7 million people took part in nearly 3,700 Open Weekend events.
• Some 2,500 cultural projects have been awarded the London 2012 Inspire mark
  
  

Marvin Hamlisch, maestro of the perfect note

The late composer Marvin Hamlisch moved effortlessly across film, theater and TV, creating unforgettable music with the power to unleash tears and laughter.  He inspired this educator to understand WHAT I DID FOR LOVE.

by Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

August 8, 2012, 8:00 a.m.

Hearing the news of Marvin Hamlisch's sudden passing, I am suddenly awash in the sound of his music and the flood of tears unleashed by its memory. There are movies that would not have been the same without it, and a Broadway musical that will never be forgotten for it.

But what Hamlisch perhaps played best was the human heartstrings, plucking at our emotions one by one, ranging across the octaves of sadness and joy, letting the feelings resonate for as long as he dared.

Three Oscars, a Tony, four Emmys, four Grammys — they seem now the briefest of nods, insufficient for a lifetime's work of filling our films, Broadway musicals and TV shows with his artistry.

PHOTOS: Marvin Hamlisch | 1944-2012