The Advocacy Update is where you can find state and national news about theatre and other arts education news
EdTA NEWS
Festival’s Thespian Playworks in Need of Players and Workers: The plays are chosen, the staff is on board, and the rehearsal and performance schedules set. Now all that’s missing from Thespian Playworks is you! We’re seeking student actors, stage managers, tech/design types, and more to get our four outstanding student scripts on their feet during Festival week. Sign up today!
NATIONAL NEWS
National Endowment for the Arts Awards $74 Million in Grants: The National Endowment for the Arts Wednesday announced $74 million in 1,023 grants to arts programs in all 50 states. In its second major grants announcement of the fiscal year, the federal arts agency also awarded $25.5 million to support arts education, projects for wounded veterans, outdoor arts festivals, museum exhibitions and dance, theater and music performances.
STATE NEWS
Got state theatre and other arts education news you want to share? Send it to Anna amarsala@schooltheatre.org
Arizona: Board of Education Sets Process to Revise Standards (Arizona Education News)
California: Bill Proposes Review of California’s Arts Standards (EdSource)
District of Columbia: $74 Million Funds Hundreds of Community-based Art Projects (Imperial Valley News)
Massachusetts: Boston Public Schools Receives $100,000 Grant to Expand Arts Education (Learning Lab)
New Jersey: A Closer Look at NJ’s Premiere Stages’ Common Core-Focused Playwriting Residency for Students (Inside Philanthropy)
New York: Regent Judith Johnson Calls for Reconsideration of New Teacher Evaluation System (Scarsdale 10583)
Ohio: Bexley Education Foundation Commits to Support of STEM and the Arts (This Week Community News)
Oklahoma: Advocates Show Up to Support Arts Education at the Oklahoma Capitol (KFOR News 4)
Oregon: Portland Arts Tax Overhead Costs Soar as City Mailed 170,000 Collection Letters (Oregon Live)
South Carolina: Is Arts Education Valuable? (Greenville Online)
Tennessee: Metro Arts Commission Says Public Arts Underfunded in Nashville (The Tennessean)
Utah: NEA Head Visits Utah Artists; More Than $1M in Grants Coming to Local Groups (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Washington: King County Council Recognizes May as Arts Education Month (Metropolitan King County Council)
Wisconsin: Milwaukee Public Schools Cuts Position of High-Profile Arts Administrator (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
WORTH READING
Why Theater in Schools is Important: Backstage conducts the newest Inside Job feature with Julie Woffington, executive director at the Educational Theatre Association. Woffintgon oversees the organization’s many programs geared toward providing theater experiences to students and teachers within and outside the US. (Backstage)
Do the Arts Go Hand in Hand with Common Core? Amid budget cuts and long hours of drills in reading and math, the arts have been decimated in many of the classrooms serving the nation’s neediest students. Advocates for arts education are hopeful that the Common Core education standards adopted by more than 40 states will soon change that. (The Hechinger Report)
The Arts and Arts Education Are Part of the Solution: It seems obvious given all the facts, studies, and clear examples around us that our elected leaders would make sure that the arts and arts education are available to every young person in our country, but unfortunately, that is not the case. The battle for adequate arts education remains ongoing, but comes with very irregular results. (Huffington Post)
Art Proves to Shatter Boundaries, Ignorance: Professor Lucy Andrus has learned during the last two decades art can do a lot of things, including change attitudes. Andrus launched her program Art Partners in 1994 at Buffalo State University which mixes art education program majors with public schools students grades 2 to 12 who have special needs. (The Buffalo News)