The Advocacy
Update is where you can find current national and state news concerning arts
advocacy and arts education
EdTA
NEWS
Updates from the EdTA Conference: Watch and hear Eric Booth talk about the intrinsic and
public value of theatre education; PCAH’s Deputy Director John Abodeely on how Turnaround Arts is reaching
students who most need access to arts education experiences; and a panel discussion focusing on the need for more
diversity in theatre education.
New Members Join EdTA Board of
Directors:
Members of the Educational Theatre Association elected one new board member,
awarded a veteran appointed board member an elected seat, and approved a
housekeeping revision of the EdTA Code of Regulations this October. Matt
Conover, Vice President of Creative Entertainment at Walt Disney Parks &
Resorts, and Brian Curl, New York City actor, singer, and dancer, were elected
and will begin their three year board terms on August 1, 2016.
NATIONAL
NEWS
October
– National Arts and Humanities Month:
Since 1993, the US has celebrated October as National Arts and Humanities
Month. This national celebration connects artists with their neighbors and
opens the doors of cultural organizations to their communities, welcoming young
and old to experience and participate in the arts and humanities. (President’s Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities)
National
Endowment for the Arts Celebrates 50 Years: On
September 29, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation
on the Arts and the Humanities Act, creating the National Endowment for the Arts
and the National Endowment for the Humanities. To celebrate the agency’s 50th
anniversary, the NEA has created a portfolio of the many ways they have helped
nurture the arts in the US. (National
Endowment for the Arts)
National
Arts Awards Honorees Include Lady Gaga, Sofia Loren, More:
Sophia Loren, Lady Gaga, Herbie Hancock, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Alice Walton,
and Maria Bell will be honored by Americans for the Arts with National Arts
Awards on October 19, 2015. The awards “recognize artists and arts leaders who
exhibit exemplary national leadership.” (Playbill)
Trump
Sets Eyes on Education Department:
Donald Trump might want to eliminate the Education Department. Chris Wallace
challenged the leading GOP candidate on “Fox News Sunday,” about whether he
would “blow a hole in the deficit.” When Wallace asked if he would cut
departments, Trump said he’d consider the Education Department. Regarding the
department, Trump told the South Carolina Tea Party Convention in January that,
“You could cut that way, way, way down.” (Politico)
STATE
NEWS
Got state theatre and other arts
education news you want to share? Send it to Anna at amarsala@schooltheatre.org
Alabama:
Preserving Alabama’s Cultural Arts (Montgomery Advertiser)
California:
Three Years In, Los Angeles Arts
Education Push Has Mixed Results (Education Week)
Florida:
Palm Beach’s Center for Creative
Education Renovation Nears Completion (Palm Beach Daily News)
Massachusetts:
Arts – Teaching Students to
Celebrate their Failures
(Boston Globe)
Missouri:
Missouri Arts Council to Award
$4.2M to Support the Arts Statewide (The Missouri Times)
New
Jersey: What’s the State of the Arts in New
Jersey’s Public Schools Today?
(New Jersey Spotlight)
New
York: Why Educators Support Computer
Science (Gotham Gazette)
North
Carolina: Wake County Schools Receive Grants
for Arts Education (United Arts Council)
Duke University Receives $2M to
Build Arts Center (WRAL News)
Oklahoma:
Allied Arts Announces Latest Grant
Recipients in Central Oklahoma
(News Oklahoma)
Ohio:
Warren City Schools Chosen for
Kennedy Center Arts Program
(WFMJ News)
Pennsylvania:
York Cultural Alliance Awards
Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Grants (Flip Side PA)
Vermont:
Vermont Mutual Grant Awarded to
Center for Arts & Learning
(Vermont Digger)
Washington:
State Legislators Talk Budget,
Education Funding (Queen Anne and Magnolia News)
WORTH
READING
Final
Evaluation of Turnaround Arts Initiative – Did it Work?: Turnaround Arts is
an intensive pilot initiative aimed at reforming the lowest-performing schools
through aggressive integration of the arts into classroom instruction and
student life. The program’s eight “strategic pillars” include development of a
“strategic arts plan”, support from the school district and parents,
integrating arts-based learning techniques into non-arts subjects, and
collaboration with local arts assets. (Create
Equity)
More Schools Working to Integrate
the Arts Into Classroom Learning:
Strategically using art across a school’s curriculum is becoming more common as
interest in arts integration grows nationally. This trend is driven by
increasing research that points to academic, social, and personal benefits for
students through the arts. Studies show that employing the arts in academic
classrooms is also associated with improvement in test scores in math and
English and, in particular, students living in poverty benefit from an
integrated arts approach. (Washington
Post)