The Advocacy
Update is where you can find current national and state news concerning arts
advocacy and arts education
EdTA
NEWS
NCCAS Selects High School Theatre
Assessment Pilot Team:
The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) has selected sixteen
high school theatre educators to pilot the National Core Arts Standards Model
Cornerstone Assessments (MCAs) during the 2015-2016 school year. The pilot
follows a similar project conducted during 2014-2015, in which 75 arts
educators piloted the MCAs in grades 2, 5, and 8.
NATIONAL
NEWS
ESEA
Rewrite Approved: The US House and US Senate conference
committee approved a conference agreement to rewrite K-12 federal education law,
including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The text of the agreement
will be publicly released within a few days, with a House vote as soon as early
December. The agreement will bring about new federal education law impacting a
whole generation of students. (Americans
for the Arts)
Do
Techies Have Interest in Funding the Arts? Maybe: In
2013, Bill Gates harshly questioned why anyone would donate money to build a
new wing for a museum rather than spending it on preventing illnesses. The
Gates Foundation has given no money to the arts, and it’s hard to think of many
tech philanthropists who have. (Inside
Philanthropy)
STATE
NEWS
Got state theatre and other arts
education news you want to share? Send it to Anna at amarsala@schooltheatre.org
Alaska:
Alaska State Council on the Arts
Awards Grants to Juneau Organizations (Capital City Weekly)
Arizona:
Flagstaff Arts Council’s Viola
Awards Hit Stride (Arizona Daily Sun)
Georgia:
East Aiken School of the Arts
Selected as Model Site for Arts Education Initiative (The Augusta Chronicle)
Illinois:
“Be Creative” and Ingenuity Award
$800,000 for Arts Essentials in Chicago Public Schools (Sys-Con Media)
Indiana:
$100M Grants from Lilly Endowment a
“Game-Changer” for Indianapolis
(Americans for the Arts)
Kentucky:
Louisville’s Fund for the Arts
Gains Veteran Leadership
(Americans for the Arts)
Missouri:
Missouri Arts Council Selects
Recipients of 2016 Missouri Arts Awards (The Missouri Times)
New
York: New Study Shows Art Education in
NYC Public Schools Paying Off
(Daily News New York)
Ohio:
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Awards
$1.65M in Special Project Grants (Cleveland.com)
Pennsylvania:
Integrating the Arts into STEM
Curriculum (Pittsburgh Public Radio WESA)
Tennessee:
Arts in Education Committee Awards
$12,750 in Teacher Grants
(The Chattanoogan)
Utah:
The Integration of Art into STEM
Sounds like a No Brainer
(Deseret News)
WORTH
READING
How
Can We Give the Arts the Recipe for Success: In communicating the value of
the arts to funding bodies, arts managers are always torn between selling art
for art’s sake and selling the value of the arts as an instrument of social,
health, or educational change. How can we move past this dependency on selling
the instrumental benefits while still securing funding and support for the
arts? (Arts Hub Australia)
Survey Shows First-Generation
Artists Less Satisfied with Education:
A recent survey suggests first-generation artists – nearly four-fifths of
undergraduate arts alumni in the US – are less satisfied with their education
than other artists, according to a data release by the Strategic National Arts
Alumni Project. The SNAAP survey collected data from Indiana University alumni.
(Indiana Daily Student)
The Value of Arts Education: Learning through the arts is not
a luxury; it’s a necessity if we are to ensure the success of our students in
the 21st century. Twenty-eight states require some study of the arts
for high school graduation, yet the arts are still considered an afterthought
when policy makers write curriculum and strategies to advance our nation’s
classrooms. (Winter Park / Maitland
Observer)