EdTA Advocacy Update
August 1, 2018
The Advocacy Update is where you can find current national and state news concerning arts advocacy and arts education.
EdTA NEWS
2018 Honor Chapters
The Educational Theatre Association established the Honor Chapter Program to recognize those chapters that do tremendous work and deserve acknowledgment for their high level of excellence. The chapters were recognized at the national EdTA Leadership Summit this July in Kansas City.
EdTA Honors Kansas Representative Jeff Pittman With Legislator Leadership Advocacy Award
EdTA annually awards the Legislator Leadership Award for Arts Education to a legislator who has demonstrated public leadership in support of theatre and other arts education policy and practice on a national or state level. This year’s recipient is Kansas Representative Jeff Pitman of Leavenworth.
Advocacy Leadership Network Honored as EdTA Volunteers of the Year
The Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes individuals who support the Association through exceptional volunteer efforts. The 2018 recipients are the 16 members of the Advocacy Leadership Network.
NATIONAL NEWS
House of Representatives Rejects Proposal to Cut NEA and NEH Funding by 15 Percent
In a 297–114 vote in Washington, the House of Representatives shot down a proposal to slash funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 15 percent, or about $23 million, in 2019. (ArtForum)
State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE), Young Audiences Arts for Learning, and Kansas City Young Audiences are sponsoring the Arts Education within ESSA Conference in Kansas City, September 27-28. The event, targeting K-12 educators, higher education, teaching artists, and administrators, will address how arts education has been impacted the federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, at the national, state, and district level.
STATE NEWS
Got state theatre and other arts education news you want to share? Send it to Shea: shaney@schooltheatre.org
Florida: Art, Music, PE Spared from Duval Schools Budget Axe (WJCT)
At Least 920 Florida Teachers Out of Jobs after Failing State Test, Despite 'Effective' Evaluations (WFTS)
School Board Candidates – Arts Education (Arts and Culture Alliance of Sarasota County)
Strings in School Program Expands to Barger Academy, Orchard Knob (Times Free Press)
Indiana: Teens Target Opioids; Saturday Performance has Prevention Message (The Republic)
Kansas: A Passion for Theatre has Given this Olathe High Senior True ‘Stage Presence’ (Kansas City Star)
Louisiana: The Rose Collaborative: A Hub for Performing Arts, Education, and Enterprise (Gentilly Messenger)
Maryland: A Summer Program Uses the Arts to Combat the Achievement Gap (The Hechinger Report)
Massachusetts: Talk of the Times: Thespians Honor High School Drama Director (Gloucester Daily Times)
Michigan: Second Arts Millage Town Hall Yields More Questions and Calls for Support (East Village Magazine)
Minnesota: Minnesota Boys Sue to Join Girls High School Dance Teams (Twin Cities)
New Mexico: Governors Lament Cuts to Arts Education (Santa Fe New Mexican)
New York: Arts Services Initiative of WNY: 2019 Community Arts, Arts Education, Individual Artist Grants Available for Erie & Niagara Counties (Niagara Frontier Publications)
Emily Warren Roebling Musical Headed to Scotland, at the World's Largest Art Festival (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
Workshop to Focus on Curriculum Strategies for Educators (Seacoast Online)
North Carolina: Counterpoint: Arts Funding Good, Could be Better (Greensboro News & Record)
Puerto Rico: ‘Hamilton’ Creator Announces Arts Fund for Puerto Rico (Tampa Bay Times)
Tennessee: Tennessee Arts Commission Makes Annual Grants Totaling $330,000 in Hamilton County (The Chattanoogan)
Texas: Young Audiences of Houston and University of Houston Launch the Arts for Learning Lab (Broadway World Houston)
Wisconsin: Sauk Prairie Theatre Guild’s Teen Production Tackles Social Issues in ’12 Angry Men’ Adaptation (The Eagle)
WORTH READING
BWW Perspective: Drama Mamma
"Mom, can you help me?" This is a question I hear regularly. Moms are always our go-
to problem solvers, but I am not her mom. I am her teacher, her theatre teacher to be exact. (Broadway World)
The Financial Times Mixes Journalism with Performance to Engage Wider Audiences
The Financial Times has been experimenting with telling its stories through theatre performance, aiming to see if creative, live approach to storytelling can engage audiences in new ways. (Journalism.co.uk)
Seth Rudetsky Interviews Julie Cohen Theobald and Corey Mitchell for Seth's Big Fat Broadway
As part of the late night entertainment at International Thespian Festival, Seth Rudetsky sat down to interview Tony-winning theatre teacher Corey Mitchell and EdTA Executive Director Julie Cohen Theobald for his famous SiriusXM radio show, Seth's Big Fat Broadway. (EdTA)