Partners for Arts Education

Technical Assistance

CommonGround 2007
We’ll take another opportunity to thank everyone who made this year’s CommonGround Conference a rousing success – and that means everyone who was there. Your enthusiasm, expertise, generosity, and vision are what makes arts in education the most exciting and rewarding work we can imagine. THANK YOU!!

Pictures from the conference are up on our website at http://www.arts4ed.org/conference/CG07/photos.shtml . See yourself, see your friends, and who was that great person across the table from you at lunch?

TAP Grants Offer New Opportunities
Technical Assistance Program (TAP) now offers new opportunities for funding to assist schools and cultural organizations in developing their arts-in-ed programs. Simple application, fast response!

If you need an expert to help the arts-in-ed practice of your partnership or organization, you can now apply to the TAP SERVICES program for $2500. If accepted, NYSCA and PAE will help you identify an appropriate consultant from a faculty of NYSCA trained facilitators based on the work that your partnership wants to explore. The grant will pay for a one-day retreat and the pre and post analysis necessary.

If your AIE partnership seeks new skills and you have identified a resource that you believe may be useful in the development of those skills, you can apply for a TAP GRANT. You can ask for up to $2000 to cover the expenses associated with the professional exchange or activity.

If there is a conference or specialized training to develop your skills in a particular AIE area, you can apply for a TAP SCHOLARSHIP of up to $1000 to cover expenses related to your attendance at a conference (i.e. travel, registration, food, etc).

Deadlines are every 2 months year round: September 1, November 1, January 1, March 1, May 1, July 1. Check the website at www.arts4ed.org for more details and for the application. Questions? Email Sue Stonecash.

The next deadline is July 1, 2007.

If you would like more information about these grants, visit our website, or email Sue Stonecash .

Resources

Website of the Month
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston has just published the results of their research project, which investigated the relationship between student participation in its School Partnership Program, an in-depth multi-visit program that focuses on the processes of learning to look at and making meaning from works of art, and development of critical thinking skills. You can find more information about the program and the research at: http://www.gardnermuseum.org/education/tta/tta.html

Opportunities

Summer Seminar 2007
The 11th Annual ESP Summer Seminar will be held during July 15 - 19, as the CW Post campus of Long Island University in Brookville, NY. Over 320 arts-in-education professionals will explore the theme, "Strategizing for Success", through a variety of events: workshops, discussion groups, keynote address and plenary meetings. Seminar attendees also will have opportunities to meet with consultants and to plan for the upcoming year, as part of their team and with their regional network groups.

The ESP Summer Seminar is designed to support partnerships between cultural organizations and schools that integrate the arts into the curriculum. Teachers, teaching artists and administrators are welcome.

The weekly tuition is $750, and registration is available on-line through June 26, 2007 at http://www.espartsed.org/ss07/

Call for Session Proposals
Deadline: August 3, 2007
American Evolution: Arts in the New Civic Life
Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in Philadelphia
June 20-22, 2008
www.AmericansForTheArts.org/Convention/Proposals
At this convention, Americans for the Arts will come together to share the strategies and the secrets of leading creative communities. We'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first percent for art ordinance in the city that created it. We'll visit traditions in arts education that date back to the founding of the country and continue on the cutting edge. We'll also fast-forward to a new vision of civic leadership being crafted daily by the collaborative spirit of Philadelphia's artists, arts administrators, business innovators, and elected leaders.

News
House Subcommittee Funds Arts in Ed
The House Labor-Health-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, which sets the initial funding level for education programs at the U.S. Department of Education, has approved $39 million for the Arts in Education program in the FY 2008 spending bill.

This is the first time in seven years that the Arts in Education program has received any level of support from the House subcommittee. Typically the Arts in Education program is zeroed out in the President’s budget, zeroed out in the House budget and saved only by a bipartisan group of supporters in the Senate. The House Subcommittee action ensures that the program has a stronger footing as it moves through the appropriations process.

The FY 2008 Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations bill will next go to full committee, perhaps as early as next week, and then possibly to the House floor by the end of the month.

We must now contact our Congressional Members to support this funding increase. You can visit Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center to send a letter to your Members of Congress.