GIA Blog

El Sistema for U.S. Kids Too
Posted on February 24, 2012 by Steve

From Mark Swed at the Los Angeles Times:

Along with baseball and beauty pageants, classical music is one of the country's greatest passions. In the capital, Caracas, superstar Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel is mobbed wherever he goes. Classical music teeny-boppers run up to him for autographs when he walks off the podium at concerts. The state-run music education program, which is known as El Sistema and from which Dudamel emerged, is the most extensive, admired and increasingly imitated in the world.
A Facebook 10K Race: How the California Arts Council Won
Posted on February 24, 2012 by Steve

From The California Arts Council newsroom:

Craig Watson, the newly-hired Director of the California Arts Council, and Bob Booker, Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, encountered each other at a conference in San Francisco. These two friendly rivals made an almost-ridiculous bet: they challenged each other to a race. A 10K race, no less. Each man vowed that his arts agency would be the first to reach ten thousand “likes” on Facebook—although both were starting at around the 4,500 mark.
New Website Offers Best-Practices for Arts Education, Creative Learning
Posted on February 23, 2012 by Steve

The Wallace Foundation, with Dallas-based nonprofit Big Thought, has launched the website Creating Quality which intends to provide information, tools and other resources to evaluate and improve the quality of arts education and creative learning in schools, after-school programs and summer learning opportunities.

Based on a quality improvement process developed and pioneered by Big Thought in Dallas, one of the nation's leading institutions working to deliver arts education to children, the Creating Quality website houses resources to: engage stakeholders, define quality teaching and learning, assess the quality of programming and improve education for all children.

Improving Arts Learning Through Standards and Assessment
Posted on February 23, 2012 by Steve

On February 14, 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts hosted a day-long series of panels and presentations to examine the latest trends, current practices, and future directions for arts learning standards and assessment methods. In addition to moderated panels of experts, the roundtable featured a presentation of the NEA's latest research report, Improving the Assessment of Student Learning in the Arts: State of the Field and Recommendations.

The entire event is now available on a series of videos, available at the NEA website.

Arts Offer More than Just Entertainment
Posted on February 22, 2012 by Steve

Arts advocacy from William Lehr Jr, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and AFTA Board Member, in The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, PA:

In the face of difficult economic realities, Gov. Tom Corbett recently described his administration’s 2012-13 fiscal plan as “both lean and demanding.” Hard times require public officials to make the most of every asset and to adopt policies that maximize the state’s recovery potential. The arts are a proven part of that mix. As a citizen member of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, I laud Gov. Corbett for recognizing this fact and recommending that funding for the PCA hold steady at about $9 million.
Teaching African American Civil Rights Through American Art at the Smithsonian
Posted on February 22, 2012 by Steve

A new Smithsonian project, Oh Freedom! offers a new introduction to the Civil Rights movement through the unique lens of Smithsonian collections. Drawing connections among art, history, and social change, Oh Freedom! provides educators with tools to help students re-imagine and re-interpret the long struggle for civil rights, justice, and equality in fresh ways.

Practicing the Art of the Possible
Posted on February 21, 2012 by Janet

The entire world is aware that 2012 is an election year for the United States. The year ahead will be filled with different ideas of how we face the challenges of financial inequities, immigration, education, world affairs, unemployment, housing, the arts and more. We will have to wait to see how this election plays out but as with every election, because we are a self-determining democracy, we believe there is hope for change, for justice, for children and families, for a better world. We elect to be eternal optimists.

Understanding State Level Constituents in Arts Education
Posted on February 21, 2012 by Steve

Americans for the Arts wil host a webinar on the topic of Arts Education on Thursday, February 23, at 3:00pm EST/12:00pm PST.

The hour-long webinar will be moderated by Narric Rome, Senior Director of Federal Affairs and Arts Education for AFTA, and is one of a seven part series as Americans for the Arts rolls out a toolkit, The Arts Education Field Guide, which will illuminate ways to navigate the complex web of citizens, policy-makers, government entities, and organizations that influence arts education from the school house to the White House and from the living room to the board room.

Houston Arts Alliance Announces Diem Jones as Director of Grants
Posted on February 20, 2012 by Steve

Diem Jones has been tapped for the position of Director of Grants at the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA). Jones comes to the HAA post after an 8-year stretch as deputy director at Arts Council Silicon Valley, where he supervised their Artsopolis program and managed the agency’s grants, arts education and marketing programs.

You've got the new arts technology, make sure you have the behavior change
Posted on February 18, 2012 by Steve

From Ron Evans at Group of Minds:

As an arts marketing and technology guy, I get asked about tech a lot. I help people choose online ticketing systems, new website content management systems, email marketing software — if it is online technology, I’ve probably helped an arts group choose and implement it. When I first started consulting, I thought my job would be to help people make the right choices, and then be on my way. But I’ve found over the years that this is only half of what’s needed to implement new technology.