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The Surdna Foundation is pleased to announce the 11th round of the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program, a national initiative to support the artistic revitalization of outstanding arts teachers. Eligibility guidelines now include arts teachers working in specialized public arts high schools AND arts-focused magnet and charter high schools*. Eligible teachers can apply for grants of up to $5,500 in support of artistic growth, with a complementary grant of $1,500 provided to each Fellow’s school for post-fellowship activities.
Surdna’s goal is to help arts teachers in public arts high schools increase their effectiveness as they guide and train young people for careers or advanced study in the visual, performing, and literary arts. The Foundation believes that if teachers can immerse themselves in their own creative work and interact with professional artist/colleagues, they will bring new ideas and practices into the classroom. Twenty awards of up to $5,500 each will be made.
Letters of Intent to Apply will be due by November 12, 2010. Complete program information is available at: www.surdna.org/artsteachersfellowship.
Online applications for 2011 will be available on the website after June 30, 2010. Interested applicants may also contact: Kimberly Bartosik, Program Director, at artsfellowship@surdna.org.
The Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) recently completed the first year of the New Visions Grant Initiative. The initiative consists of ASCA providing three pilot school districts – Bering Strait School District, Copper River School Districtand Kodiak School District – $10,000 matching grants for a three year period to develop new models of arts integration and residency programs.
 The initiative focuses on professional development for staff, curriculum writing, leadership training and bringing Alaskan teaching artists to work with students. The New Visions Initiative responds to the results of On Thin Ice: Arts in Alaska’s Schools, a statewide comprehensive survey of arts education conducted through a collaboration of ASCA, the Alaska Arts Education Consortium and the Alaska School Administrators Association. In August 2009, after consulting with administrators from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, the three diverse Alaskan districts were targeted and approached to participate in the program. The Superintendents all agreed to participate and dedicate matching funds. Annie Calkins, a consultant working with the initiative, is in the process of evaluating its first year. Noteworthy developments include: all three districts exceeded the required financial match; new collaborations have formed to support professional development; the Bering Strait District is integrating the arts into its summer school curriculum and assessing its impact on attendance; Copper River is hosting its first Artist in School Residency and Kodiak is pioneering the use of video teleconferencing to teach music. For more information about the New Visions Initiative or the On Thin Ice: Arts in Alaska’s Schools report please contact ASCA Executive Director Charlotte Fox or ASCA Arts Education Consultant Annie Calkins.
Imagine 60 kindergarteners in Juneau, Alaska, playing violin together during the school day! Thanks to the support of the Association of Alaska School Boards and the Glacier Valley Parent Group, the school’s kindergarten teachers, and a local Suzuki violin instructor, Lorrie Heagy will offer group violin lessons to every kindergarten class three times a week, free of charge. This El Sistema-inspired program is called JAMM (Juneau, Alaska Music Matters) and hopes to expand to more grade levels, more Juneau schools and after-school hours in the coming years. Learn more about the Abreu Fellows TED Prize Report: The Abreu Fellows
It’s not too late!
This summer (July 19 – 30) you have an opportunity to participate in a unique learning experience at the annual Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.
K-12 educators will enjoy spending the mornings with Teacher Leader Barbara Short learning how the arts (music, visual, literary, performing) build both personal and academic skills. Brain research and recent studies will be discussed. Guest artists will join the morning discussions. Afternoons are spent in a course of the participant’s choice (over 125 to choose from!) learning in their favorite art form. Register for Developing Minds and at least one other art class.
Go to www.fasf.org to register. Housing available at UAF.
Questions? Contact Barbara Short, barbshort@gmail.com
If you are an Alaskan who filed for their dividend online, we’re pleased to let you know that until Monday, May 31, 2010, you have a second chance to help Alaskans by safely donating a portion of your PFD to your favorite Alaska cause.
We know that you support the arts and ask you to consider making a donation to the Alaska Arts Education Consortium to help us with our work of getting arts to all Alaskan students. It’s never been easier to make a difference in Alaska by sharing a portion of your 2010 PFD today: http://www.pfd.state.ak.us
This special extension of the PFD Charitable Contributions Program, also known as Pick. Click. Give, is available to all Alaskans who filed online and would like to make new or additional donations. The status of your application, including the date filed and confirmation number will not be affected by using this opportunity.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Visual Art Academy is accepting applications for its 2010 session, which runs June 7-18.
The academy provides visual artists in grades 6-12 a chance to work with professional artists in a variety of media including animation, printmaking, metalsmithing, and costume and fashion design, among many others. Classes will be held on the UAF campus, and participants can select either full-day or half-day enrollment. The deadline for registration is May 28. For more information, call the UAF art department at 907-474-7530.
See www.uaf.edu/art/artacademy …
“. . . It is known that in order to stay healthy we need foods from all the food groups. We call it neglectful when children are denied a balanced diet. When art and music are left out of the learning experience, we leave our children educationally malnourished. If the subjects of history, science, math, physical education and life skills are approached in a holistic way, a way that explores all avenues of a subject, art and music become natural components of understanding and learning. The fabric of our lives becomes something like a quilt, made of many textured experiences and many threads with which to weave solutions to our problems. Let us give our children a rainbow of threads to choose from as they weave their lives with ours, and support the arts in our school system, and we will, as Lytton Bulwar says: “support the mind and soul of man”. – Sue Ann Randall, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council Member
Alaska Arts Education Consortium is one of 50 model professional development programs featured in the latest online tool to help drive arts education forward. The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, San Francisco Arts Commission and Santa Clara County Office of Education have launched “Designing the Arts Learning Community: a Handbook for K-12 Professional Development Planners.” The handbook represents a move away from the one-day workshop or summer course to a systemic, ongoing collaborative approach that yields powerful results for students’ learning in the arts. It demonstrates how to establish, grow and sustain a learning community that comes together to improve arts instruction.
The handbook, the first arts education professional development tool with a national perspective, draws on the experiences of arts education professional development programs from across theUnited States. Alaska Arts Education Consortium is part of a searchable database of model programs from across the country. The handbook is designed to be used online but offers options to print out sections or the entire handbook.
Please take a look at the handbook: http://handbook.laartsed.org. We are very proud to be part of this pioneering professional development tool.
Don’t miss out! Make time for learning about Arts Education this summer. Your students will thank you next fall.
8 days, starting May 25? Anchorage Basic Arts Institute
10 days, starting June 7? Fairbanks Basic Arts Institute : Registration Extended to May 15
10 day, starting July 19? Developing Minds through the Arts: Fairbanks Registration NOW OPEN!
Lower Kuskokwim School District recently held their Festival of Arts. Student travel around the building to view and interact with visual pieces. They also participated in dance and movement activities. As Director Bev Williams said, ” Is this pure joy, or what? I hope you can see it.”(in the picture) Share what’s happening in your school. Send photos and information to ccrooks@gci.net
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“The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem-solvers who are confident and able to think creatively. These qualities can be especially important in improving learning among students from economically disadvantaged circumstances."
- U.S. Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan
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