Follow the below link to read this interesting article written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman for Newsweek.

The Creative Crisis

The program wants to use artists and students to spread the message  that arts are important to American schools. Read more on the contest that corporate sponsors HP and AMD are participating in.

Make Art Save Art

Visit  MakeArtSaveArt.org to get  details on how you can participate in the contest:

dosomething.org

The largest Arts program in the southeast, Young Audiences, Woodruff Art Center (YAWAC) is part of a national 31 – chapter Young Artists program in Atlanta.  Started in 1983 with nine artists it now has grown to 64 artists. YAWAC is involved in the lives and learning of children and teens in multiple ways. The artists run a variety of learning programs such as smART stART and Arts for Learning Lessons targeting specific learning skills of children from kindergarten and up. It is best known for its programs in which the artists from the Young Audiences put on shows for children. With over 60 different programs the artists’ can present a variety of art forms to the students and provide an education in various cultures here and abroad.

Read more about this interesting program by Martha Barksdale

Young Audiences

Read more from Katy Matthai’s column in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune.

Arts can play a roll in a child’s development

What are you doing this summer? In Anne Arundel County, Maryland teachers will be learning art, songwriting, mime and dance  in efforts to better teach students in math, science and other subjects in the fall.

These teachers will be attending a summer development program that allows county elementary and middle school teachers to take art lessons and create ways to integrate the disciplines learned into all subjects.

To read more about this creative program, click on the link to  the article written by Joe Burris for the Baltimore Sun :

Intergrating Art into Other Subjects

Boston University student Natalie Turturro wants kids to know that “school opens doors,” and her method at getting out the message involves using her own education to do it.

For her thesis project, Turturro created an installation art exhibition at the non-profit Ellis Memorial Children’s Center, a settlement house in the South End of Boston that cares for children, disabled adults and families.  The project depicts images of children flying around and away in outer space, an idea Turturro received from the children of Ellis Memorial.

“School gives you the tools to fly away wherever you want to and become whatever you want to be,” explained Turturro.

To watch a slideshow of pictures of Turturro’s art exhibition and find out more about how it came together, please click on the original story posted below, written by Anna Webster for BU Today.

Art Exhibition Enhances Children’s Center

When Brandeis University’s artist-in-residence Michael Dowling built it, people came. His installation “Source/ReSource” featuring a recurring stream of water being pumped into a large triangular pool outside the university’s Rose Art Museum was unveiled this May.

“I wanted to animate the space in front of the Rose and lead people to one of the sources of Brandeis power to inspire which is its art collection,” Dowling said. “I wanted to create a common pool where people can share a human moment in which everyone can co-exist.”

His idea for the installation was “to invite people who’ve already been [to the museum] to see it anew.” Dowling hopes to inspire people to go back to a place recognized from before and rediscover the feeling of wonder it once brought them.

About 250 students, faculty, alumnus and visitors attended Dowling’s installation unveiling. To read what people had to say about his art and Dowling’s other thoughts, please click on the story from Amesbury News’ Chris Bergeron that is posted below.

Brandeis Art Installation Pulls Community Together

When singer Josh Groban transferred to Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, he gained not only an art education, but also an art community.

“[The school] really helped give me the foundation for everything that I did in the future,” he said. “I had come from a couple of school systems that were fine but not right for me. I wasn’t making very many friends, I wasn’t doing well in school.”

Groban recently visited his high school to celebrate its 25^th anniversary. To read more and watch a video interview with the singer, click on the link below and read the original post written by Corinne Heller for OnTheRedCarpet.com.

Josh Groban praises art education, says he had few friends in former schools

The National Art Education Association held its annual conference April 14-18 in Baltimore, Md., and more than 4,000 art teachers attended this year.

One of the attendees, Melissa Techman from the School Library Journal, learned that art teachers play a key role in developing 21^st century skills. According to Techman, art education has a major part in teaching students how to think flexibly, communicate visually, and become leaders in design and invention.  

To see a list of links displaying various ways of how to use technology to further art education, please click on the link to the story below.

Art Teachers Bring 21st-Century Vision to 2010 Conference

Several schools in Quebec, Canada, are participating in a research study looking at art’s effect on student behavior and engagement. The schools all make use of a program called ArtsSmarts, a learning strategy that relies on artistic activities as a way to foster students’ growth as creative thinkers.  

The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation launched ArtsSmarts in 1998 to offset the shrinking art education budget in schools. Since then, their mission has changed a bit.

“To introduce the arts back into classrooms is where we were in 1998,” said Executive Director Annalee Adair. “To integrate arts with other disciplines is where it evolved… [We’re] looking at arts as a way of learning itself.”  

To read more about what ArtsSmarts has already done and their plans for the future, please click the story link below.

Art Helps to Focus the Mind