Pope tells artists beauty can be a path to God

Some 250 artists attended a meeting in the Sistine Chapel aimed at renewing friendship. If the link won't take you to the article directly, copy and paste it into your browser.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34080412/ns/world_news-world_faith

October is National Arts and Humanities Month

Every October there is an annual celebration of the arts and humanities across the nation. This year is extra special, for President Obama has recognized the importance of the arts through an official Presidental proclamation issued by the White House in support of National Arts and Humanities Month. Obama is the first president to make such a statement. He acknowledges that our cultural assets make a significant economic contribution to US society.

Check out the president's remarks. Also check out the national website listing events across the country.

Visual Literacy Begins in Infancy

Teaching art full-time does require a lot of preparation and energy -- hence my silence for the past few weeks. But it's not like I don't think about art daily! However, I haven't been so diligent about writing on my favorite topic, art and kids.

I came across this YouTube excerpt about babies and their love of black and white graphics.
When our daughter was teeny, I inked black and white drawings to put at her eye level in the crib. I had read the very recent research at that time about babies' love of these patterns, but there wasn't anything on the market then. Now it's common knowledge. The drawings in this collection are very charming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJuGkivlqSs

Arts in Crisis Symposium

Last June there was the excellent LA Arts Town Hall Meeting that brought together artists, art educators, and the foundations who fund the arts in the region and state. The people on the panels and keynote speakers were great, even if the topic under discussion was extremely sober.

Now another opportunity for the arts community to come together has been announced. Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative 50 State Tour will make its southern CA stop at the African American Museum on October 8 from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Registration must be received by October 6. Follow this link to register. www.artsforla.org/news/artsincrisis.

One aspect this event will address is the emergency fundraising challenges art non-profits are facing.

Co-sponsors for this event include: Native Voices at the Autry National Center, East West Players, California African American Museum, KUSC, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, LA Stage Alliance, California Arts Advocates, Emerging Arts Leaders/LA and Santa Cecilia Orchestra.

The First Day of School

Amid the happy excited voices and hugs for old friends, kids return to some schools this week without any sort of art program. It's tough times for Los Angeles public schools. Although teachers are under even more pressure, it's still possible to create a classroom atmosphere conducive to creative thought and expression.

The atmosphere needed to promote creative growth is not the same as that required to memorizing math facts or spelling words. To learn math or spelling, the child has to concentrate and get past any feelings of dislike. He's dependent on the teacher for direction, and validity as to doing it right. Art is the opposite. It's about emotion, taking initiative. It's not memorization that's needed, but inventiveness, and independent thinking. The teacher can't be looking for the one right answer.

Teachers should be able to switch gears. It's more nebulous to nurture the creative spirit, but it's done through accepting and rewarding it. Children are usually good about pursuing self-directed activity, they just need the opportunity. The key behavior for the adult is being warm and friendly -- gee, those are the qualities we want expressed around kids anyway!

Even a teacher who doesn't feel like he/she has any artistic ability can't use that as an excuse for not providing opportunity for her students to develop their own (but everyone has creativity just like anything else that needs practice). The fear for such a teacher is that she thinks she has to teach her kids how to draw. But kids will figure that out. All the teacher has to do is let them draw part of the curriculum instead of filling out a worksheet. Providing a "right brain" activity during the school day gives the kids some balance -- and even some relief -- from the totally left brain environment of school.

A Motto For The School Year

I love this quote. It makes a great mission statement for any school.

"There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes: it's what you do with them that's important."
Ruth Ross

Confirmation -- Kids Need Art!

I found this blog entry from another arts organization committed to teaching creativity that confirms what I've been saying for years -- kids start losing their creative expression around age 10. Now, I've contended that kids need art instruction in realism at this point to get over the hump.
Abrakadoodle is having a lot of success doing just that.
http://www.abrakadoodle.com/blog/?p=214

Back to School -- Ready for a Creative Year

I didn't intend to take the summer off from blogging, but we went from one adventure or endeavor to another. My creative pursuit was building a pocket garden out of our bare patio. You can read my diary blog about this DIY project at http://pitifulgardener.wordpress.com. Here it is time for school to begin and we're still fiddling with the plants. Gardening is one big problem-solving experience, for sure! It's not my favorite thing to do, but when I finally get it right, I do enjoy the results.

At an educator's conference I attended in Chicago, two of the keynote speakers discussed creativity at school. It's a topic hitting the mainstream more and more. Wouldn't it be great if the people directly responsible for giving the green light at the school level could embrace it -- by understanding exactly what creativity is and why we have to teach the skills to develop it? What a revolution!

I spent the month of August preparing to teach in a brand new art room. Though we are in a recession, this private school just completed a fine arts building. It was time to move out of a dark 25-year-old modular -- and if you know anything about art teachers, they've got stuff stashed to the rafters since they can't bear to throw anything out. The new room is a bright space banked with windows overlooking fields and hills. Wow! How could creativity not flourish in such a space? Not only are the students ever so fortunate, but so is this teacher!

The summer art studio for kids -- teaming up with Reptacular Animals and all their kid-friendly critters -- begins tomorrow. That's Monday, August 24. The focus is on giving kids a chance to work on longer projects in different media, inspired by the animals doing the modeling. We're starting off meeting a pile of wriggly snakes -- long and short, pythons and boa constrictors, and several varieties I don't know. First the kids play with the snakes, then make a life-size papier mache snake. This week we'll also make a pond project, featuring frogs and fuzzy ducklings, and a painting of the rainforest featuring live parrots, and even a macaw. This is certainly the most unusual art class in the Los Angeles region...maybe anywhere! Kids get to look closely at a big array of animals. Observation always improves drawing.

Information is stored in our thinking as pictures. Drawing provides direct access to creative thinking. It's the "doing" that helps spark it. Even if you feel you're bad at drawing, do it anyway. It's the simplest, most effective tool at your disposal. It's not the product you're after, but the thinking that results from the activity. If you've got kids in the house, make sure they get to draw every day. Doodles count!

Urge Your Senator to Support NEA Funding

Great news from capitol -- the House of Representatives funded the National Endowment for the Arts at $170 million. Although this is below the funding level of 1992, it is far better than expected.

The NEA funds a wide variety of arts programs and events across the country. You may not even realize its effect in your community or region. But to maintain any sort of viable arts presence, your action is now needed to press the Senate to vote for the spending bill. Here's the link, which will take all of two minutes to fill out the form and send it off. Hearing from constituents on what matters to them really does have an impact on legislators. If they don't hear anything, they're likely to conclude it's not that important. Well all you arts advocates out there, we know it's important because it's our jobs and our kids' futures that are at stake!!

http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=13627991

LA Arts Town Hall Meeting Official Website

Here's your opportunity to "attend" the big LA Arts Town Hall meeting yourself. They've put up a cheerful website, even though as I've reported previously, we were listening to some rather grim news. Explore the issues yourself!

http://www.artsforla.org/2009_la_arts_town_hall_information_center

Those Groovy Art License Plates

Want to support the CA Arts Council? Fully sixty percent of its funding comes from the sales of the iconic license plate. Designed by the iconic Wayne Thiebaud, who is now about 95, we in the art field should all have these. (My brother-in-law had Thiebaud as an art teacher at Davis, where Thiebaud was part of a very hip crowd of pop artists/educators). I'm looking to buy a new vehicle before the year is over to take advantage of the sales tax credit off our income tax. It's gonna look great sporting one of these plates!

Proceeds from the sale of the arts license plates supports the popular Artists in the School program, one of many programs that makes art education available to children.

http://cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php

Art Education: the Antidote to Pharma Prescriptions for Kids

There's a natural way to elevate kids' moods that doesn't require a drop of drugs -- it's art!! Yes, art is an antidote to big Pharma's hold on the childhood of too many kids. Art-making is a brain activity that transports anyone to the "zone" -- that amazing place where time seems to disappear, and one's mood is raised to a different level than could ever be achieved through drugs. You can't run out of this mood-enhancer. And it's cheap, if not entirely free. ADHD? No problem. Art is kinesthetic because it's doing. Doesn't matter if there's a "popcorn" kid (one who's up and down out of their seat) in the class, because they can do their art standing up.

Art certainly offers a viable alternative to the prison pipeline we've got going now. It's quite shocking that we spend more on building new prisons than schools! We currently have 1% of the US population locked up -- more than other country in the world. And what are the majority of people in prison for? Drug offenses. Does anybody else see a corollary here?

Kids are naturally wired for art in its many, many forms. Drugs can't replace this deep need. Kids don't lose interest in hands-on, brain-based education; quite the contrary, their hearts, hands, and minds are totally engaged.

LA Arts Town Hall Meeting

I always like it when artsy people get together just to see what kind of jewelry they're wearing. I realize this is a rather shallow view, but I look forward to the displays of creativity worn about the neck and on ears. Yes, Tracy Cheney does enjoy fun jewelry.

Perhaps the anticipation of somber art news hadn't inspired many of the participants when they got dressed this morning. There were a few crafty pieces to admire among the crowd of 575, but for the most part, it wasn't a particularly festive group that gathered in the gray morning mist. The gray mood matched the sky.

This town hall meeting was an assessment of the state of the arts -- particularly funding.

I suppose the news many of us heard who were dependent upon grants confirmed what we already knew. The foundations who provide so much of our funding are in deep trouble, like any of us who lost money in the Wall Street fiasco. The largest supporter of the arts in CA, the Irvine Foundation, saw $600,000,000 disappear this year! Oweee.

I think the saddest news is that this was not the worst year... that's coming up, and will last for three years. I didn't know that foundations operate on three year cycles with the IRS. So this year sort of didn't count. Most foundations tried to delay the pain and maintain what they had committed to (except for positions like mine that were cut!). The deep gouges are expected to last through 2012. Of course, things could pick up!

Not all was doom and gloom: $50,000,000 was secured for the arts in Obama's stimulus package. This will be distributed out to state art agencies. 85,000 art supporters -- many in the room -- had written or called Congress. Rep. Norm Dicks shepherded it through. Robert Redford and other celebrities made calls the night before the vote.

What will the public get from this money? 40,850 arts-related businesses employ 190,267 people in Los Angeles County. In LA, 4.3% of all businesses are art-related, and that's 2.3% of all jobs across the US -- 6 million of them. There are more non-profit art organizations than ever. In 1965 there were 7,000. Today it's 100,000! Now 10% of those are in danger of going under, as 20% of the private funding disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The arts are the most invisible, secret weapon. It's too bad we have to continuously make the case for our existence!

Looking for Exciting Kid Art Classes This Summer?

ART WITH THE ANIMALS

Every now and then I have offered art classes for kids. I'm teaming up with Reptacular Animals this summer for a truly unique art teaching experience -- they will bring a different exotic animal to class each week as the class models! If you're looking for kids art classes in Los Angeles, these will be fun ones to attend.

Instead of going to the zoo, a mini-zoo of kid-friendly animals will come to art class. The children get to handle the animals, and then make an art project based on them and their habitat. Doing something exciting like this is enough to get me out on a Saturday morning. This will be a very memorable art experience for creative kids. I'm having fun planning what we'll be doing. Drawing with a 10 foot python draped around the shoulders would be a totally different way to learn art!

Check out Reptacular's really neat website to see who will be coming to art class http://www.reptacularanimals.com/. They have over 150 animals from giant reptiles and creepy crawlies to furry pocket pets and colorful parrots.

This will be hands-on instruction in every sense of the word. We'll be drawing, painting, and making sculptures of the live animals. We'll look at animals in famous artworks.

Saturday classes run throughout the summer. Children may come to one or all sessions. An art camp will be offered during the last two weeks of August. Those are the hardest weeks of the summer for kids and parents...all the other camps are finished...kids are bored...parents can't wait for the school year to begin again.... So, that's why you'll want to bring them to make some art. This is an unparalled opportunity for kids who want art classes in Los Angeles!

Here are the details:

For elementary school-aged students.

All materials supplied.

Classes will be taught at Berkeley Hall School located at 16000 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles 90049 -- halfway between the San Fernando Valley and the west side off 405.

Saturday classes 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. $125 for 7 weeks or $20 a class for drop-ins. July 11 - August 22.

Summer Camp 1 August 17 to 21 (focus on color)
Summer Camp 2 August 24 to 28 (focus on media)
10:00 to 2:00 p.m. $200/ sibling discounts.

Call 818.727.1594 to register!

L.A. Town Hall Meeting About the Arts

Friday, June 12th, art educators, artists, and arts organization leaders will be streaming into downtown LA for a town hall meeting at the Japanese American Cultural Center. The sorry state of arts funding is sure to be on everyone's mind. This all-day event will be exploring arts advocacy. The roster of speakers certainly have years of experience to share.

Even if you can't attend, check out www.artsforla.org/townhallsessions to see what's happening. There have been events, petitions, rallies, and protests around the state -- and even at school board meetings. Since artists are used to problem-solving in all aspects of creating and teaching, you have to believe that this dire situation we find ourselves mired in can be turned around -- creatively!

One of the cool things experienced when working through the creative process is watching chaos begin to form into order. And then discovering how all the pieces come together once the solution becomes evident. Surely, the same is true for our present crisis. The solutions may not be evident now, but the creative process sets about working on them even when we're not fully aware of doing so. The "right brain" techniques used by artists a great deal of their time can't be made to produce on a specific time table -- it's not like a "left brain" function such as adding two numbers together to get the same predictable answer every time, anytime. Ah, that's a major reason why citizens need to be taught through the arts: they need to know how to problem-solve -- especially in situations where there is no one right answer to be found!

Parents and Kids Out to Save Teacher Jobs

Literally, parents and kids are walking out on strike this Friday, May 15! There's a group of parents who are boiling mad about what's happening in the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) -- the pink slips, cuts, funding or I should say, the lack thereof. Maybe they can't save my art job, but they sure want to try. They are standing up for their kids and their school experience.

Here's what they're doing -- they're setting up lemonade stands around the city. If you see one, stop! Buy! Support! Protest! The goal is to get one up in front of every school on Friday afternoons until LAUSD changes. Started by three angry moms, they're taking a stand.

If you want to hear about this in person, head to Balboa Park in Encino on Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. If you can't make that event, support the lemonade initiative. A yummy, kid-based protest!!

http://www.lemonadeinitiative.com/The_Lemonade_Initiative/HOME/HOME.html

Another Art Teacher Cut From the Schools!

Unfortunately, that art teacher is me! Yep, the art job disappeared at spring break when the grant money evaporated. While other teachers in LAUSD got pink slips the same day, but still teach until the end of the year, the art program had to pack up and go home. The big stimulus package didn't trickle down far enough to save the position. Sad for kids, sad for education, sad for me!

In California, and LA in particular, art teachers exist at the edge. While funding has been precarious over the years, never more so than now. It is especially sad when you realize that despite the money issues, this will be the only time the kids are in elementary school and the opportunity is lost for them.

Hopefully, the brief time we had together at that school will always be memorable. How many spelling tests do you remember throughout your life? But art projects you do. It's always been remarkable to me to listen to adults recount those in later life. I well remember a sixth grade maraca project made out of light bulb -- it's what made me decide that teachers shouldn't grade art projects if they can't help students fix their art!

However, we just wish there was still an art class to fuss about right now! It's going to be a long climb to tackle this money hill and restore art to its rightful place in the school curriculum.

How the Creative Classroom Differs From the Traditional

When the goal is to create students who self-initiate their learning and are excited by it, they have to have a teacher who provides that kind of atmosphere. First of all, the teacher has to believe in it and support these kind of activities. The classroom must be a warm and friendly place. As much as I'm in and out of various classrooms, I see this attitude less and less. Believe me, there's so much intense pressure to drive kids through a very prescribed curriculum that I understand it to a degree.

I think that what's happening in education is destroying teachers and kids alike. For creative thinking to take place, teachers must be able to provide the kinds of activities that stimulate it. Not much time for that, I'm afraid. They also have to train kids not to be dependent on them as the authority for all right answers. But in "left-brain"subjects, correct answers are all there are. The teacher either knows them, or the book that has them is right on her desk. The solution is already worked out. Of course, that's how it is when kids have to learn multiplication or spelling.

But if we want kids to be good problem-solvers, they need a different kind of approach entirely somewhere in their school day. In this case, the teacher is not the final authority, as the focus is not on finding the one right answer. Instead, an encouraging atmosphere conducive to exploration in depth and experimentation is needed. This is the opposite of memorization. Kids and teachers have less and less experience with this type of classroom activity. And yet, this kind of thinking is what society will need.

I was rather sad to read about studies that show the naturally creative child is not always liked by his/he teacher. If good behavior is considered to be polite and quiet, the child who is full of curiosity, questions the teacher, and has plenty of original ideas himself can be a handful. But once engaged in a meaningful activity, the student is no longer out of his seat and distracted, but actively learning independently. This is actually the habit we want to cultivate -- taking individual initiative and making meaning of their learning. But since school has become almost entirely "left brain" -- focused on the subjects that can easily be measured by through testing -- students have become extremely dependent upon the teacher for every aspect of their learning. Kids either sit waiting to be told what to do, look constantly for her approval, or must follow formulaic procedures rather than explore their own inventiveness.

I see the result of this in art classes, even down to the youngest students in kindergarten. They are so conditioned to work sheets, and being spoon fed instructions each step of the way, that they have a hard time knowing what to do when presented with an open-ended project to figure out on their own. It's hard to witness this happening, but it's really accelerated in the last decade under No Child Left Behind. I'd say, No Imagination Left!

Art Education is on the Minds of Some Famous Folks

With the National Endowment for the Arts in the news due to its small portion of the stimulus package -- and being the ever-favorite punching bag of some politicos -- the LA Times ran a fun survey. They asked 30 famous faces what they'd do if they were in charge of the agency. Of course, my personal favorites are those who zero in on art education: Phylicia Rashad, Tim Robbins, and Joel Wachs all said they'd put art back into the schools. Well, if those aren't the smartest celebs on the block -- sign them up. I hear the chair of the NEA is open! Hire one of them please, as my teaching job is in jeopardy!

Yes, the grant funding my teaching program at an at-risk school has dried up suddenly. Friday the 13th is "Wear Pink" day in the Los Angeles School District -- as that's the day thousands of colleagues will receive their pink slips. I've already made a little button to wear, "I Got Mine, How About You?" At least those teachers can earn to the end of the year. My job ends now in three weeks. This financial mess has definitely gotten personal!

Anyway, catch the article here, and click on your favorite famous face to read their comments.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/02/nea-if-i-ran-th.html

Doodling Is GOOD For You Say Psychologists

Art educators are forever having to justify to their own school colleagues, school board members, legislators ... and just about everybody in society except kids and parents, that what they do is really important. So, I loved finding this little snippet on a fun art site called Abrakadoodle. Click on their links to find good art ideas and projects for kids. See, it isn't only me telling you guys this stuff!

From www.abrakadoodle.blogspot.com:

"New research published February 27, 2009 in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that the act of "doodling" may help improve memory recall. Study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, Ph.D., of the School of Psychology, University of Plymouth said, "This study suggests that in everyday life doodling may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

Ah-ha! To all of you doodlers out there, take heart. What you've been told about your creative habit is all wrong!

If you'd like to find some doodle art ideas for kids, Abrakadoodle features online creativity games -- look under the "Kids" tab on their website. And you know how it is, the more you do something, the better you get at it. Fortunately, you don't have to be a great artist to doodle, but doodling may turn you into a great artist.

http://www.abrakadoodle.com

March is Arts Education Month

Traditionally March has been celebrated as Youth Art Month with displays of art work hanging in all sorts of public venues across the country. CA Assembly Member Davis (D-Los Angeles) introduced a bill declaring March 2009 as Arts Education Month. Assembly Member Davis is the chair of the Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee. We'll take all the support and publicity we can get -- including $$.

Even with this public show of support, Laurie Schell, California Alliance for Arts Education Executive Director, cautions that the future of arts education in California is at a critical juncture right now. Although a new state budget was finally, belatedly passed on February 19th that included art money for schools, there are changes that concern educators and activists regarding the visual and performing arts instruction in our public schools.

The good news -- which we haven't heard much of lately -- is that the Arts and Music Block Grant remained in the budget, and will so for the next four years. The bad news is that these funds have been cut 15% this year, to be followed by another 5% next year. Well, it could have been far worse in my view -- 50% cuts, or funding left out altogether.

The bigger concern is that new regulations have been included which give the districts complete flexibility as to how they'll spending state funds. Given the dire circumstances they're facing, it's not out of the realm of possibility that school districts will choose to spend that money on something other than arts education.

So, arts advocates have been busy around the state -- showing up at school board meetings to protest cuts. It's caused some districts to reverse their proposed course of actions. If you'd like to help swell the grassroots movement, head to: http://www.artsed411.org/advocate/tips.aspx It's only with a lot of support from ordinary citizens that we're going to find the solutions to turn this thing around! Ultimately, that's good for the state and all kids.

"Burning Moms" on Fire to Change Schools

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Power of ONE can move mountains. Meet Spike Dolomite Ward, the founder and director of Arts in Education Aid Council. Her passion to have art for her own kids in school has inspired her to bring art to as many San Fernando Valley students as possible. I work at one of those schools. She's positively impacting thousands of young lives with the kind of education they crave.

Spike is one of those "burning moms," a group of moms on fire to change LAUSD's culture and assault on the arts. In fact, these moms -- under the tutelage of radio personality Sandra Tsing Lo -- have created a support/activist group. They are also planning their second Million Mom March to the state capitol in June. Art educators -- art lovers -- support them!

Meet some moms who are fired up:

http://www.twcsocalnews.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=26&task=videodirectlink&id=1443

(if you look closely, there's shot of some of my student artwork -- a San Fernando Valley still life)

http://www.955klos.com/Article.asp?id=634993&spid=24579

What the Senate Giveth, It Also Threatens to Taketh Away

I have taken this news alert as it appeared directly from Americans For the Arts. Just when it seemed we in the arts were gleefully jumping up and down as our recognition as job creators was part of the stimulus bill, the proverbial rug gets yanked out once again! When will the enlightment ever occur???!!! Want to do something good for the economy and for the soul? Throw some much-needed written support towards the Senate ASAP. Here's how to do it:


February 6, 2009

Breaking News
This afternoon the U.S. Senate, during their consideration of the economic recovery bill, approved an egregious amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that stated “None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project.” Unfortunately, the amendment passed by a wide vote margin of 73-24, and surprisingly included support from many high profile Senators including Chuck Schumer of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and several other Democratic and Republican Senators.

If the Coburn amendment language is included in the final conference version of this legislation, many arts groups will be prevented from receiving economic recovery funds from any portion of this specific stimulus bill. It is clear that there is still much work to be done in the Senate and in the media about the role that nonprofit arts organizations and artists play in the nation’s economy and workforce.

Plan of Action

1. Arts advocates need to quickly contact Senators who voted for the Coburn Amendment and express your extreme disappointment with their vote. We need these Senators to know that their vote would detrimentally impact nonprofit arts organizations and the jobs they support in their state. We have crafted a customized message for you to send to your Senators based on their vote on the Coburn Amendment. The correct letter, customized to each of your Senators will appear when you enter your zip code. If your Senator voted for this funding prohibition, you can send them a message expressing your disappointment and ask them to work to delete this language in the final conference bill with the House. If your Senator voted against the Coburn Amendment, you can thank them for their support of the arts.
   
   
2. We need as many news articles as possible this coming week to publish stories about the economic impact of the nonprofit arts industry and how the recession is negatively affecting arts groups across the country. Please click here to customize an opinion editorial to your local media. We have provided you with easy-to-use talking points.
   
   
3. Next week, Americans for the Arts will be sending you another action alert that targets the White House and the soon-to-be-named Senators and Representatives who will serve as conferees to the final economic recovery bill. Please be prepared to take action on this alert as well.
   
   
4. Americans for the Arts itself is submitting op-eds to several national newspapers and online blogs. We are enlisting high profile leaders to co-sign these letters as well.
   
   
5. Americans for the Arts is purchasing full-page ads titled “The Arts = Jobs” in Washington’s top political newspapers in Roll Call, Politico and The Hill on Monday and Tuesday of next week. We encourage you to post the ad on your social network sites.

Please help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund. Play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today -- it's free and simple.

Please May I Have a Sliver of the Economic Recovery Pie?

A perennially grumpy loser of the election greeted me with a comment that got me thinking: since he believes the Economic Recovery Plan was filled with pork for just about everybody and anything, I'd probably get some of that wasteful $5o million earmarked for the arts. Well yes, I would like that! Could "trickle down" economics finally work for me?

Let me assure you that the arts organizations give a lot of bang for their bucks. They are expert at squeezing as much worth as they can from what they're given -- trying to touch as many lives as possible. Artists and the creative community do with very little, but give far more in return.

I am most fortunate to work part-time for an arts organization solely funded by grant monies from foundations and individuals who believe that arts education in the schools is a fundamental necessity. I work alongside all the teachers at a school, teaching hundreds of students -- putting in the same school day, arrive an hour ahead for prep and stay an hour or more afterward to clean up, commute 30 miles, have a master's degree in education -- yet I do not receive a salary that covers my rent, pay a whopping self-employment tax, receive no benefits, retirement, or health insurance. Even so, I love sharing with students how to use their creative skills that will ultimately lead to a successful work experience for them.

Yep, I'd like a slice of that stimulus package to be able to continue stimulating all those little minds.

New President - New Hope for the Arts

It looks as if there's going to be a $50 million arts appropriation in Obama's "recovery" plan! The arts community is so used to being shunted, that this recognition seems downright shocking. For us? Not just crumbs?

Music producer Quincy Jones has been spearheading a campaign to urge President Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts or Culture within his administration (this is just one of the recommendations put forward in the Arts Policy in the New Administration ). You can see Jones discuss the need for this position in an interview from last December and sign the online petition to show your support.

Proposals to Congress to Save the Arts

Last week, Americans for the Arts officially proposed Nine Recommendations for Economic Recovery & the Arts to Congress to help nonprofit and governmental arts groups as well as individual artists during this economic downturn. Today, Americans for the Arts President and CEO Bob Lynch met with the Obama Transition Team to discuss these and other ideas.


These are the proposals:

Americans for the Arts Recommendations	House of Representatives Proposal
Include artists in the proposal for Unemployment & Healthcare Benefits for Part-Time Employees	Proposes to extend unemployment insurance coverage for low-wage, part-time, and other jobless workers
Boost arts projects in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)	$1 billion in additional funding for CDBG
Provide economic recovery support to the National Endowment for the Arts to be administered by local arts agencies	$50 million in additional appropriations for the National Endowment for the Arts
Include cultural planning through Economic Development Administration program (Department of Commerce)	$250 million for Economic Development Assistance
Increase community cultural facilities support in Rural Development Program (Department of Agriculture)	$200 million for critical rural community facilities
Provide more support for arts projects in Transportation Enhancements (Department of Transportation)	$31 billion to modernize federal and other public infrastructure
Fulfill the Obama pledge for an “Artist Corps”	$200 million to put approximately 16,000 additional AmeriCorps members to work doing national service
Make Human Capital Investments in Arts Job Training (U.S. Department of Labor)	$5 billion for working training and employment services

Take Action
The Senate and the White House will likely unveil additional versions of an economic recovery package. We are calling on arts advocates to contact your House and Senate members and your local media to raise the profile of why it’s important to ensure there is support for the nonprofit arts sector in the federal economic recovery plan.

1. Write to your Members of Congress
2. Send a letter to the editor of your local media

March on Washington, D.C. in March

Okay, I realize Obama's inauguration is still a week away, and here I am advertising the Arts Advocacy Day planned for March 31. If you aren't one of the lucky millions heading to the capital on January 20, then go when it's less crowded! Arts Advocacy Day will be important, and you'll actually get to meet some Washington, D.C. bigwigs. You'll be able to get a hotel room, too!

Now, the idea is to visit your congressional members and push for funding for the arts and art education. An army of support is needed to peg every single one of them. There will even be a "Lobbying 101" workshop to attend on March 30 to make sure everybody is effectively engaging their state's delegation.

Sound fun? Sound important? That's why I'm telling you now so you can make your travel arrangements. It'll be spring break, so don't wait until the last minute.

Check out the details here:
http://www.artsusa.org/events/2009/aad/default.asp

The Power of One

A New Year's resolution for all of you art education supporters would be to do something tangible to save or support our favorite topic at this blog. Now! You can make a financial donation to your favorite arts organization, even sign a petition of outrage over LAUSD's freezing of art funds and art teacher salaries in December until our governor signs a budget (which a month later has still not happened!). Or you can do as Spike Dolomite Ward has done, and go out and secure grant money and give it back to your school to maintain any shred of an art program it has left.

I first heard of Spike in a chance comment made by one of my favorite local NPR commentators, Sandra Tsing Loh. She happened to mention that Spike was busy trying to save art in San Fernando Valley public schools. Whoa! I wanted to meet this woman, and through a variety of twists and turns found her in a closet-sized office in Canoga Park distributing funds she'd raised herself to a couple hundred schools!!!

Spike started off like a lot of moms of little kids entering LA public schools -- she was totally shocked to discover that her kindergarteners' school did not have an art program. And this in the most creative city anywhere, where there are great-paying jobs for those trained in the arts. Being an artist, Spike volunteered in her son's classroom...which spilled over to other classrooms. You know how volunteers are when they're passionate about something. They give!

After a couple of years, Spike found herself making a promise to the school principal -- she'd fund an art program the next year. Spike had been paying for her own supplies when she taught her own classes. Now she'd really put herself on the line. What a daunting prospect: where was she going to get the money for every class, and an art teacher?? She needed at least $14,000 she figured, and it wasn't coming from her grocery money.

Operating out of her garage at first, she did it! In fact, after nine years, she's secured support from something like 30 organizations and foundations. And you have to realize, she's doing this for other peoples' kids. She gives the money for cultural field trips, music lessons, and art supplies free to 200 schools. She funds full-time programs at five elementary schools for students who would not have access to any of it. We're talking about an individual school program that costs around $100,000 a year. All given free!

Don't you think your PTA could at least do that for the children of your own school?

There are another 195 elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley waiting for an art program.

If Spike Dolomite Ward thinks it can be done, then why not join her? A contribution to her arts organization would be an outstanding New Year's art resolution, don't you think? "Arts In Education Aid Council" says it all. I promise the money goes to a good cause. I should know, I now teach in one of the schools Spike supports. You could supply paint and paper and tangibly touch a child's soul.

Here's your New Year's good deed: read all about www.aieac.org and make a donation.

And if you want to help urge the Los Angeles school board to rescue what little is left of the arts programs in LAUSD schools, here's that link. Sign the petition right now. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/restore-funding-for-lausds-arts-partners