me arts ed

Thanks to Sarah Sutter for creating the series of 5 Youtubes for the meartsed blog.

Music teachers Sam and Nancy go to D.C.

Nancy Curran and Sam Moore-Young attended the annual Music Education Week and National Assembly of State Leaders in Washington DC. You can see them in this photo enjoying a moment with Mike Butera, the Executive Director of MENC.

Plymouth State University, Plymouth, NH

Gail Kilkelly, VT, Macia McCaffrey, NH and myself

Marcia McCaffrey, NH and Gail Kilkelly, VT are the arts education specialists for their states. They have collaborated to sponsor the New England Arts Assessment Institute (NEAAI). There are 38 participants and 12 consultants spending four days at Plymouth State University. The consultants have a wide variety of skills, expertise, and knowledge to share. They are from Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Oregon.

I have traveled here with music educator Rob Westerberg and visual art educator Catherine Ring to learn more about assessment and to discuss a plan for arts assessment in Maine. I will post again to insure communication with you on the work and include information on our discussions.

Mockingbird Foundation: Grants for Music Education

The Mockingbird Foundation grants funds to schools and nonprofits to effect improvements in music education for children (see website for specific requirements). Mockingbird is interested in targeting children 18 years or younger, but will consider projects that benefit college students, teachers, instructors, or adult students.

Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: public schools K-12, 501(c)3 organizations.

Deadline for letters of inquiry: September 1, 2010. For more information, please click here.

Thanks for Sarah Sutter for video taping

Jason was the keynote speaker last week at the MLTI Summer Institute in Castine. I will embed 5 YouTubes in the next few days that Sarah kindly created for the meartsed blog.

Maine Arts Commission awarded over $92,000 in Arts Education Funding

The Maine Arts Commission recently approved 11 SMART (Schools Make Art Relevant Today) grants for a total of $92, 550 in funding. The grant provides funding for arts education projects and has a maximum award of $10,000. There is one deadline each year.

SMART grants have been traditionally awarded to projects serving elementary school populations but this year a unique project was presented by the University of Maine at Augusta to provide funds to create a Youth Orientated program of the University of Maine, Augusta, or YoUMA for short.

YoUMA is a summer interdisciplinary arts immersion program with a focus on visual and performing arts for up to 100 rising sophomore, junior and senior high school students, and also recent graduates and GED recipients.

Students will receive college credit for each week completed in the course and will have a glimpse into the life of a college art student, and the subsequent positive college experience. YoUMA will orient students to higher education and promote attendance using artistic modes of problem solving, which, in turn, bring an array of expressive, analytical, and development tools for each student.

The review committee applauded the University for recognizing that arts education is one way to keep students in school until they graduate and working to make connections between high school and college is a gap that needs to be bridged.

Other grants awarded under the SMART grant were:

• The Auburn School Department for an arts-based afterschool program, $9,915
• Biddeford School Department, for an in school dance residency, $2,635
• Figures of Speech Theatre, for Figures of Speech Student Ensemble, $10,000
• Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, or a community-based artist residency with and student mentor program, $5,000
• Maine Alliance for Arts Education, for the LINC program, $10,000
• John F. Murphy Homes, Inc., for a creative movement program, $10,000
• Portland Museum of Art, for a two-year art immersion program for high school students, $5,000
• Sanford School Department, for a project utilizing professional artists to instruct students and staff, $10,000
• The Telling Room, to allow students to work with writers and a comic book artist to tell their stories, $10,000
• Tides Institute and Museum of Art, for artist residencies, workshop and visiting artist program, $10,000

For more information on the Maine Arts Commission’s SMART grant visit MaineArts.com.