New Arts Education Advocacy Toolkit now available from ArtServe Michigan!

ArtServe Michigan

Arts Education Toolkit

Arts Education Toolkit and Resource Guide

ArtServe is pleased to announce the release of its Arts Education Toolkit and Arts, Culture and Arts Education Resource Guide. Made possible by a grant from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Kennedy Center National Partnerships Program, the toolkit was developed following months of planning, research and, most importantly, discussions with teachers and advocates from around the state, to determine what would serve as the best resource to inform, equip, engage and inspire arts education advocates to action.

ArtServe Michigan's Arts Education Toolkit is a resource to help you effectively take action on arts education issues at the national, state and, most importantly, local level. It contains information, guidance and resources applicable to the dynamics in Michigan combined with information provided in the model Arts Education Advocacy Toolkit developed by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network in 2009. We hope that this resource will be helpful to you in gaining the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to work with others to urge awareness and support for arts education in Michigan schools.

The Arts, Culture and Arts Education Resource Guide was developed to accompany the ArtServe Michigan Arts Education Toolkit. It serves as a handheld guide to arts education advocacy in Michigan.

While ArtServe will be strategically mailing this to each of Michigan's 549 school districts, 16 statewide arts education associations and other stakeholders it is important to spread this any arts education advocate throughout the state. The toolkit and resource guide are available for download at http://www.artservemichigan.org/?q=node/26

If you would like hard copies of the materials that include additional arts education resources please contact Mike Latvis at mike@artservemichigan.org or 248-379-5897. While we will attempt to mail as many copies at no charge there may be a small charge for shipping depending on quantities requested.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact ArtServe Michigan's Director of Public Policy, Mike Latvis at mike@artservemichigan.org or 248-379-5897.

FREE EVENT: For Arts Educators on 8/25 10a-noon @ Scarab Club in Detroit

The Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan has announced the following opportunity for Cultural Arts Educators:

"We are very fortunate to have John Williams (South East Macomb Educational Consortium and Career Pathways founder) presenting our next free GLEC and Michigan Standards Seminar on August 25, 2008 from 10 a.m.-12 noon at the Scarab Club in Detroit--public parking lot adjacent ($5--pay attendant at booth).

He will talk with us about the current state of Career Education in the state and nation and speak in particular about how our wonderful Cultural Arts organizations are prime examples of how to incorporate and understand careers in many fields including programs such as mentorships, internships, and community-service base projects!

Please RSVP by August 21 (see Amy's contact info below), if you plan to attend.

Amy J. DeWys-VanHecke
313-330-8324
amy@culturalalliancesemi.org"

ARTS ED: Opera Written by MI Children!

Please find some of the press coverage that InsideOut Literary Art Project and the Michigan Opera Theater have received for the Hanstein Elementary School's third and fourth grade students' original production of the opera The Ringer of the Moon:

Listen to Principal Bernadine Carroll and the students from Hanstein Elementary School talk about the first ever opera written by children. (Note: The link brings you to a DPS radio show, where you will find the opera segment in the middle.)http://www.wrcjfm.org/ondemand/dps/ondemand.htm

Read more about the students' original production of the opera The Ringer of the Moon in the Detroit Free Press.

ARTS ED: GR-area Students Create Poetry Ezine

The Grand Rapids Humanities Council has announced the launch of a new web venture called Through the 3rd Eye, an ezine full of poetry, commentary, and literary news and created by area students, ages 13-21, under the mentorship of Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Rodney Torreson. The site was made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

http://throughthe3rdeye.com/

ARTS ED: Visual, Performing and Applied Arts in MI High Schools

This blog is an incredible resource of information for those in Michigan trying to cultivate creativity in our children through the public school system. It is dedicated to doing this by using the Michigan Merit Curriculum Visual, Performing, and Applied Arts Credit , which is now required for high school graduation here in our state.

A learning community to maximize Michigan's capacity to support creativity through the 1-credit graduation requirement in the visual, performing, and applied arts.

http://mivpaa.blogspot.com/

ARTS ED: Art video game

This group began "following" me using Twitter, so I decided to check them out. Apparently they have a very basic video game that deals with 2 players: Art Dealer and Art Critic. All one needs is a keyboard and mouse to play it seems, not going to raise the eyebrows of young gamers, but teachers may be able to use it to engage their students in a different way. Tell me what you think after you check it out here at http://ttt-games.com:8080/ttt/art-game.html

ARTS ED: NEA invites MI team to Nat'l Conference

Arts/education conference invites team from Michigan
The National Endowment for the Arts has chosen a team of educational and cultural leaders from Michigan to participate in the second Education Leaders Institute in Chicago this week. The six-member team includes Steve Hamp, chairman of the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, and Cindy Ornstein, board member of Wixom-based ArtServe Michigan. The Michigan team will consider fundamental changes to how arts, creativity, culture and education in Michigan can better prepare students.

http://crainsdetroit.com/article/20080714/SUB/807140344/1076

ARTS ED: High School for the Recording Arts

I learned about the High School for Recording Arts program at a “HipHop inside K-12 Education” session at the Americans for the Arts conference in Philadelphia, PA last month. The program has had tremendous success with many students that other schools had either failed or given up on. Many of the students were dropouts before enrolling and the program now boasts incredible retention and graduation rates. The kids get access to professional equipment to produce their own projects and learn the business of the recording industry hands-on AS LONG as they are able to keep up a certain grade point average with their regular high school classes. This program is currently ongoing in Minnesota and in the session they mentioned that another location will be opening soon in NY. We need programs like this in MI!