Arts in Education Week: National School of Distinction in Arts Education

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts recently announced that Phoenix’s Mountain Pointe High School would receive one of four national awards for schools of distinction in arts education. This Kennedy Center award honors schools that “have done an outstanding job of making the arts essential to the education of their students.”

Mountain Pointe was among schools nominated by the Arizona Alliance for Arts Education. Selection criteria included a review of the ways in which arts education is an essential component of a school’s curriculum and the process involved submission of work samples by each area of arts curriculum in the school – Visual Arts, Music, Dance and Theatre.

Arizona is home to numerous outstanding arts programs. As a professional pianist, I have had the opportunity to spend many hours in the music and theatre classrooms of Arizona schools. I have gotten to see firsthand how the arts change the lives of young people. Mountain Pointe High School exemplifies this sentiment and represents the impact a comprehensive arts curriculum can have on a community.

National Arts in Education Week is the perfect time to shine a spotlight on programs like these, and we’d love to hear from you about the programs you’re connected to or involved with. Share your success stories in the comments section below.

Read the full press release from Mountain Pointe High School here and a news article about the award here.

Information about the debt ceiling and NEA

This blog was written by Gabi Porter, a graduate student at George Washington University in Washington DC.

For the past few weeks now, it’s been hard to ignore the rumblings over the looming debt ceiling grow to an alarming crescendo.

Simply put, the debt ceiling is a cap set by Congress on the amount of money the federal government can borrow. By raising the debt ceiling, Congress is essentially upping the government’s credit limit. Unfortunately, Republicans (who have a majority representation in the House of Representatives), have tied their vote to raise the debt ceiling to even further budget cuts than those they passed this spring.

The Treasury Department estimates that the United States will be unable to fulfill its financial obligations by August 2, our country will be forced to default on our loans—meaning that we would be unable to pay members of the military, write checks for Social Security and Medicare, or make the necessary payments to banks and individual creditors both domestically and internationally. There has been some debate over how this would impact the economy at large, but everyone can agree that it would not be good.

Raising the debt ceiling is too important to the national and international economies to be tied to further partisan bickering, especially when the cuts suggested could do serious harm to the fragile recovery and hurt our chances of bringing in future revenues.

Unfortunately, arts and culture is one of the first places that the federal government looks to slash costs. This spring, the House passed a $40 million cut to the arts endowment, and continue to push deeper cuts across the board—some even going so far as calling to completely eliminate federal arts funding.

The National Arts Endowment is a lifeline for artists and arts organizations across the country that have already seen their state funding slashed in recent years. By completely defunding the program, arts and culture across the country would suffer.

Not only are the arts a key part of cultivating a vibrant community, but they are a huge industry. The nonprofit arts sector contributes $166 billion dollars annually, employs 5.7 million people, and pays $30 billion in tax revenue. Seems a bit counterintuitive for the government to cut funding to a sector that pays them $30 billion a year, doesn’t it?

Now more than ever the arts community needs you to be an advocate.

Reach out to Arizona Citizens for the Arts to get involved, or write your Senators and Congressional representatives (you can find your congressional district and the address and telephone number of your representatives here). Tell them your story, how the arts make your life richer; improve the local economy, and are a vital part of our national identity.

Don’t forget that your representatives answer to you, so make your voice heard. Please contact your representatives today.

Choose to Volunteer

This blog was written by Michelle Peralta, long time employee of AzCA/AA.

As our local economies are working to rebuild, nonprofit arts organizations struggle to maintain their programs and services on smaller budgets. Volunteers are a vital component to the success of projects, programs, events, and day-to-day activities.  Volunteer work provides organizations with a free resource to help them meet their mission or goals. Volunteerism comes in all shapes and sizes and there is something for everyone.

Short Term- Volunteer for one day, one week or one month assisting on as needed basis doing things such as: answering phones, helping out with administrative tasks, etc. Short term volunteerism is good for people who cannot really commit but are willing to be put on a list and called upon when the need arises.

Long Term - Becoming a long-term volunteer requires a commitment from you to the arts organization of your choice. Some places will have you go through training and commit for a season or a year at a time.  Long-term volunteer opportunities vary per organization and can range from becoming an usher to the morning receptionist or becoming a mentor or board member.  Being a long-term volunteer is great for individuals wishing to really connect with and contribute to the organization.

Special Events - Volunteer at Special Events! This is a really fun way to get involved. Volunteers are the backbone to special events and always needed.  The most typical area where event volunteers can be utilized are Registration and the Silent Auction or Raffle. Every event is different as well as its needs for volunteers. Don’t hesitate to ask your favorite arts organization if they can use some volunteer help for their events.

Project or Program based – Many times organizations will determine a specific need that has goals and objectives and usually a timeline. These positions can come in the form of an internship, ad-hoc committee, teaching instructor, or donating your special skills (ie; marketing, graphic design, legal advice) that would otherwise cost the organization money they cannot afford.  This is great for individuals with specialized skills who want to give back.

Micro Volunteering - Are you unable to devote a certain number of hours or a dedicated time frame? You may still be able to volunteer as a Micro-Volunteer. You can do things such as distributing event fliers in your community, Tweeting about events, making phone calls for donations, or becoming an advocatefor the cause.  These are things you can do from your own home or in your day-to-day activities.

Not that you need a reason, but below are some benefits of volunteerism.

• personal sense of accomplishment
• psychological and mental health
• build social networks
• gain work experience
• learn new skills
• receive school credit

Of the many types of volunteerism available, each organization may use different terminology and have different opportunities available to the public. Check their websites and/or call and talk to the receptionist to get more info. Some places even have a staff member devoted to volunteers. Take the first step and contact your favorite arts organization (or two) and find out how you can volunteer.

Pop Up Summer in Phoenix

This summer its easy to see that the Pop Up galleries trend is alive and well. Last week, I visited one of the newest Pop Up galleries in Downtown, The Rise Project Gallery.

Joseph “Sentrock” Perez is the co-founder of the Rise Project Gallery and was kind enough to give me a tour and talk with me about the gallery.

Sentrock and Ruben Gonzales started the new gallery to show case and sell their works. Ruben has a clothing line called 11th Monkey and you can find his t-shirts, hats and more at the Rise Project Gallery. Sentrock is a painter and all around artist; you’ll find his works for sale and appreciation at the gallery.

The thing that stood out as particularly important about this gallery was that 30% of the profits are donated to the Rise Project, an after school program that teaches kids the value of school, community and builds confidence through hip hop, dance and music.

So here it is, the middle of summer in Downtown Phoenix and the arts are doing two things, as evident by the Rise Project Gallery.

1. The arts are creating a thriving local economy every day here in Downtown. Where shops and store fronts could be vacant, you’ll find many a pop up gallery and many a permanent gallery. These small businesses support local artists, crafts people and business people. You’ll find them busy on First Fridays, as well as most other days during the month. They also support other entrepreneurial endeavors, such as restaurants, coffee shops, music venues, etc.

2. Arts small businesses are contributing to the community by giving back to the community. Perhaps its the Roosevelt Row spirit that has infused many small arts businesses, but it seems that these arts and business proprietors value giving back and directly contributing to the creation and sustaining of community here in Phoenix.

There are a million reasons to go out and support these creative entrepreneurs, I hope you’ll spend some time this week and weekend checking out the diverse and ever-expanding creative businesses of Downtown Phoenix and Arizona.

On the Benefits of an Arts Education

Today’s blog was written by a guest blogger, Jessica Jones.

Jessica Jones a recent graduate from Arizona State University’s Herberger School of Dance. She has performed with several Arizona dance companies, and most recently, with Ashleigh Leite Dance at the Gotham Arts Festival in New York City. She is currently pursuing her dance career in Seattle, Washington.

I’ve always been a dreamer; grandiose ideas of swanky dinner parties (without the patience to send out invitations), attending a private university (but forgetting the couch can only hide so many quarters), of moving to Europe (without first experiencing all of America). I am sure most people have carried these thoughts within themselves at one point in time. To say you have never been a dreamer is to say your five year old self never answered the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, that you never played “house” or Cops and Robbers or Star Wars or Pretty, Pretty Princess. What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a teacher (or Mia Hamm, a professional soccer player). I’d create lessons and use my mini white board to teach my stuffed animals English or math.  However, I would also lock myself in my room, choreograph dances, and perform those to my stuffed animals (they were very well-read toys).

Summer arts and culture

Its July in Arizona, so naturally it is incredibly hot outside. If you are looking for ways to keep busy and keep cool this summer there are tons of options.

Check out the Culture Pass from your local library and receive 2 free admissions to arts and culture organizations listed on the card. What’s better than that? Free admissions to amazing museums, the zoo and the botanical garden.

If you’re looking for a volunteer opportunity just contact AzCA! We need in office volunteers for help with cleaning out our offices and research volunteers to help us get geared up for the elections and next legislative session.

As always, the work of an arts and culture advocate is never done. If you are a legislative liaison, please be sure to contact your Senator or Representative this summer. Ask for a quick meeting in your community. Make a phone call or send an email. Invite them to a museum and take advantage of the Culture Pass program! Just stay engaged and be sure to keep in touch!

Independence Day and the Arts

Yesterday our entire country celebrated the birth of our nation, America’s Independence Day. The 4th has always been a favorite holiday of mine. I love that once a year our whole country takes a day to celebrate our freedom, our founding fathers, and the centuries of hard work and responsibility required to maintain the advanced citizenship of our republic.

Its a blessing to live in a country where I can work for and advocate for ideas and causes that I believe in. Perhaps its two years of working in the arts, but yesterday I got a reminder of how important the arts are to this country.

Yesterday morning I watched a mini series about John Adams, the second President of the United States. Of course it was dramatized because its both educational and entertainment, but it was excellent and eye opening. While I could have spent the morning reading a history book about the American Revolution and early years of the Republic, this program made it entertaining to learn more about that time period and the founding our the United States of America.

Art, whether film, sculpture, dance, or music, can make information, history, and ideas more accessible. While of course its important to read books, its also exciting to see our nations history made accessible and entertaining.

Arizona Town Hall Reflections on Desert Optimism

by Jaime Dempsey; Deputy Director, Arizona Commission on the Arts   

My friend Patrick once praised my “desert optimism.” At first I was more confused than flattered. He explained:

“In a new state, you don’t have the luxury of longstanding traditions or long-established infrastructure. And in the desert you have to innovate to stay alive. You create and re-create, and seek opportunities everywhere. You’re out there in the middle of the desert; you either innovate your way into getting sustenance from a spiky, prickly cactus or you don’t survive.”

I was struck. There is indeed a great capacity for innovation and creativity in our state. It is who we are, and particularly in places like my home city of Phoenix, we wouldn’t be able to exist without the forethought of those who dared to imagine a bustling city in the middle of a sometimes blistering, unforgiving (though magnificent!) desert.

This idea scuttled back and forth across the surface of my thoughts throughout my recent (my first) Arizona Town Hall experience.

It is no secret: the last several years have been traumatic for Arizona’s arts and culture sector. For a sector which is undercapitalized in nearly every area – except perhaps talent and vision – the Long Recession has been bruising and demoralizing. And though the recession is supposed to be over, I’m fairly certain the sector will continue to feel its crippling effects for some time.

As an arts administrator working with ever-diminishing public funding, the recession has left me personally sapped and weary. Still, call it my “desert optimism,” but even on my worst days, I try to focus on the vast opportunities for progress and our Arizona capacity to innovate and improve.

Thankfully, the 98^th Arizona Town Hall reinforced, for me, the validity of this optimism. To be honest, I was first worried about the effectiveness of Town Hall’s consensus-based approach. Chasing consensus often produces weakened results and spinning wheels, but in this case at least, the consensus recommendations are nothing if not sweeping, energetic and ambitious.

And it was truly exhilarating to work so closely with Arizonans representing different geographic areas, sectors and perspectives. I was buoyed by the Town Hall participants’ collective passion for investing in arts and culture, and their interest in developing comprehensive policy in support of the sector. It was an honor to work with such smart, engaged Arizonans, and I met some terrifically lovely people I know I’ll work with again. The process also provided opportunities to strengthen the bonds of trust between arts and culture professionals, which will be important as we begin tackling the Town Hall’s recommended action steps.

Professionally, and specifically related to our work at the Arts Commission, my panel’s discussions reinforced the need for (and importance of) non-grantmaking services. Over and over again, my panel-mates recognized that in a time when public grantmaking funds are diminishing (at least in the near-term), robust technical assistance, capacity-building and professional development services are even more critical to the success of artists, arts professionals and arts educators.

They called for increased convening of sector representatives, resource-sharing, thoughtful efforts to provide arts education programs outside of school systems, and comprehensive, multilevel promotional campaigns about the value of the arts to Arizona. At the Arts Commission, we have been engaged in this work for 45 years, and this feedback is particularly useful as we endeavor to streamline, refine and enhance all of these programs and services following significant budget cuts.

The experience was ultimately useful to me on several levels. I left last week’s Town Hall feeling inspired, mentally exhausted but still ready to focus on constructing a more prosperous future for the arts and culture sector as well as our state. Spiky and prickly as circumstances are at present, if we pull together, focus and work hard, tremendous opportunities lie ahead.

Reflections on Town Hall

A number of arts leaders and administrators attended the 98th Arizona Town Hall and participated in creating recommendations for  the arts and culture industry in Arizona.

Robert Booker, the Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts offered his thoughts on the Town Hall experience for our readers:

I was pleased to attend the 98^th Arizona Town Hall, Capitalizing on Arizona’s Arts and Culture. The experience of being with so many arts, education, business, and community leaders to discuss the current state of the Arizona arts industry, and to set a course of action for the way forward, is indeed a great opportunity. One of the most significant recommendations that came out of the convening is that we as Arizonans need to be more proactive in building a future for our state through the arts. This and many other recommendations uphold the long term vision for the Arizona arts industry in the Arts Commission’s strategic plan.  

At the Town Hall, there was an overwhelming recognition of the value of public funding for the arts. Public funding for the arts from state, county, and city resources helps ensure that all Arizonans have access to arts programming. It also enhances our industry’s ability to play a role in the growth of our economy and provides the resources needed to bring arts education opportunities to our young people. We must not forget that times of crisis can reveal opportunities. As a unified field we can capitalize on this pivotal moment to cultivate critical support for the arts. The arts industry is a key player in our state’s successful future.

I was personally pleased that the campaign created by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, The Choice is Art was recognized by so many participants as an active and compelling campaign to build awareness of the value of arts education, to increase participation, and to direct resources to the private ArtShare fund.

We are now charged to take aggressive action to rebuild public funding for the arts, and to discover new ways to work to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts in Arizona.

Town Hall Recommendations

Congratulations to all the Town Hall attendees! Your work, as reflected by these recommendations, has given all of us something to rally around as we rebuild public support for the arts in Arizona.

Find information about the Town Hall here and the final report is available here.

You can also read Barry’s analysis of the final recommendations here at Barry’s Blog.