IEA Newsletter for Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Welcome to the Institute for Education and the Arts’ weekly newsletter for October 10, 2007. The newsletter is published each Wednesday to the IEA listserv and is archived here on the IEA blog.

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IMPACT OF THE ARTS ON COMMUNITY GROWTH
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HOW ARTISTS INFLUENCE REAL ESTATE PRICES
Trista Winnie, NuWireInvestor.com, 9/18/07
” Investors may deepen their appreciation for the arts after they realize how much influence artists can have on real estate values. Not many artists can afford the expensive rents of trendy downtown areas, so most live in cheaper areas of cities. When an area is full of artists, it attracts new studios and galleries, restaurants and shops. This energy and culture can change a less-than-desirable neighborhood or city into a desirable one—with the property prices to match. ‘It has been proved that artists—defined as self-employed visual artists, actors, musicians, writers, etc.—can stimulate local economies in a number of ways,’ according to BusinessWeek. Greenwich Village, in New York City, is perhaps the most widely known example of this pattern. San Francisco, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, has another example of how artists can revitalize neighborhoods.
Read more>>


THE ARTS’ IMPACT ON AREA:
$1.3 BILLION, 40,000 JOBS
Stephan Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/24/07
”In a study to be released today, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance reports that arts and cultural organizations in Southeastern Pennsylvania generate about $1.3 billion in annual expenditures. About 40,000 jobs in Philadelphia and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties are tied to that spending, which also yields about $158.5 million in state and local taxes … The report, ‘Arts, Culture and Economic Prosperity in Greater Philadelphia,’ funded by Scannapieco Development Corp., is the last in a triad of alliance studies to parse the financial ecology of the area's cultural world. The two previous reports, published within the last year, have examined the relatively low level of public funding support for the region's cultural organizations, the prevalence of deficits in arts budgets, the relatively high level of audience support, and the rapid growth in the number of organizations across the region in the last quarter century. The report released today provides some key numbers, which alliance officials argue bolster the case not only for increased public arts funding, but also for some kind of dedicated regional funding mechanism … [T]he study shows that local governments receive $5 in tax revenues in return for every $1 of support invested in arts groups; the state receives $2.50 for every $1 invested.”
Read more>>


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NATIONAL ARTS AND HUMANITIES MONTH
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OCTOBER IS NATIONAL ARTS AND HUMANITIES MONTH
Coordinated by Americans for the Arts
“Held every October, National Arts and Humanities Month (NAHM) is a coast-to-coast collective celebration of culture in America. Coordinated by Americans for the Arts, it is the largest annual celebration of the arts and humanities in the nation. From arts center open houses to mayoral proclamations to storefront banners and newspaper articles, thousands of communities across the United States are recognizing the cultural gems all around them.”
Learn more, watch the promotional video, and order free NAHM decals>>


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NEED FOR ARTS EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL GROWTH
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REASONS TO KEEP THE ARTS
Richard Clark (editorial), Escanaba (MI) Daily Press, 9/25/07
”State law requires students who entered the freshman class this year to pass a mandatory curriculum along with a state-sponsored test in each subject. In response, school districts will redistribute teachers and student from their present curriculum choices to the mandatory curriculum … Districts will need to trim extracurricular (co-curricular) activities and classes that are not mandatory. For better or worse, economic forces have changed in the last 50 years. It is no longer adequate to teach readin’, writin’ and ’rithmetic. The world economy will require people to be versatile, curious and creative to make a living. It seems we need to develop the right side of students’ brains, or the creative side of the brain … In an ironic twist we are moving to a test-driven curriculum while our economic rival is discarding it. China is moving from a test-driven curriculum to one that encourages creativity. The Sept. 1 Beijing Review noted that ‘the public expects the reforms of the Chinese educational system to help develop children with imagination, creativity, curiosity, and playfulness which are not only essential to the child but to the society as a whole.’ If competition from China isn’t enough to inspire support for the arts, watching youngsters sing in elementary school holiday programs will. They are focused, at their best and proud. They are on their way to being imaginative, creative, curious and playful. The Chinese would be envious.”
Read more>>


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STORIES OF SCHOOL REFORM
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EVERY STUDENT DESERVES A LEGACY 2007:
STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES OF HIGH SCHOOL REFORM
Knowledge Works Foundation, 10/07
“Sporting an all-black Goth look, … freshman Joyce Brumley displays something of an attitude. In English class, she questions the point of an assignment, then says the teacher's reprimand of another student is dumb. She eats junk food and puts on makeup. When teacher Pam Roberts gives her a detention, Joyce calls her a jerk. But if you ask Joyce who her favorite teacher is, she answers without hesitation, ‘Mrs. Roberts.’ ‘Mrs. Roberts and I fight a lot because we're both stubborn,’ Joyce says, ‘but… I talk to her about everything, and she makes me redo work that she thinks I can do better - even for other classes.’ Two new publications from KnowledgeWorks Foundation capture dozens of stories like that of Joyce … stories that bring to life the day-to-day struggles and triumphs inside two Ohio high school reform efforts. The books, the third annual edition of the "Every Student Deserves a Legacy" series, show what it's like for educators and students working to transform underperforming large urban high schools into small personalized schools or pioneer schools that blend high school and college learning. … [T]hese publications document why it's so hard to change schools and how, even so, change is taking place. From a teacher who helps spark an arts-based curriculum throughout her small school to a teacher leader working to persuade his colleagues to believe in their power to change… these are stories of real people making real progress in two ambitious initiatives that aim to reinvent public high schools.”
Download or request a paper hard copy of the reports>>


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ART MUSEUMS
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FISK UNIVERSITY AND MUSEUM OF WAL-MART HEIRESS AGREE TO SHARE PRIZED ART
Theo Emery, New York Times, 9/26/07
”Fisk University’s board of trustees has agreed in principle to share ownership of its prized Alfred Stieglitz Collection with the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas in exchange for $30 million, the two sides announced on Tuesday. The agreement, subject to approval by a chancery court judge, would entitle the university and the museum to display the 101 works in the collection for equal amounts of time, they said. Crystal Bridges is scheduled to open in Bentonville, Ark., in 2009. The founder of Crystal Bridges, the Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton, also pledged $1 million to renovate and maintain the Fisk gallery that houses the collection and to finance an art internship. The board’s vote on Monday, which came after more than a year of litigation over the fate of the artworks, could help remedy Fisk’s financial problems, the university’s board said … Still, the fate of the art-sharing agreement is far from certain. The Tennessee attorney general, Robert E. Cooper Jr., who has a say because the collection was a charitable donation, must still weigh in; he has said he would prefer that the collection remain full time in Nashville, where Fisk is based.”
Read more>>


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GRANTS, FUNDING, CONTESTS, AND AWARDS
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LEARNING & LEADERSHIP GRANTS
NEA Foundation
Rolling Deadlines. Next deadline: 10/15/07 **APPLY SOON**
”Grants support public school teachers, public education support professionals, and/or faculty and staff in public institutions of higher education for one of the following two purposes: grants to individuals fund participation in high-quality professional development experiences, such as summer institutes or action research; grants to groups fund collegial study, including study groups, action research, lesson study, or mentoring experiences for faculty or staff new to an assignment … The grant amount is $2,000 for individuals and $5,000 for groups engaged in collegial study.”
Learn more>>

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT CONTEST
Deadline: 11/15/07
The Association for Career and Technical Education “is searching for budding filmmakers and is looking to the career and technical education (CTE) community to find them! Students will create a 30-second public service announcement to promote CTE Month in February 2008, which has the theme, “Discovering Skills for a Competitive Workforce.” Secondary and postsecondary students in CTE-related film, video, and production classes are eligible to enter.
Learn more>>

LEADERS IN LEARNING AWARDS
Deadline: 1/16/08
“Cable in the Classroom’s Leaders in Learning Awards outstanding educators, administrators, policymakers and other community leaders at the forefront of innovation in education. This prestigious awards program, in its 4th year of operation, is administered by the cable industry and its national education foundation, Cable in the Classroom.
Learn more>>

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