The Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN) was recently launched with the goal of helping educators fight injustice within their schools and communities. Through the lens of work such as Unapologetic: A Black Queer, & Feminist Mandate for Radical Movement by Charlene Carruthers as well as We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching & The Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love, ATN will provide grants, support activists in residence, convene annually (starting in 2022), and develop online resources for abolitionist education.

Upcoming programming from ATN includes:

• Black Joy is Resistance: Pleasure Recipes for the Soul (Workshop for BIPOC) – August 3, 5pm ET
• Cultivating Co-Conspirators: Workshop for White People – August 3, 5pm ET

 

Theatre for Young Audiences USA (TYA/USA) in partnership with the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS), based at UCLA, announces the release of the Exploring the Landscape of Live Theatre for Young Audiences in the US Report. Initiated last year by the leadership of TYA theatres across the country who were interested in understanding and confronting the inequity across the industry, the study was commissioned by TYA/USA to provide concrete data as a tool for meaningful change and accountability.

Key findings demonstrate that the TYA industry has made strides for increased representation in terms of gender and race across the last decade, but racial diversity in live theatre for young people is not yet representative of the US population. The study showed that productions by POC playwrights nearly doubled in the last decade, but the overall total was still only 20% in the 2018/19 season. Moreover, productions helmed by POC directors accounted for 15% of the 2018/19 season. Examining the national landscape in this way provides an important step in creating an equitable TYA industry that represents all children and families across the US.

Learn more here.

Americans for the Arts has provided an update on ongoing research tracking the human and financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in the arts and culture sector. If you haven't already, you can fill out the 5-minute survey that will help AFTA track COVID's effect on the arts.

According to the most recent data:

• Nationally, financial losses to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations are an estimated $5.5 billion, to date. They have also lost 210 million admissions due to cancelled events, resulting in a $6.7 billion loss in event-related spending by audiences at local businesses (restaurants, lodging, retail). The economic impact of these losses is $2.0 billion in lost government revenue and 348,000 jobs no longer being supported. Findings are based on 11,500 survey responses.

  • Even with devestating losses, 68% are still delivering artistic content to support their community.

• Artists/creatives are among the most severely affected workers by the COVID-19 crisis. 62% have become fully unemployed and the average financial loss per artist/creative worker is $21,000, to date. Nationally, they expect to lose $50.6 billion in income in 2020. Findings are based on 17,800 survey responses.

Learn more and read the full update here.

The publication, Envisioning the Future of Theater for Young Audiences, details the challenges and opportunities faced by theaters in America focused on programming for young audiences, compiled from a convening held in partnership with the service organizations TYA/USA and TCG at which leaders in the field broke down the challenges of their unique business model and the potential for growth and long-term sustainability. The report also includes research on the powerful effects of exposure to theater for children and teens.

Included in the report are findings from a research collaboration between The New Victory and WolfBrown. In the only longitudinal study of its kind, New Victory partnered with under-resourced school communities with no arts programming to track children in both treatment and control groups over three consecutive years. The study found that:

• Children exposed to live theater are much more able to imagine the lives of others.
• Children exposed to live theater before the age of eight report that “Theater is for someone like me.” (The study found that trend to decline in children who are not exposed to live theater before the age of eight).
• Children demonstrate a range of intrinsic impacts after seeing live theater performance, including personal relevance, social bridging, aesthetic growth, and motivation to action. Their survey responses and comments suggest that different types of performances elicit different levels of these impacts.

Read the full report here.

The Surdna Foundation recently announced a nearly $13 million commitment to support artists of color working to advance racial justice within their local communities. The funds will be distributed through an artist regranting initiative featuring a diverse cohort of eleven intermediary organizations, which are national and regional in scope, and include several municipal and local partnerships.

As part of Surdna’s Thriving Cultures program, the artist regranting initiative will support artists of color around the country, funding up to 87 artist-led projects each year and approximately 260 projects over three years. Regranting partners will distribute Surdna’s funds to artists, artist collectives, and small artist organizations to work with their communities to imagine and practice racially just systems and structures at a local scale.

Learn more about the regranting program.

During this challenging time when in-person training and programming are “on pause,” Lifetime Arts is offering a free, abridged version of their day-long, in-person Creative Aging training to anyone interested in learning more about this program model. The video series includes:

• Overview of the Field
• Teaching Art to Older Adults
• Artmaking and Social Engagement Demonstration
• Intro to the Program Model
• Seeding Creative Aging in Your Organization
• Case Studies

Learn more and watch the free videos here.

The Lewis Prize for Music awards funds to community leaders with the goal of creating "positive change by investing in young people through music." In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Lewis Prize is opening the portal for 2021 funding applications in Spring instead of late Summer. As they note:

"At The Lewis Prize for Music, we find ourselves in an important and vital position to respond as expeditiously as possible to the needs of the creative youth development music community and the young people it serves. We are compiling and reviewing resources that may assist you in remaining an anchor to the young people around you during this time.

We are doing this alongside preparations to shift the opening of the 2021 Lewis Prize awards cycle to earlier in the year. We aim to open the portal to our Letter of Interest application in the Spring instead of the late Summer, as we did during our first year."

They also encourage field members to fill out a short survey on how they can best be of service to the field.

Learn more about the 2020 Lewis Prize awardees here.

Note: This post was created as an initial response to the COVID-19 crisis, and is no longer being updated. 

 

March 5, 2020

During this time when information about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is rapidly emerging and changing, the National Guild would like to echo the calls from our community to take good care of ourselves and each other, and reject xenophobia and racism.

Here is a compilation of resources that we've come across that organizations might find helpful.

 

• World Health Organization has up-to-date information about basic protective measures, including graphics that you can print and/or download and share: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public

 

• The CDC's Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers includes recommended strategies for employers to use now, and planning considerations.

 

• Arts Ready is compiling information on their homepage (https://www.artsready.org/) on topics that include preparing for a potential temporary closure, preparing your facility, supporting staff and volunteers, communicating with audiences and stakeholders, and more.

 

• Americans for the Arts shares information about preparation and planning, prevention, and dispeling the stigma towards Asian Americans in their post Arts and Culture Sector Can Prepare for the Coronavirus in the United States.

 

• NYC Arts in Education Roundtable hosted a Zoom meeting on March 10th to create a digital space for arts administrators to share strategies to overcome challenges associated with the coronavirus in order to best support our programs, organizations, and teaching artists. You can watch the recording and view the transcript here.

 

• COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources is an aggregated list of free resources, opportunities, and financial relief options available to artists of all disciplines. Check out the website here and also watch a recent webinar that covers many of the same resources.

 

• Theater Communications Group (TCG) held a webinar on March 6th titled "Coronavirus Preparedness for Theatres". You can watch the recording here. They have also gathered some information in their post Preparing for the Impact of the Coronavirus.

 

• Event Safety Alliance held a webinar on March 4th titled "Prepare Your Organization for the Coronavirus Disease Outbreak". You can still register and watch the recording here.

 

• Nonprofit New York has put together some information and guidance in their post Coronavirus Update: Let’s Stay Healthy and Be Kind. 

 

• Vu Le of Nonprofit AF recommends a few important considerations for nonprofit organizations, both in the short term and in the long term, in his post "A few things for nonprofits and foundations to consider in light of the Coronavirus".

 

• The Harvard Business Review's article What Are Companies’ Legal Obligations Around Coronavirus? discusses relevant legal concerns for businesses and organizations.

 

Wishing safety and health to all,

The National Guild Staff

Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and ASU Gammage at Arizona State University seek four artists from the Southwest region with field experience, interested in exploring issues of racial equity in the arts, desiring to engage with an educational institution and Arizona’s communities. The deadline to apply is March 15.

Projecting All Voices (PAV), an initiative of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts supported by ASU Gammage, aims to support racial equity and inclusion in arts and design so that our nation’s cultural life honors and represents the full creative diversity of our country’s population. PAV provides opportunities for artists and designers to advance ideas and projects that investigate identity, cultural heritage, power, race, policy, ability and/or place and community. PAV also focuses on curricular change in arts and design colleges as well as civic and social practices in arts and design that create equitable communities. PAV seeks transformation in educational and cultural institutions to enable the full expression of all creative voices.

A program of PAV, the Mellon Fellowship supports underrepresented artists from the Southwest region who are interested in exploring issues of racial equity in the arts, engaging with an educational institution, and participating in an intergenerational mentorship cohort. Fellows will work with communities underrepresented in higher education and art institutions as that work relates to their own interests and creative practices. Fellows will also inform conversations about how educational and cultural institutions must adapt to prepare, support and advance the creative voices of a changing America through an equitable lens and framework of practice.

Mellon Projecting All Voices Fellows will receive: a $38,000 honorarium, travel funding and support, mentorship options, opportunities to co-develop a visiting artist series, coaching to develop their documentation skills, access to ASU resources and opportunities to develop and present their work.

 

Learn more and apply >>

DATE: January 15, 2020

CONTACT: Jenina Podulka, jeninapodulka@nationalguild.org

 

Creative Youth Development National Partnership to receive $50,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

New York, NY—The National Guild for Community Arts Education has been approved for a $50,000 Arts Works grant to support the Creative Youth Development National Partnership. This project will support the continued implementation of the National Action Blueprint for Creative Youth Development, a collective impact project. Overall, the National Endowment for the Arts has approved 1,187 grants totaling $27.3 million in the first round of fiscal year 2020 funding to support arts projects in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.  

The Art Works funding category supports projects that focus on public engagement with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation; the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence; learning in the arts at all stages of life; and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.

“The arts are at the heart of our communities, connecting people through shared experiences and artistic expression,” said Arts Endowment chairman Mary Anne Carter. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support projects like the Creative Youth Development National Partnership.”

About the Creative Youth Development National Partnership:

The CYD National Partnership aims to ensure that creative youth development is a broadly-implemented, well-researched, and equitably-funded practice and available to all youth. In 2018, the Partnership created the CYD National Action Blueprint in concert with 650+ cross-sector stakeholders, calling for all young people to have equitable access to opportunities to: realize their creative potential; live richer, fuller lives; and develop the critical learning and life skills they need to become active contributors to their communities. The Partnership's work is guided by the core values of CYD: youth voice, racial equity and social justice, and collective action. Activities are focused on three strategic priorities for advancing CYD: Building pathways to funding; Documenting and communicating impact; and Field Building. 

In 2020, key activities of the partnership will include providing joint professional development for three regional networks, online learning opportunities, dissemination of news from the field, and a National Young Artists Summit for teens.

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