The Teaching Artists Guild outlines in a new blog post how the recent change in California law will impact arts organizations and the teaching artists they employ as independent contractors. 

"Teaching Artistry is what we often call a hybrid profession. A teaching artist fuses the skills, practices, and sensibilities of an artist with the expertise of an educator; a foot in two fields is required of a successful teaching artist," Jean Johnstone writes. "How can we assure that our sector stays healthy across the board: that workers are rightfully protected and that non-profit, arts, and arts education organizations maintain the ability to offer quality programs to the most people?"

The article outlines the difference between an employee and an independent contractor, in addition to going over what the recent changes mean for employers in California. 

Read the full post.

Education Commission on the States has released a new report on access to STEAM education for all students. The report shares insights from a recent Thinkers Meeting that looked beyond existing state policies and explored new pathways to guide future practice, research and policy work to support this wider access. 

Read the full report here.

Leaders of youth music programs can submit a Letter of Interest to the Lewis Prize for Music. The Lewis Prize’s mission is to create fair and vibrant communities through music. Music is a potent force for inspiring positive social change. Young people who learn, perform, and create music of all genres are a source of talent and ingenuity for leading this change. Providing high-quality, diverse, music education brings the benefits of music to every person and every neighborhood.

They invite Letters of Interest from innovative leaders who are striving to give all young people access to learning and making music. Applications due by September 16.

Learn more and Apply.

Race To Lead, a project of the Building Movement Project, is conducting a survey to help understand more about supports and barriers to nonprofit leadership. 

The data collected will inform the next round of Race to Lead reports, which explores the results of this survey and challenges the way the nonprofit sector has been approaching the racial leadership gap.

Take the survey here.

Kulturvitaminer, or Culture Vitamins, is a program in Denmark is helping unemployed people suffering from depression, anxiety, and stress using art, culture, and music.  Partly funded by the Danish health authority, and administered by the local job center, the program offers a crash course in culture, from attending museums to singing to seeing shows. 

In an article in The Guardian, Mikael Odder Nielsen, the Aalborg course leader, says: “We wanted to see if we could make people’s mental health better, reduce social isolation and help them get back into the labour market via culture.”

"Culture as a cure is not a new idea. In 2008, the then UK health secretary, Alan Johnson, called for the arts to be part of mainstream healthcare, and in 2009, the Royal College of Psychiatrists recommended participation in the arts and developing creativity for the protection of mental health,," the article states. "A decade on, evidence for the impact of the arts on wellbeing is growing. Research shows that “art on prescription” is valued by referrers and participants alike, and is also cost-effective, with a reduction in the number of visits to the doctor and participants gaining transferable skills."

Read the full article here.

LeaderStories, together with American Express and the Center for Creative Leadership, will convene a unique Leadership Academy for emerging social purpose leaders.

The goal of the Academy is to develop leaders within the nonprofit community who understand how:

• Their personality and behavior influences their leadership style and effectiveness, and
• Their own and others' preferred style of managing change enhances collaboration and builds organizational synergy to apply critical business skills important to the success of their organizations.

Participants will also develop a network of other leaders with whom they can share ideas and experiences and establish a set of realistic, measurable goals along with a plan of action to accomplish these goals.

Participants will have the unique opportunity to help select the focus of the third day’s training session from options provided by leading experts including Be Beneficent Consulting, Building Movement Project, the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Coro Partners and ProInspire.

Learn more and submit a nomination >>

Laura Zucker recently joined the board of the Music Man Foundation, bringing her philanthropic and arts experience to a foundation that approves grants totaling up to $3 million annually. The foundation supports arts and music education to improve children's lives, granting organizations ranging from hospitals, arts advocacy groups, and in-school service providers. 

Zucker is a current senior associate at AEA Consulting and senior fellow in Claremont Graduate University's Masters in Arts Management Program. She served for 25 years as the executive director of Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and spent seven years on the board of Grantmakers in the Arts. She was also a founding board member of Los Angeles regional advocacy organization, Arts for LA, which created an annual fellowship in her honor, the Laura Zucker Cultural Policy Fellowship. 

Al Pivo, Vice President of The Music Man Foundation, shares, “Laura’s experience launching inclusive arts education programs and initiatives which advocate for cultural equity will serve us as we extend Meredith Willson’s contribution to the field of music through impactful and cost-efficient programs in our community.”

 

A new piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy discusses racism experienced by leaders of color in the non profit field. Nicole Wallce writes that "people of color have reached pinnacles of power in philanthropy that once would have been unimaginable…but things are still rough in the trenches."

"The Chronicle spoke with more than 25 leaders of color at nonprofits and foundations, people at different points in their careers, devoted to different causes across the country. The picture they paint isn’t pretty.

Leaders described feeling isolated, navigating difficult, racially fraught power dynamics with grant makers, and enduring affronts to their dignity — even having people touch their hair. In interview after interview, they talked about the need to prove themselves repeatedly."

Read the full story here >>

The University of British Columbia published news in emerging research on the benefits of music education. 

According to a new study,"high school students who take music courses score significantly better on math, science and English exams than their non-musical peers." The study outlines particular benefits of musical instruction for students, including information retention, hand-eye-coordination, literacy skills, and overall improved academic perfomance. 

Researchers hope that this study promotes the importance of musical education, in a time when many districts and administrators are cutting funding for the arts. 

Read the full story here >>

Opera America has annonced IDEA Opera grants, a new program to promote composers and liberettists of color.

Two grants will be awarded to composer-librettist teams that identify as African, Latinx, Arab, Asian or Native American and have U.S. citizenship, permanent residence or DACA status. Applicants must be able to demonstrate their ability to create theatrical works for the trained voice and instrumental ensemble.

Each winning team will receive up to $12,500 to advance their work through workshops, readings or other developmental activities. Grantees will also receive a high-quality video portrait of the team and their work for promotional use.

Applications are due September 9.

Read the full release and apply here >>