Newark School of the Arts today announced that Sherrie Thaler-Johnson, the school’s development director for 25 years, will retire from her position on August 31. Sherrie has been a vital part of the school’s legacy, and over her tenure helped to raise 70% of the School’s annual operating budget. This money was raised through corporate grants, foundation grants, government grants, individual giving and fundraising events. She has helped lead many fundraising events as well as two capital campaigns.

“It has been my pleasure to work with a wonderful board, staff and donors while serving the community in this capacity. To see young children enrolled at the school grow-up, develop their talents, go off to college and then come back to the school years later to enroll their own children, is most satisfying…”  -Sherrie Thaler-Johnson

Learn more about Newark School for the Arts.

Cathedral Arts Project (Jacksonville, FL) has recently announced a cross-sector partnership with the Youth Crisis Center (YCC) that allows YCC to reach youth populations with creative and artistic programming. Funded by the Jim Moran Foundation, the partnership is an example of the partnership opportunities advocated for by the Creative Youth Development National Partnership.

In what is being called one of the worst funding years for arts and culture by the state of Florida, the Youth Crisis Center (YCC) and Cathedral Arts Project (CAP) say funding from The Jim Moran Foundation has been more critical than ever for the youth both agencies serve. A partnership with CAP has provided visual arts classes for youth in the Residential Crisis Care Center at YCC to help with therapeutic self-expression. It is a vital part of the counseling and support services YCC offers to youth who have been exposed to traumatic situations such as divorce, homelessness, relocation, loss of life, bullying, abuse, and sex trafficking.

The Jim Moran Foundation has sponsored 28 weeks of classes in 2018 at YCC that teach art forms such as 3D and clay sculpture, word art and collage, among others. “We are thankful for the leadership that The Jim Moran Foundation has shown in funding education and the arts in our community. Through this grant, YCC’s partnership with the Cathedral Arts Project has restored visual arts classes for the children and teens YCC serves in our Residential Crisis Care program,” said Kim Sirdevan, president and CEO of YCC. “Although our youth are receiving these classes while in Residential Crisis Care, there are many others in our community who are not because of a lack of funding. We want our community to know that a lack of funding truly impacts so many young people, who for some, use the arts to help in their healing.”

Learn more and read the full story here.

As part of CalArts' (Valencia, CA) ongoing partnership with UN Women's HeForShe Movement, the Institute invited students to create animated short films that explored issues of gender inequality.

According to CalArts, "All in all, 13 student-created short films were produced and will premiere at the annual HeForShe Summit on Sept. 26, in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The trailer for the project has just been released, giving a glimpse into the works that will premiere at the UN."

In response to the students' work, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, under-secretary general and executive director of UN Women noted: "We’ve set these students a tough challenge, but the results are important both for their own aspirations, and also for the potential their films have to directly build gender equality and shape culture change. The inequalities and power imbalances that we are dealing with are complex, pervasive and deeply rooted. It can be a struggle to capture that complexity in words. These incredibly talented students wield the power to go right to the heart of it with their imagery, and shake us beyond our everyday perceptions. I know what we are going to see in these short films is going to be extraordinary and far reaching in its impact."

Learn more and watch a trailer for the films here.

The San Francisco Community Music Center has announced the launch of the New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus, a community choral program for transgender, intersex, and genderqueer participants.

“When I was looking for a Bay Area music organization whose mission was musical access for all people, I naturally thought of CMC,” Reuben Zellman, musical director, educator, and director of the chorus, commented. “As a transgender singer and conductor, I have experienced first-hand the barriers that TIGQ face to musical participation. Singers tend to be rigidly and often thoughtlessly sorted by sex. Yet TIGQ vocal stories are often more complex.”

When Zellman approached CMC program director Sylvia Sherman two years ago to explore the possibility of starting the chorus, she was taken with the idea.

“Musical access is the core of CMC programs. When Reuben brought us the idea we immediately understood the need. Funding, as will any new program, was the hurdle to getting the chorus going,” said Sherman.

Over the course of two years, CMC worked to secure funding for the chorus pilot. Through the generous support of Ambassador James C. Hormel and individual donors, the New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus was born.

Learn more about the chorus here.

About San Francisco Community Music Center

Founded in 1921, San Francisco’s Community Music Center (CMC) is one of the oldest and largest community arts organizations on the West Coast. CMC makes high quality music accessible to all people, regardless of financial means. Last year, CMC awarded over $2 million in tuition assistance, serving more than 2,600 students of all ages, ethnicities and income levels with music lessons, classes and other programs. Thousands enjoyed performances at CMC and out in the community. Learn more about CMC at www.sfcmc.org.

Urban Gateways (Chicago, IL) just launched the Teen Arts Pass (TAP) program, which allows anyone aged 13-19 to register for free online to get a pass that allows them to buy $5 tickets at arts and culture organizations around the city. Some participating organizations include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and more.

Tarah Ortiz Durnbaugh, a performance programs manager at Urban Gateways and co-ambassador for the Guild’s Emerging Leaders Network, noted that TAP was inspired by a similar program in Seattle. “Our executive director, Eric Delli Bovi, found out about this idea at a national conference over 2 years ago, and he said, ‘We need to figure out how to make this happen in Chicago.’ So we started with a survey for Chicago teens to see if this would be of interest to them.”

According to WFMT, the 2017 survey polled 1,117 Chicago-area teens. Nearly 70% said that the number one barrier to attending performances in Chicago is that they cost too much; 81% reported that they would be more likely to buy a $5 ticket for an arts event in Chicago.

“Based on this data, we took it as the greenlight to initiate the Teen Arts Pass,” Ortiz Durnbaugh said. WFMT goes on to report that, “Before the launch of the pass, Urban Gateways created a teen council to get direct input from Chicago youth. Teens were influential in all aspects of the pass, from choosing the program colors to piloting the use of the TAP website.”

Read the full article and learn more about the program here.

About Urban Gateways

Urban Gateways engages young people in arts experiences to inspire creativity and impact social change (mission). The organization works to overcome social and economic barriers for youth to access Chicago's artistic and cultural vitality, fostering a more creative and artistically responsive society. Urban Gateways was founded in 1961 to connect youth to the city’s many arts and culture institutions as a vital tool for personal growth and expanded opportunities. Through a range of initiatives, young people acquire and refine artistic skills, demonstrate their talents, engage in critical thinking, explore new possibilities, and contribute to the civic discourse of our community. The organization conducts Arts Education, Creative Youth Development, and Civic Engagement initiatives that reach over 80,000 youth across 250 locations annually. Programs are 100% free to participants.

 

A recent news article highlighted a collaboration between Center of Creative Arts (COCA) and the St. Louis Fashion Incubator to provide a summer teen fashion intensive camp. The collaborators worked with Jo Flannery, a designer that has put together outfits for queens, princesses, and other members of the British royal family.

According to FOX, “Area high school students considering a college with a fashion program are getting hands-on experience with experts and St. Louis fashion incubator designers.”

“I'm making a linen flowery shirt,” says Kelsey Gibson, a future designer.  “It's like a way to express yourself.  That's the first thing you see when you see somebody is their clothes which is kind of the personality of what they're wearing.”

You can read the full article here.

About Center of Creative Arts (COCA)

COCA – Center of Creative Arts is the fourth largest multidisciplinary community arts center in the country, one of only 16 schools in the nation accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Precollegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS), and a national leader in innovative arts education. With a mission to enrich lives and build community through the arts, COCA serves 50,000 people of all ages and skill levels, taught by a faculty of distinguished arts educators.

 

In a recent round of more than $15.7 million in grant funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts (WIPA) received $35,000 in funding as well as a citation of excellence.

"The arts challenge us to be creative and learn new skills, all of which help keep the mind astute and boost confidence. We congratulate and remain extremely grateful to [these] award winners for their contribution and dedication to preserving a vital resource in their communities that directly improves the quality of life for everyone," said NJ secretary of state Tahesha Way.

The Council honors New Jersey arts organizations, programs, and projects that receive the highest possible assessment of their Council grant applications by esteemed, independent panels of their peers with a Citation of Excellence. The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts received the citation alongside 46 peer organizations in the state.

About The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts

The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ (www.whartonarts.org) mission is to provide the highest quality performing arts education to a wide range of students in a supportive and inclusive environment, where striving for personal excellence inspires and connects those we teach to the communities we serve.

 

On July 21 at 12:00 PM KMFA radio station in Texas will broadcast a recording of Remembering Margaret Perry, a memorial concert held in honor of the founder of Armstrong Community Music School.

According to KMFA, “Margaret Perry, founder of the Armstrong Community Music School, was a force unlike any other in the Central Texas music scene. She was a treasured member of KMFA’s Community Advisory Board and a frequent guest on the station’s programs. When the Austin musical community came together to celebrate Margaret’s life in a music-only program of works hand selected by her, KMFA was there to capture the event.”

In announcing the broadcast, the president and general manager of the station shared her thoughts on Margaret’s legacy: Margaret and her remarkable team created music classes for every age and ability, but that’s just the beginning. A guitar program for veterans builds community through the healing power of music. Free enrichment programs brighten the lives of mothers and children at SAFE Alliance and the Todos Juntos Learning Center. There are classes for the Travis High School Child Development Center, music lessons for visually impaired children, and We Are The Chorus, a singing ensemble for adults with developmental disabilities.

In honor of Margaret's remarkable legacy, the National Guild has launched the Margaret Perry Leadership Fund. Donate here.

You can learn more and listen to the broadcast here.

 

Following a nationwide search, Kate Sheeran, an accomplished educator and academic administrator, new music champion, and professional musician who has served since 2015 as provost and dean of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has been chosen as the new executive director of Kaufman Music Center in New York.  She will assume the new position in mid-August.

Sheeran, also a former Assistant Dean at Mannes School of Music at The New School in New York, succeeds the retiring Lydia Kontos.  Over nearly 40 years of leadership, Kontos took what was once called the Hebrew Arts School and spearheaded its growth and transformation into Kaufman Music Center, a multi-faceted education and cultural institution that is home to New York City’s premier stage for contemporary classical music, the favored stage for chamber music and many other performances, the largest community arts school in New York, and the top-rated K-12 public school in the city and the only one with music as a core curriculum discipline.  

“Kate not only possesses an outstanding range of skills, but also brings with her a unique perspective as both an educator and an administrator, as a musician and a new music advocate, and as an outsider and an insider,” said Cathy O’Rourke, president of the Kaufman Music Center Board and chair of the Search Committee, noting that Sheeran has performed at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman’s performance space, and that during her tenure at Mannes, she worked in partnership with Kaufman on a number of initiatives.

About Kaufman Music Center

Kaufman Music Center stimulates appreciation of and participation in music through music performance and education in ways that awaken creativity, advance innovation and create a sense of wonder among performers, students, teachers and the public at large. At Kaufman Music Center, music lovers – from curious fans to renowned performers – come together to explore their musical passions.

Bob Welch, executive director of the Gadsden Community School for the Arts, recently contributed an article to The Gadsden Times that described his experience advocating on behalf of his community for arts education. He detailed how vital the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has been for the Gadsden community, and why federal funding for the arts is invaluable for Alabama.

"The NEA has made significant contributions to the arts in Alabama at large and even in our smaller community of Gadsden. In the past five years, the NEA awarded 74 direct grants to nonprofit and governmental arts organizations and programs in Alabama. Five of these came directly to our congressional district so that 20,400 adults and children could experience the arts. Specifically, a multi-day workshop series conducted by Marshall County called Melodies and Musings has received generous grants from the NEA for five consecutive years. This series helps retired senior citizens learn more about the district’s heritage through music education."

Read the full article here.