The New Victory Theater (New York, NY) releases resources guides that provide K-12 educators with comprehensive materials that explore the arts. The most recent publication, the New Victory School Tool Resource Guide: Early Arts Learning, includes ready-to-implement art form-based activities, creativity pages ,and unit plan brainstorms adaptable to the needs of any learning space. The report provides opportunities for educators, caregivers, and kids to bring stories to life, explore emotions, sing, move, and ignite their imagination. Plus, the last section of this School Tool features a host of family engagement activities specifically geared toward bringing the arts, and a sense of play and discovery, directly into students’ homes.

Chapters of the resource include:

• Activating Stories
• Exploring Emotions
• Let’s Sing
• Discovering Movement
• Sparking Imagination
• Playing At Home

Learn more and download the resource guide here.

With support from the Ana & Adeline Foundation, YAYA is creating a COVID-19 emergency relief fund of $80,000 for YAYA Alumni to help stabilize their lives and—by extension—their artistic practice. The fund offers $500 grants to eligible YAYA Alumni. Additional $500 grants will be available over the next several months to those experiencing dire circumstances.

Jana Napoli, founder of YAYA and the Ana $ Adeline Foundation, writes: "COVID-19 has created enormous global chaos. During crisis, artists help us make sense of the world. They create visions interpreting rights and wrongs. They paint portals of empathy and hope. Artists design a better way forward for society. The Ana & Adeline Foundation is dedicated to supporting the YAYA family and their sustainability as creative citizens of the world."

Learn more here.

In response to Covid-19, Big Thought is partnering with the Dallas community—Dallas ISD and Child Care Group—to provide emergency childcare options for essentialy workers. The free Learning Center will serve children grades K through 5 whose parents or guardians are employed by local hospitals.

The project was coordinated by the Dallas County Covid-19 Task Force, which determined the need to pilot 2 emergency child care centers to serve essential medical staff who do not have the option of at-home child care solutions. According to Big Thought, "the hope is to restore some normalcy to the children’s lives, while their parents are on the frontlines of this pandemic."

Learn more here.

 

During Covid-19, Wide Angle Youth Media, a Baltimore-based CYD organization, is highlighting the importance of paying youth as well as lifting them up as community leaders in times of crisis. The unprecedented job loss is impacting all of us in different ways, but, importantly, it is exacerbating the economic inequalities that are already present. As Wide Angle Executive Director Susan Malone points out, many of the precarious jobs that are being wiped out by the crisis are also held by our youth: "these same jobs are also a main source of income for youth – a group of voices that remains largely absent from mainstream news. Many of our students help support their families, save for needed technology like a laptop for school, or are preparing to attend college in the fall. As we text, email, call and video chat with our students, [they] report over and over that they’ve lost part-time jobs."

Wide Angle is working to continue to support youth financially in difficult times: "While other employers are forced to lay off their workers, we’re working to ensure that our students still have the opportunity to earn money. Thanks to generous supporters during our fall event and End of Year campaign, we’ll have the resources to provide end of semester stipends for high school students. Our video and design apprentices still earn hourly wages through working on client projects and gaining virtual training."

The organization is also highlighting how Baltimore young people are using their creative skills to be leaders in promoting social distancing. They created a YouTube playlist that includes examples of hosting a virtual prom, well-being tips for teens, and more.

Learn more about Wide Angle Youth Media here.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, Settlement Music School has both pivoted to distance learning for all students while also offering two free, online courses streaming through Facebook: Settlement 101 and Settlement Kids.

• Settlement 101 brings in faculty to introduce attendees to some of the coolest aspects of making music. From improvisation, to songwriting, singing, music production, and everything in between. New sessions are live every Thursday at 6 p.m. ET on Facebook and can be rewatched at any time.
• Settlement Kids is designed to keep kids entertained, engaged, and connected with free music and dance classes. Tune in live Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. on Facebook.

As Helen Eaton, CEO of Settlement, notes: "We know that art and music lifts our souls and can unite us all. We believe that the best thing anyone can do in a crisis is to be productive and stay engaged. Here at Settlement, we believe that the act of doing, of practicing, of reaching goals, will be what gets us through this time with our spirits intact."

Learn more here.

DreamYard, a community arts center in the South Bronx, has adapted its relationship to the community in this time of crisis, opening its doors on weekdays to provide free lunches. According to Hyperallergic:

"DreamYard is keeping its front doors open a few hours each weekday, by acting as a distribution point for free lunches provided by World Central Kitchen (founded by chef José Andrés) between 1:30 and 3pm. In other words, its volunteers and employees have not suspended their commitment to serving their communities, but instead have pivoted to find other ways to fulfill their mission while all our social and economic systems contract under the pressure of the coronavirus outbreak."

Read more about DreamYard's work here.

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Turtle Bay Music School is closing in 2020. After 94 years as a community music school in New York City, the school will close its doors on January 9, 2020. Turtle Bay Music School was a founding member of the Guild.

In a letter from the board of directors, they write: 

The Turtle Bay Music School was born out of a desire to provide the highest quality music education and experiences to all who seek them. We fulfilled that mission for 94 years but today, with a heavy heart, we are saddened to report that our time as a community music school will soon come to an end.

Confronting reality, changing times in the cultural and educational landscape, and society’s shifting priorities have made the TBMS business model no longer sustainable. We are saddened to report this news to the very people who have given life to our school, but barring an immediate and very significant financial investment, the doors of Turtle Bay Music School will close on January 29, 2020.

There are so many contributing factors as to why this has happened. No organization, especially one that has survived generations, closes without the story being complex and the fight hard fought. Nonetheless, despite our best efforts, the fact is we were always a small community music school that was never able to get far enough away from being vulnerable.

To the many people who have brought their talents, resources and passion for music to our school, we know this is sad news. All of you have given so much and made an important impact on TBMS. Thanks to you, our students, partners, faculty, donors, audience and staff, generations of New Yorkers have had access to quality music education and experiences. Thank you for all that you have given to our school and what we hope you will continue to give to music. Our doors may close, but we hope your overwhelming talent and heart will soon support another music school and continue to spread the transformative power of music.

Music’s influence and its capacity for positive change in the world are greater and more necessary than ever. We have enjoyed so many musical highlights together and we humbly ask that you continue to inspire and be inspired. Thank you for being a part of our school. We remain proud and grateful for every contribution you made, and we know the music, friendships and community born and nurtured here will play on for generations to come.

From Lifetime Arts: 

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the launch of a three-region Creative Aging Initiative to provide hands-on art-making programs that support comprehensive physical and mental health benefits for older New Yorkers and combat social isolation. Created by a new partnership of the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Office for the Aging, the Creative Aging Initiative takes an innovative, evidence-based approach to healthy aging, underscoring New York’s leadership as the first age-friendly state in the nation.

Beginning as a pilot in spring 2020, the new initiative will serve up to 500 older adults at up to 12 senior centers and libraries throughout Long Island, the Capital Region and the North Country. The initiative will also create jobs for professional teaching artists, who will lead hands-on skill-building workshops in a variety of creative disciplines, building on extensive research demonstrating the role of the arts in improving health outcomes for older adults.

The program will be administered by Lifetime Arts and will build on a successful 2017 New York State Council on the Arts-Monroe County Office of the Aging arts programming pilot in Rochester that delivered services in four senior centers citywide.

Founded in New York State in 2008, Lifetime Arts has designed and led several Creative Aging capacity-building initiatives in New York State along with multiple others across the U.S. serving over well over 10,000 older adults and training over 1,500 teaching artists and hundreds of librarians, aging service professionals and community arts organizations.

Lifetime Arts co-founder and CEO Maura O’Malley said, “Lifetime Arts is pleased to work with this cross-sector alliance to advance Creative Aging in our home state. By implementing a proven program model that embraces older adults as learners, expands the impact of teaching artists and provides community organizations with a positive and creative approach to programming, this work will enrich the lives of older adults in New York. Importantly, it will provide a replicable model for other states as the population continues to age at a rapid rate.”

Read more >>

From Mass Cultural Council:

A new program from Mass Cultural Council is stepping into a significant and systemic gap in the youth arts ecosystem. The Creative Youth Development Teaching Artist Fellowship Pilot Program supports teaching artists in Creative Youth Development (CYD) programs throughout Massachusetts through a series of group learning sessions, site visits, and grants.

Built on the model of the Music Educator and Teaching Artist (META) Fellowship, a partnership of The Klarman Family Foundation and Mass Cultural Council, this new pilot program covers all disciplines in the arts, interpretive sciences, and humanities. By balancing individual learning and artistry with the development of a tightly knit community of practice, the CYD Fellowship has immediate impacts in the classroom and long-term impacts for the field.

Learn more about the program here >>

Young People's Chorus of NYC was recently featured for their work with young people across the five boroghs.  

"It is the mission of the YPC to provide children of all cultural and economic backgrounds with a unique program of music education and choral performance that seeks to fulfill each child's potential while creating a model of diversity that enriches the community."

The piece features the stories of YPC's founder Francisco J. Núñez, who has worked for decades now to bring music to young people across the city. 

See the full clip here >>