Guild Member Organization Enchanted Circle Theater (Holyoke, MA)

The Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) has announced that Priscilla Kane Hellweg, Executive and Artistic Director of Enchanted Circle Theater (Holyoke, MA), and Darnell Williams, President and CEO of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, will be the recipients of the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Awards.

“We are pleased to honor Priscilla and Darnell for their inspiring careers and for their invaluable contributions to the state’s nonprofit sector,” said Jim Klocke, CEO of MNN. “Their lives of service have made indelible impacts on the lives of people across the Commonwealth.”

“I am incredibly honored to be chosen by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network for a Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Kane Hellweg. “To be a part of that moment of inspiration when children, youth, and adults feel their own creative potential is beyond inspiring. Thank you for this vote of confidence!”

Every year, MNN honors outstanding leaders who have made lasting contributions to the Massachusetts nonprofit sector. Past Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Hubie Jones, Carol Duncan, Paul Grogan, Beth Smith, Michael Weekes, Joan Wallace-Benjamin, and Rev. Gloria White-Hammond.

Guild Member Merit School of Music (Chicago, IL) is one of five community partner organizations making up the new Chicago Music Pathways Program. 

From the CMPI site:

On Monday, September 16, 2019, the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI) welcomed its inaugural class of fellows. Fifty students, representing 36 zip codes from across the greater Chicago area, gathered in Chicago High School for the Arts auditorium to learn about the mission of CMPI – to identify and develop gifted and motivated orchestral students from underrepresented backgrounds for acceptance into top-tier conservatory, college or university classical music programs in preparation for careers as professional musicians.

The freshman class was chosen from 137 applicants after completing an intensive multi-month audition process. The students range from sixth graders to high school seniors and reflect the diversity of the city of Chicago (44% African American, 40% Latinx, 10% Southeast Asian, 6% South Asian). Learn more about all the fellows at www.chicagopathways.org/fellows.

CMPI is the result of a $3.5 million grant over three-and-one-half years from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to a consortium of Chicago-area organizations dedicated to music and education.

From Guild Member Organization Cathedral Arts Project (Jacksonville, FL)

Any Given Child Jacksonville (AGC Jax), a program of the Cathedral Arts Project (CAP), is collectively leading a national effort to affect systemic change for arts education. Through a collaboration of partnerships including Ingenuity, Inc., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a nationwide cohort of Any Given Child cities, 2020 will mark the national rollout of the artlook® Project.

Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and locally by PNC Bank, AGC Jax will assess the state of the arts and continue advocating for increased equity and access to high quality, arts education for all students in Duval County. According to our partners at the Kennedy Center, “numerous studies point to the value of arts education in improving student outcomes, yet the absence of comprehensive data is a challenge, and access to the arts remains an issue for many students nationally. The project goal is to help cities close the gaps for students with little to no arts access.”

In 2019, AGC Jax and Ingenuity began the first phase of this effort by developing and implementing the Landscape of Education in the Arts in Duval (LEAD) Report, a survey to assess arts education opportunities in all K-12 Duval County Public Schools (DCPS). This project is community driven, supported and implemented through collaboration among CAP, Ingenuity, DCPS, local arts organizations, funders and experts. A survey was created and tailored for all DCPS schools that was administered in May and a subsequent survey for arts partners such as museums, community centers and grantors will be deployed this fall.

“It is imperative that communities understand arts learning opportunities, the equity of their distribution across schools and what standards should be used to ensure every child benefits from a quality arts education,” said Allison Galloway-Gonzalez, CAP Chief Program Officer & AGC Jax Executive Director. “We need to continue to show that the arts add up for our community.”
 

Brooklyn Music School (Brooklyn, NY) announced that it has entered into a partnership with Gotham Group that will lead to a new 20,000 square foot BMS Music and Performing Arts Center that will be wholly owned by BMS and located adjacent to our historic facility on St. Felix Street.

Some of the highlights of the project include:

• The new facility will be constructed without requiring BMS to ever go offline, so we can continue to support our wonderful students and families throughout construction.
• We already have over 85% of the required financing in place and will be launching a new Capital Campaign in 2020 to raise the additional funding.
• The new facility more than doubles our instructional space and provides a home that is fully accessible, safe, and acoustically designed as a state-of-the-art music school.
• It will enable us to add important capabilities such as a new dance and recital space, a Digital Music Lab, a recording studio, and a music video production lab.
• It enhances BMS's mission commitment to core audiences including urban youth, seniors, the disabled, and recent immigrants.

Austin Classical Guitar (Austin, TX) was recently featured in local news for work they are doing in local juvenile justice centers, in addition to the other work they are doing in Austin and beyond under the leadership of  Matthew Hinsley, executive director. 

“Music is sometimes thought of as an ornament or as something nice to have,” Hinsley says. “For me personally, I believe what social workers do is pivotal for our society. So to have them view what we do with music as being especially practical and effective is very meaningful.”

Austin Classical Guitar has generated specially devised music training programs for 50 Central Texas schools. It oversees similar programs in 40 states and 20 countries. St. Louis alone hosts 23 of the signature Austin Classical Guitar education programs, while Loudoun County, Va., has 46.

Read the full article.

 

 

John Glover has been named Director of Artistic Planning at NYC’s Kaufman Music Center (New York, NY). A newly-created position, the Director of Artistic Planning is responsible for planning and implementing performance activities in line with Kaufman Music Center’s dual mission of presenting world-class concerts and providing music education. 

Vice President and Director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's DiMenna Center for Classical Music since 2013, Glover is Artistic Director of the Look+Listen Festival and has produced numerous new music festivals and series including NYsoundCircuit, NOise, the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival and SONiC Festival. Glover says, “I am thrilled at the chance to work with this multifaceted and forward-thinking organization, which supports music-making from the earliest moment of learning to the highest professional achievements.”

Read the full release.

Arts in Education Roundtable (New York, NY) is currently accepting proposals for their 2020 Face to Face conference in New York, NY. Submit your proposal for a session that explores topics in the area of arts education. The annual conference is a professional development conference for arts administrators, teaching artists, and others interested in the field of arts in education. The conference strives to demonstrate effective teaching and learning strategies for practitioners in the field of arts in education, as well as to provide forums for discussion of other critical issues such as equity, diversity, and inclusion; advocacy; research findings; assessment; community engagement; and organizational management. 

Learn more about the conference and submitting a proposal here. 
 

South Shore Conservatory (Duxbury, MA) announced that its president of 15 years, Kathy Czerny, will retire next year, in August 2020. She has spent 32 years in arts education. 

In a statement, Board of Trustees Chairman Derek Spence said  “Kathy has been a remarkable visionary leader who has led the expansion of SSC’s overall mission, broadening access to the arts across the South Shore through our award-winning ImagineARTS programming, as well as the creation of a robust Creative Arts Therapy department,” said Spence. “As we reach the milestone of our 50^th Anniversary in the year ahead, we cannot help but acknowledge the indelible mark that Kathy has left on SSC and the South Shore arts community.”

Under Czerny’s leadership, enrollment at SSC’s two campuses in Hingham and Duxbury has nearly doubled. Additionally, SSC has developed new programs and partnerships that have expanded its geographic footprint and created greater access to music and the arts for people of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and abilities.

SSC’s Board of Trustees has formed a search committee to conduct a national search for Czerny’s replacement.

Community Music Center (San Fransisco, CA) announced that its Older Adult Program has been honored with a 2019 Aging Achievement Award  in the Social Engagement category by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a). The awards program is supported by WellCare Health Plans. CMC’s Older Adult Program was among 48 local aging programs to receive honors at the n4a Annual Conference & Tradeshow, July 27-31, New Orleans.

The 2019 n4a Aging Innovations and Achievement Awards recognizes Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and Title VI Native American aging programs that develop and implement cutting-edge approaches to support older adults, people with disabilities and their family caregivers. Among the selection criteria was the ease with which other agencies could replicate the program in their communities. 

See the full listing of awardees here.

Meredith Barber has been appointed Vice President for Development & Marketing at Merit School of Music (Chicago, IL). Previously the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement at Rising Ground, a nonprofit social service organization in New York City, Barber brings more than 10 years of fundraising and philanthropy experience and track record of increasing revenue and galvanizing support for those in need to the role. Barber will be responsible for managing all fundraising and marketing efforts in support of Merit’s mission to provide equal access to a high-quality music education. Prior to her career in nonprofit management, Barber was a professional opera singer and sang roles with companies such as Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, and Portland Opera across the country as well as with many local companies and orchestras in Chicago including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Light Opera Works!, Chicago Opera Theater, and others.

“I am delighted to join the Merit School of Music and be a part of its mission to transform the lives of Chicagoland youth through the power of music.  As both a nonprofit leader and former professional musician, joining Merit gives me the unique opportunity to combine two of my greatest passions – music and social  and I look forward to supporting and promoting Merit’s continued positive impact in the community,” Barber shared.