NASAA Announces $1.46 Million in Grants to Advance Creative Aging

March 4, 2021

In collaboration with Aroha Philanthropies, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) has announced the award of $1,457,000 in grant funding to 36 state and jurisdictional arts agencies to advance creative aging. Part of NASAA’s Leveraging State Investments in Creative Aging initiative, these grants will expand opportunities for creative aging across the nation, facilitating lifelong learning, joy, social engagement and improved well-being for older adults.

Nineteen of the 36 state arts agencies included consulting, professional development, and program implementation services from Lifetime Arts in their proposals. Lifetime Arts will guide the agencies as they leverage existing state partnerships and forge new ones; develop responsive programming (i.e., veterans in Idaho); form and foster new communities of practice (New Jersey); and train a workforce of hundreds of teaching artists nationwide to develop safe, effective, meaningful, socially engaging, and sustainable programming for older adults.

Read more on NASAA's website.

ChildArt magazine highlights connections between the arts, health, & neuroscience in children

February 26, 2021

In 2020 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), contributed to the production of two “special issues” of ChildArt magazine, about the role of the arts in health and childhood development.

Supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other Federal partners, the ABCD Study® follows nearly 12,000 children beginning at 9–10 years old, who have been enrolled at 21 research sites nationwide. Researchers will study the biological and behavioral development of these children through their teens and early adulthood. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a federal partner on the study. Questions about arts-engagement are among variables that researchers will examine throughout the duration of the study.

Both issues contain artwork by children and staff involved in the study, as well as articles and interviews showcasing the neuroscientific and health benefits associated with the arts. 

Guild Staff Updates

February 25, 2021

 

Congratulations to Rangsey Keo, who was promoted to Membership and Operations Manager!

Both congratulations and farewell to Lissette Martinez, who was recently promoted to Network and Learning Manager, and whose last day at the Guild will be March 5th. Lissette has been with the Guild for over 2 years, and her contributions to programming, racial equity work, and accessibility efforts have been truly transformative and always grounded in a human-centered approach. We will miss her, and wish her well on the next step of her journey!

 

You can view the list of Guild staff at nationalguild.org/about/staff.

Voices of Freedom Series from Louis Armstrong House

Voices of Freedom is an education series by Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archives that explores the role of art as a vehicle for social change through the lens of Louis Armstrong. The series invites students in High School and beyond to create new works while learning about the process and techniques of world class artists.

Educators can access free workshop activities in writing, jazz, dance, voice, and visual art, as well as a Voices of Freedom Educator's Resource Guide with additional resources, extension activities, and suggested readings.

Learn more and access the series on the Louis Armstrong House website. 

Black Bottom Digital Archive

Black Bottom Archives (BBA) is a community-driven media platform dedicated to centering and amplifying the voices, experiences, and perspectives of Black Detroiters through digital storytelling, journalism, art, and community organizing with a focus on preserving local Black history & archiving their present.

The project has included capturing  a wealth of multimedia storytelling by Detroit residents, and offering an archival fellowship program for high school youth in 2019.

You can explore the archive on the Black Bottom Archives website. 

CYD Community Response Survey from The Lewis Prize for Music

February 25th, 2021

 

The Lewis Prize for Music has created a short survey in an effort to collect information about the creative youth development field's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing injustices of systemic racism that the pandemic has magnified.

This effort stems from The Lewis Prize for Music’s belief in—and desire to elevate nationally—the critical work that CYD music organizations are doing to create a more just society. All information shared through the survey will be reported back to the field in a summative fashion and activated toward the goal of increasing resources for the CYD field at large.

You can fill out the CYD Community Response Survey here. The survey deadline is Friday, March 19, 2021.

You can reach out with questions about this effort to info@thelewisprize.org.

Compass and Rootwork Series Complete, But the Work Continues

February 25, 2021

 

Both our “Anti-Racism as Organizational Compass” and “Rootwork | Grounding Community Arts Education Beyond the Pandemic” speaker series are now complete. Guild members can access all of the recordings in our Resource Center. 

The “Anti-Racism as Organizational Compass” series will continue in some form, later this year or in 2022—we’ll be taking time first to pause, absorb what we’ve learned, and plan the next step collaboratively with stakeholders. 

The Rootwork Learning Cohort, which attended the “Rootwork  | Grounding Community Arts Education Beyond the Pandemic” series as a group and met with the 3 Cohort Advisors to discuss together after each session, will now use the series as inspiration to design new, adaptive models for community arts education that respond to our current moment, which will then be disseminated to the broader field.

Guild Member Cathedral Arts Project Announces Launch of the LEAD artlook® Map

February 24, 2021

The Cathedral Arts Project (CAP), as part of the Any Given Child Jacksonville program (AGC Jacksonville), has announced the launch of the Landscape of Education in the Arts in Duval (LEAD) artlook® map. This launch is part of a collective national effort to affect systemic change for arts education through partnerships with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Ingenuity, the Chicago-based arts advocacy organization that created the artlook® platform.

The LEAD artlook® map provides a real-time snapshot of arts resources and services on a school-by-school basis in Duval County, using data from schools, funding resources and cultural service providers, such as local museums and arts organizations. This cutting-edge tool allows community stakeholders to identify funding and partnership opportunities that will lead to greater support and resources for arts education in Duval County schools.

Jacksonville is one of eight cities nationally, and the only city in Florida, to participate in the artlook® Project. Other communities selected for the initiative include Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; New Orleans, LA; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; and Southwestern PA.

LEAD is the first artlook® map to launch outside of Ingenuity’s original Chicago map and provides a template for other school districts seeking to use data to strengthen teaching, learning, whole-child education and strategies to address equity gaps. Locally, Assessment Technologies Group and the University of North Florida are providing data analysis support to translate the map into an advocacy plan.
 

View the LEAD artlook® map here.

Rebuild, Reconcile, Reimagine Campaign from the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

February 16th, 2021

 

A coalition of Black cultural workers, arts educators and administrators called together through Affinity Groups held by The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable have launched Rebuild, Reconcile, Reimagine: A List of Demands for Centering Black Women’s Leadership in Arts Education. This campaign ask organizations “how are you supporting and cultivating the leadership of Black women?” and calls us in to do better. In addition to the list of demands, which individuals can sign on to, the campaign includes a series of testimonial videos from Black women in the arts education field about the inordinate burdens that Black women shoulder, and why it is important to center and authentically support Black women's leadership.

The List of Demands is directed to funders and senior leadership at PWI (Primarily White Institution) arts education and cultural institutions. It also applies to mid- to larger-sized cultural institutions that are BIPOC-led. The list was created in recognition of and in response to the shared lived experiences of people participating in the NYCAIE Roundtable Black Affinity Group.

The authors of the List of Demands are Brittany Applewhite, Asari Beale, Judith Insell, David King, Jorjina Amefia-Koffi, Toya Lillard, Heather McCartney, Gary Padmore, Josephine Winfrey, PHR, SHRM-CP, and Kendra S. Williams.

You can read more about the campaign and the list of demands, and sign on, on NYC Arts in Ed Roundtable's website.

14 Community Arts Education Organizations Receive Seed Grants for Creative Aging Programs

Research shows participatory arts learning for older adults provides significant wellness benefits critical to counteracting social isolation 

Guild logo and Lifetime Arts logo

 

February 16th, 2021

 

The National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts are pleased to announce that 14 nonprofit community arts education organizations from 9 states have been selected to receive Catalyzing Creative Aging seed grants. Ranging between $2,000 and $7,000, these grants will support new and expanded creative aging programming, both in person and virtual, for adults ages 55+ in their communities. A total of $70,000 is being awarded. 

The 14 Catalyzing Creative Aging seed grantees will pilot innovative creative aging programs that respond directly to expressed community needs and the constraints of our socially distanced world. 

 

The recipients are:

 

Read the full descriptions of funded programs.

 

Led by professional teaching artists, creative aging programs provide sustained arts instruction in socially supportive environments in a variety of community settings. These programs have proven psychological, physical, and emotional health benefits for older adults. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated social isolation and its health impacts making these programs more crucial than ever, while also making them more challenging to produce. For this reason, all seed grantees will receive coaching from Lifetime Arts throughout the grant cycle to support ongoing program development, student recruitment and engagement, digital strategies, and more. 

“These grantees’ programs will provide elders in their communities with much-needed creative and emotional outlet, as well as a source of social interaction.” said Ashley Hare, National Guild’s Director of Leadership Development. “The programs will also demonstrate to the wider field that successful adaptation of programming to meet these needs is possible with the use of social distancing, use of outdoor space, and virtual programming.” 

The 14 seed grant recipients were chosen from a larger group of 20 organizations who were selected to participate in the multi-phase Catalyzing Creative Aging program, provided by the National Guild for Community Arts Education and Lifetime Arts. Between November 2019 and June 2020, staff and faculty from these organizations received training and coaching via workshops, webinars, and consultations designed to increase each organization’s capacity to serve older adults through skill-based, participatory arts programs. 

“Once again, National Guild members will be delivering innovative and responsive programs to older adults across the US,” said Lifetime Arts’ CEO Maura O’Malley. “We at Lifetime Arts are inspired by the level of inventiveness, the dedication and the passion these organizations display—especially in these challenging times. Congratulations to all.”

 

Catalyzing Creative Aging seed grants are made possible in part by generous support from Aroha Philanthropies and the NAMM Foundation.

 

 

The National Guild for Community Arts Education ensures all people have opportunities to maximize their creative potential by developing leaders, strengthening organizations, and advocating for community arts education. Through these strategies, the Guild aims to address our country’s widening opportunity gap which leaves millions of individuals with little or no access to the creative resources they need to reach their full potential. www.nationalguild.org

Lifetime Arts was founded in 2008 as a service organization with a singular goal: to enrich the lives of older adults through arts education. Lifetime Arts is the national leader in building the capacity of organizations, agencies, and individuals to initiate, develop, implement, and sustain professionally conducted Creative Aging programs for the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. www.lifetimearts.org