Spy Hop Engages Youth Nationally with New Beat Challenge Program

As arts educators adapt to remote learning environment, Spy Hop (Salt Lake City, UT) has taken a creative approach to engaging youth, both locally and around the country, as music makers. Beat Challenge is a fast-paced electronic music production program that gives students the opportunity to connect with other youth musicians, create electronic music, and discuss creations with professional musicians and mentors in a safe online environment. 

Beat Challenge meets exclusively online and students have the opportunity to sign up for a free, private server (through Discord) to use for on-going conversation and to share music with peers.

Kasandra VerBrugghen, executive director of Spy Hop was also recently featured on our webinar, How do we design for sustained learning over long periods of time? You can watch that webinar here.

Learn more about Spy Hop and the Beat Challenge here.

New Victory Releases Early Arts Learning School Tool

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.

NEA Release Report on the Future of Theater for Young Audiences

The publication, Envisioning the Future of Theater for Young Audiences, details the challenges and opportunities faced by theaters in America focused on programming for young audiences, compiled from a convening held in partnership with the service organizations TYA/USA and TCG at which leaders in the field broke down the challenges of their unique business model and the potential for growth and long-term sustainability. The report also includes research on the powerful effects of exposure to theater for children and teens.

Included in the report are findings from a research collaboration between The New Victory and WolfBrown. In the only longitudinal study of its kind, New Victory partnered with under-resourced school communities with no arts programming to track children in both treatment and control groups over three consecutive years. The study found that:

  • Children exposed to live theater are much more able to imagine the lives of others.
  • Children exposed to live theater before the age of eight report that “Theater is for someone like me.” (The study found that trend to decline in children who are not exposed to live theater before the age of eight).
  • Children demonstrate a range of intrinsic impacts after seeing live theater performance, including personal relevance, social bridging, aesthetic growth, and motivation to action. Their survey responses and comments suggest that different types of performances elicit different levels of these impacts.

Read the full report here.

Surdna Announces $13 Million Regranting Initiative for Artists of Color

The Surdna Foundation recently announced a nearly $13 million commitment to support artists of color working to advance racial justice within their local communities. The funds will be distributed through an artist regranting initiative featuring a diverse cohort of eleven intermediary organizations, which are national and regional in scope, and include several municipal and local partnerships.

As part of Surdna’s Thriving Cultures program, the artist regranting initiative will support artists of color around the country, funding up to 87 artist-led projects each year and approximately 260 projects over three years. Regranting partners will distribute Surdna’s funds to artists, artist collectives, and small artist organizations to work with their communities to imagine and practice racially just systems and structures at a local scale.

Learn more about the regranting program.

Lifetime Arts Offers Free Creative Aging 101 Training

During this challenging time when in-person training and programming are “on pause,” Lifetime Arts is offering a free, abridged version of their day-long, in-person Creative Aging training to anyone interested in learning more about this program model. The video series includes:

  • Overview of the Field
  • Teaching Art to Older Adults
  • Artmaking and Social Engagement Demonstration
  • Intro to the Program Model
  • Seeding Creative Aging in Your Organization
  • Case Studies

Learn more and watch the free videos here.

BRIEF SURVEY: Racial Equity in Arts Organizations During Covid-19 Pandemic

April 27, 2020

The Coronavirus pandemic has illuminated our nation’s historical and systemic inequities in sharp relief. Not only are communities of color experiencing higher rates of sickness, but also experiencing racial profiling, slander, and hate crimes specific to COVID-19.

The National Guild for Community Arts Education, in collaboration with a program planning committee comprised of arts and cultural administrators located in our home base of New York City, is using this time to listen and reflect. We want to learn about your personal and professional experiences of racism during this pandemic through this BRIEF (10-minute) survey. We will use what we learn, through this survey and regular community conversations, to inform upcoming anti-racism training opportunities and advocacy work, both locally and nationally. The survey is designed for teaching artists and arts administrators, both youth and adults. It can be completed on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Please complete this survey by Friday, May 8.

Planning committee members include: Erika Atkins, Deputy Director, Opening Act; BC Colston, Founder and Director, Brown Girl Recovery; Rajeeyah Finnie-Myers, Director of Professional Development, DreamYard; Linda Norris, Global Networks Program Director, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience; Naima Oyo-Simon, Executive Director, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy; and Rachel Watts, Director of Teen Programs, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, ArtsConnection.

This survey is now closed.

YAYA Starts $80,000 Emergency Relief Fund for Alumni

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.

Applications Open for National Young Artist Summit 2020 Planning Committee

Applications are now open for the 2020 National Young Artists Summit Planning Committee. The National Young Artist Summit 2020 Planning Committee plans, coordinates, and co-facilitates the 2020 National Young Artists Summit (NYAS). Working with a group of young artists from across the country, committee members design a full-day Summit, providing opportunities for youth leaders, ages 13-20, from a range of artistic disciplines, to connect, create, and celebrate. Watch videos from past summits here.

NYAS was to be originally held in New York City on Saturday, November 21, 2020, hosted in concert with the 2020 Conference for Community Arts Education. Due to COVID-19, it is uncertain if an in-person summit will occur this Fall. However, the planning team will be committed to working together to create a "Plan B": a virtual online summit.

Learn more and apply here.

Paula Ortega Appointed CYD National Youth Coordinator

The Guild is excited to announce the appointment of Paula Ortega as CYD National Youth Coordinator. In this role supported by the CYD National Partnership, Paula will support the CYD 2020 Peer Learning Networks, National Youth Network, and National Young Artists Summit (NYAS). The NYAS, entirely designed and led by young people across the country, provides opportunities for young artists, ages 13-20, from a range of artistic disciplines, to connect, create, and celebrate.

Paula is alumni from the 2019 National Youth Arts Summit in Austin, TX, works at Rising Youth Theatre as a transforming artistic collaborator and is co-founder and staff member at the RE:FRAME Youth Arts Center in Phoenix, AZ. As CYD National Youth Coordinator, Paula will collaborate with young arts leaders across the country to advance youth leadership nationally.

Big Thought Partners with County for Free Learning Centers

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.