Art in the News
Read the latest arts news
On July 9th, Senate confirmed Dr. William "Bro" Adams to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities, the independent federal agency that supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. He was nominated by President Obama on April 10th.
Asthmatic Kitty Records, a tiny record label co-owned by alternative artist Sufjans Stevens, is putting Indianapolis on the arts map.
The KPCC, a Southern California public radio station, released an analysis that found 87 percent of Los Angeles Unified elementary schools will not provide comprehensive arts instruction in the upcoming school year.
A new report was released today, profiling the state of the arts in one of the country’s largest school system – Chicago Public Schools. Ingenuity, an arts advocacy organization in Chicago, works closely with the school system to reinstate arts education in every school for every student.
The LA Arts Commission recently released a report detailing arts instruction within LA County public school districts. Arts for All - an arts education advocacy organization – acquired, compiled, and analyzed data from the California Department of Education, which reported on each district and their educational offerings.
NYC Mayor, Bill De Blasio, recently announced a $23 million increase to the city’s education budget specifically for arts education. The allocation is in response to the report by city Comptroller, Scott Stringer, which found 28 percent of city schools lack even one full-time certified arts teacher, especially with the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.
Last week, the Lincoln Center announced a new, alternative initiative to educate and certify arts educators in three years who will be placed in up to 120 New York inner city schools. The Lincoln Center is partnering with CUNY’s Hunter College School of Education, the New York City Department of Education, and the United Federation of Teachers to launch the “Lincoln Center Scholars Alternative Certification Program.”
Last Monday, the San Diego City Council approved $100,000 in extra funding to the troubled San Diego Opera. Due to the opera company’s structural instability and its board’s recommendation to shut down for financial reasons, the city council voted to slash city funding from $383,322 to $160,000. In the aftermath, over half of the San Diego Opera’s board left and its leadership resigned.
Last month, Beaumont, TX students took to the state capitol in Austin to fight for their right to quality arts education. Throughout June, the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD) in Texas has been under some unique pressure to fix a budget problem.
In Youngstown, Ohio, the Power of Arts held a town hall meeting for arts supporters regarding new initiatives to raise more arts funding. Their most recent lobbying effort is to change a provision in the Ohio Revised Code which would allow counties with populations under 1.2 million to fund arts and cultural districts with a cigarette tax.
