Vermont Alliance for Arts Education

The Vermont Alliance for Arts Education (VAAE) has selected two Vermont high school seniors to receive $500 college scholarships for artistic achievement.  The scholarship recipients are Levi N. Tetreault, St. Johnsbury Academy and Julianna Matthews, Homeschooled (Newport, VT).

Julianna Matthews

“We had another outstanding pool of applicants this year,” said Walter Judge, a director at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC who serves  as co-chair of VAAE.  “We are pleased to be able to recognize the hard work and achievements of these talented students by awarding arts scholarships to help defray college expenses.”

“Invaluable assistance was provided by the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation to publicize the scholarships to students throughout Vermont and to coordinate the application process,” said Judge, “and by Jessica Dyer of Burlington City Arts and Glory Douglass Reinstein, a music teacher at Essex High School, who assisted me in thoughtfully reviewing each application and selecting the winners.”

Matthews won in the music category.  The judges selected Matthews for her outstanding performance of difficult material on the classical flute, which belied her age as a high school senior.  She will attend the University of Vermont.

Levi Treteault

Tetreault’s paintings, drawings, sketches, and prints using the Intaglio method, impressed the judges by showing technical sophistication and maturity of subject matter.  Tetreault plans to attend Mass College of Art in Boston.

Here is one of Levi’s prints, showing her technique and imagination.

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We’re asking students and teachers of dance, music, theater, and visual arts to think about the question

What has helped you learn about, and develop in, your artform?

and to share that on video. These videos will help us focus our efforts next year, and perhaps provide a model for a video nominations process for next year’s Teacher Recognition project.

We’ll be reaching out to students and teachers during the summer and we hope you’ll help spread the word by forwarding a link to this post and talking to folks you think might be interested. We think that many students and teachers will have more time over the summer to dance, play music, act, and make art, so it should be a good time for reflection about what helps you grow as an artist.

Down below you will find directions for how to make your video, how to borrow a pocket video camera from us for two weeks if you don’t have access to one, and how to post your videos on YouTube. We will post information (and FAQ’s as they develop) here on our website and on our Facebook page after school adjourns for the year. (Image above is from the uniquiet library’s photostream on flickr.)

Join us right away in this cool project! Contact: info@vaae.org

How to Participate in the Video Project

The format for the video is flexible, but it should:

• Show or tell who made the video.
• Begin with a statement (either spoken or as text) “What’s helped me learn about (dance, drama, music, visual arts), is ___________.”
• Show (either by interview, filming examples, or some other method) what are the things that inspire, teach and motivate you in ___________(music, art, theater, and/or dance). Use footage of arts projects, teaching, or interviews (or video of yourself speaking about these questions)
• Make sure that the people being photographed are OK with being filmed and having the footage uploaded to the internet.
• Be of a reasonable length, probably no more than 4-6 minutes
• Use respectful language and action. Energetic and unusual is great. Inappropriate language and behavior is not.

When your video is finished, upload it to YouTube and send the link to us at info@vaae.org . To put video up on YouTube you must have a valid YouTube account, which you can create here.  Our plan is to pull the videos into the VAAE website and our Facebook page.

Everyone who posts a video with the required parts and sends us a link will get a gift from us!  Have a look at our gifts!

Do you need to borrow a pocket camcorder?
Five camcorders will be made available to students and others who wish to make videos, loaned out for a period of two weeks (including shipping time), with a signed contract regarding time, responsibility, and directions (signed by a parent for students under age 18). We will pay the postage/shipping both ways. If there is nobody else waiting for it, there could be a renewal period. Contracts for the use of the camcorders are available on our website here.

This Summer Video Project is supported by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts

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Michelle Obama, Honorary Chairman

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), often called the American equivalent of a Culture Ministry, has just released its long-anticipated report titled Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools, released in May, 2011. This publication is available free of charge at www.pcah.gov, the website of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

This strong report gives five  recommendations, as follows:

1. Build collaborations among different approaches. The PCAH urges leaders of professional associations to work with federal and state agencies to build and demonstrate connections among different educators in the arts: art specialists working on standards-based approaches; classroom teachers trained in arts integration; and project-based teaching artists. The PCAH believes that collaborations among national leadership organizations should move beyond internal debates in the arts education field about modes of delivery of arts instruction in order to address the more pressing issues of equitable access and infusing more schools with a creativity-rich environment.

2. Develop the field of arts integration. The second recommendation focuses on an expansion of arts integration. The PCAH encourages further development of the field of arts integration through strengthening teacher preparation and professional development, targeting available arts funding, and setting up mechanisms for sharing ideas about arts integration through communities of practice. In this recommendation we identify roles for regional and state arts and education agencies as well as private funders.

3. Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists. We strongly believe that working artists in this country represent an underutilized and underdeveloped resource in increasing the quality and vitality of arts education in our public schools. The PCAH recommends expanding the role of teaching artists, in partnership with arts specialists and classroom teachers, through sustained engagements in schools. This should include supporting high quality professional development in pedagogy and curriculum. We see an opportunity for leadership in this from the regional and state arts agencies, as well as a national service program similar to the “Artists Corps” idea articulated in President Obama’s Arts Policy Campaign platform.

4. Utilize federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K-12 education. This recommendation focuses on the need for federal and state education leaders to provide policy guidance for employing the arts to increase the rigor of curriculum, strengthen teacher quality, and improve low-performing schools. Building capacity to create and innovate in our students is central to guaranteeing the nation’s competitiveness. To do this it is necessary for federal and state governments to move beyond merely “allowing” the arts as an expenditure of a comprehensive education.

5. Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education. Finally, while the evidence base for the benefits of the arts is compelling, there is room to expand systematic data gathering about the arts, specifically in developing creativity and enhancing engagement in school. Educators need practical tools to measure the progress of student learning in the arts — an investment that dovetails with the federal education agency’s investments in more authentic assessments of complex learning. From a federal perspective, policymakers should help stakeholders make informed arguments and decisions regarding impact and equitable access. This requires policies that support ongoing data gathering about available opportunities, including teacher quality,
resources, and facilities at the local and state level.

Photo of Michelle Obama by Andrea Dylewski (from PCAH website)

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The Board of Directors of the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education deserves a huge amount of credit for keeping the Alliance afloat for well over a year, without a paid staff. They planned and put on the ARTSPA conference on March 11, 2010, and put out a newsletter in Fall, 2010. They then put together a funding package to hire a part-time Executive Director, advertised, interviewed, and finally hired Janet Van Fleet to help them move the Alliance forward.

Here they are shown at their most recent meeting on March 3, 2011. Two members are joining the meeting by phone (with that little device in the center of the table).

These folks are seriously committed to arts education, and Vermont owes them a debt of gratitude for their dedication, hard work, and vision.

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The Society for Neuroscience is an organization that attempts to capture the imagination of young people and communities through learning about the brain and the nervous system, and they believe that using performing arts in the classroom is an excellent way to engage students in sharing ideas and knowledge. SfN is sponsoring a video contest that may be of interest to Vermont students, teachers, and parents.

All original videos should demonstrate a concept about the brain or nervous system in less than five minutes through a performance, reenactment, song, animation, or other art form and will be judged on accuracy, creativity and educational content. Artists of all ages are welcome to participate, but contestants must partner with an SfN member . Find out about the contest at their website.  Submissions are due June 10, 2011.

Cash Prizes!

• First place: $1,000 and a trip to SfN’s annual meeting in Washington DC, Nov. 2011
• Second Place: $500
• Third place: $250
• People’s Choice Award: $500

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Congressman Welch will host the 30th annual Congressional Art Competition on May 9, 2011 at the T.W. Wood Gallery in Montpelier, VT. Founded by former Senator Jim Jeffords in 1981, the competition is a unique forum for Vermont’s high school artists to showcase their talent and abilities. The winning piece of artwork from Vermont will hang in the U.S. Capitol for a year.

Teachers can download the 2011 Congressional Art Competition Rules and the Registration at Rep. Welch’s website. Art Competition Ceremony details to come. If you have any questions please contact Victoria Jones at (888) 605-7270 or victoria.jones at mail.house.gov

Above: The 2010 winning piece: “Milking Time” by Holly Greenleaf, St. Johnsbury Academy

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The Vermont Alliance for Arts Education has partnered with the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) to award scholarships to high school seniors who are talented musicians, vocalists, visual artists, dancers, or theater performers to assist them to pursue careers in the arts.

Interested students should look at VSAC’s website and at their booklet of this year’s scholarships,  where the Alliance scholarship information can be found on page 21.

The postmark deadline for all VSAC scholarships is March 4, 2011.

Last year’s winners, four Vermont high school seniors who came from the disciplines of visual art/photography, music, and drama, were:

Patrick Xavier Donnelly, a Burlington High School senior who will be attending Rhode Island School of Design in the fall.  Xavier’s stunning, highly detailed pen and ink color drawings and photos of geometrically intricate subjects caught the eyes of the judges.

Margaret Campbell Dunsmore, a senior at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, won in the drama category.  Campbell’s winning entry was a solo musical/monologue scene from the CVU student production of the show “Rent.”  Campbell’s dramatic talent and maturity as she belted out her solo wowed the judges.  Campbell will be attending drama school at New York University in the fall.

In the music category, the judges were taken by Jesse French’s electric guitar-playing and singing.  Jesse is a senior  at Champlain Valley Union high school.  Jesse’s winning entry played cover tunes and original compositions and demonstrated both a good range of material and confidence in performance, as well as solid instrumental and singing abilities.  Jesse will be attending Hampshire College in western Massachusetts in the fall.

Finally, and also in the music category, the judges selected Emily Wiggett of Lake Region Union High School in Orleans, Vermont.  Emily’s outstanding performance of difficult material on the classical flute belied her age as a high school senior.  Emily will be attending the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in New York in the fall.

Each of these outstanding high school students won $500 from the VAAE in recognition of their talent, hard work, and achievement, and to help with college expenses.

VAAE thanks VSAC for coordinating this scholarship, and to last year’s judges —  Walter Judge, Jessica Dyer, Jennifer Koch, and Glory D. Reinstein —  for poring through the applications and selecting the winners.

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Walter Judge, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC

The law firm of Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC (DRM) has been a strong supporter of the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education over the years, and they recently stepped up to the plate again with a generous gift to help launch our renewed efforts. Walter Judge, a partner at DRM and the hard-working Chair of our Board of Directors, recently presented a check for $1,000 to Executive Director Janet Van Fleet.

“We know how essential the arts are to educational excellence,” Judge said as he offered DRM’s  gift. “By supporting quality arts education in our schools, we help give Vermont students the necessary equipment to succeed as individuals, and also provide the creative leadership we need to insure Vermont’s future.”

Thanking DRM for its gift, Van Fleet noted that in the current economy support for non-profit efforts is of vital importance. “Without the participation and assistance of the business and professional community, we would not be able to do our work. We are grateful for this vote of confidence in our program, and know that others will soon step forward to help us to keep arts education alive and vital.”

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