Dear Friends and Members of ArtsEd Washington;

As some of you know, I am expecting twin boys this summer. So I am consumed with thoughts of transition and an exciting adventure that is about to begin. Of course, that’s also how I have felt about ArtsEdWashington for the past 3 years working with Una and Carri and the board. ArtsEd Washington has been a lot easier on my physical body than these growing boys, but that’s another story altogether. As a new-parent-to-be, I am even more keenly aware of the urgency in the work we are doing to help our schools evolve into learning communities filled with the arts.

Thanks in large part to the hard work of our staff, we have had some major accomplishments in the past year, not the least of which is a 60% growth in our budget and capacity. As the school year draws to a close, and I prepare to go into full “nesting” mode, I wanted to take a moment to share just a few highlights from 2006-07.

We began the year with a focus on Washington Learns, and with your help, ensured that the importance of creativity and the arts was recognized as part of a complete education and wrapped up the year with our second Annual Arts Education Week, celebrating and highlighting the arts and the unique role they play in a 21st century education.

This year brought us some phenomenal organizational growth – hiring the talented Carri Campbell to take on the role of Program Manager, and adding the redoubtable MaryJane Fraser, educator extraordinaire, as our Schools Coach. In addition, Keri Healey, a local playwright and fundraising guru (my term, not hers) is significantly increasing our capacity to get our message out to a much larger community. Together, these folks have freed up our Executive Director to take a broader view of everything we are doing.

The Principals’ Program is concluding its third year, and this year worked with 20 Puget Sound area schools at various stages of creating and implementing arts plans. These plans reflect the individual school’s characteristics, community, and opportunities for growth and identify the unique pathway for each school to offer high quality instruction to their students in all four arts disciplines using existing and new resources. This month, ten planning schools put the final touches to their plans and “graduated” to our Alumni program for next year. The program team is actively recruiting for next year, so call them if you are interested in learning more.

At the Board level, ArtsEd Washington gave some serious thought to the changes we want to see in the world and the ways we can be influential to advance these changes. We undertook a strategic planning process and identified our roadmap for the next few years.

YOU were part of our growth this year also and I want to thank those of you who became members or renewed your membership this year. Thanks to you, our individual memberships almost doubled this year, and our organizational memberships increased 150%, with steady growth in school memberships as well. If you aren’t currently a member, please add your voice to this oh-so-important work. Together we can continue to prioritize creativity, the arts, and student learning in all of our schools.

Thanks for a great year. Have a great summer and I’ll see you in the fall. I’ll be the somewhat-harried looking woman with the two boys strapped to my hips.

Andrea Allen
Board President

 

Currently the House of Representative is considering the federal budget and there is very good news so far for arts and arts education.

On May 23rd The House Interior Subcommittee, under the leadership of Washington State 6th District Congressman Norm Dicks, approved a $35 million increase for the NEA in its FY 2008 spending bill. This amount, if approved by the Senate and signed by the president, would be the largest increase in the history of the agency. The agency, currently funded at $124.4 million has only seen increases of less than 3% for the last several years

On June 7th the House Labor-Health-Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved a $39 million funding level for the Arts in Education program at the U.S. Department of Education. This is the first time in seven years that this program has received funding from the House subcommittee. In previous years this funding was added in the Senate version of the budget and subsequently agreed to by the House. If this level of funding holds it would represent a slight increase to FY 2007 level of $35.3 million.

Final House votes on these budgets will happen any day now. Please go to our Action Alert Center http://capwiz.com/artsusa/wa/state/main/?state=WA There you will find the tools you need to contact your Members of Congress and ask them to support this funding. It only takes few minutes and a couple of clicks for you to send a customizable message to your Congress Members.

SIGN UP FOR ACTION ALERTS!!  WSAA Action Alerts will give you the tools to contact your legislators from your office or home, on issues that you care about, and in a timely fashion. To sign up go to: http://capwiz.com/artsusa/wa/mlm/signup/

The Washington State Arts Alliance is the statewide advocacy organization that works to promote public funding, legislation and policy favorable to the arts. Visit their website at http://www.wsartsalliance.com/ for more information.

(Editor's Note: Gretchen is leaving WSAA after more than ten years of dedicated service, but we're happy to report that she will remain on the Board of ArtsEd Washington. We wish her happiness as she takes up a new position as Director of the ArtsNow program at Edmonds Community College. Attend WSAA's Annual Meeting on June 27th, to join in celebrating ten years of WSAA achievements and wish Gretchen "Good Luck!" Check the WSAA website for details)

All of these resources are now available and regularly updated on our website http://www.artsedwashington.org  in the Resources section. Bookmark the website and check back regularly for news and information at the national, state and local level.

 

 

Lisa Fitzhugh of ArtsCorps wrote a powerful Op-Ed that highlights the disparity between the funding for the recent wonderful additions to the city's cultural resources and the funding (or lack thereof) for arts in our schools. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003726458_artscorps30.html

 

Nicely timed for Arts Education Week, Joel Connelly, columnist for the Seattle PI, talks about the importance of the arts and how, despite this, they are vanishing from schools. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/315862_joel16.html

 

High School Musical - literally! 5th Avenue Theatre awards honored Washington state's best high school musical theater productions. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/theater/318547_5th06.html and http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/theater/319111_5thavenue09.html You can find streaming video of the awards at TVW http://www.tvw.org  

Not local, but worth a listen - Arts Education on "Open Source" Radio
Listen to the archived show from June 6th as Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky leads a discussion on arts education in America. Is eliminating the marching band the best way to keep kids moving forward? Is arts education a necessity that has become a luxury? Then add your comments to the blog - What was your arts education like? How does it differ from your child’s? What are the long-term consequences of short-changing kids’s culture? http://www.radioopensource.org/no-artist-left-behind/

Does your organization have an event coming up you would like to advertise? Sponsor the September 2007 eNews and reach over 1400 subscribers who are interested in supporting and increasing arts education in Washington State. Our subscribers include educators, school administrators, families, cultural organizations, and others who believe that the arts are essential for building strong communities-beginning with our children. If you are interested in sponsoring an eNews, please contact ArtsEd Washington’s Program Manager at carri@artsedwashington.org