School Day

A thrilling missive from teaching artists Cassie Thornton and Chris Kennedy of the School of the Future arrived in the mailbox today about an event that happens tomorrow, which, depending upon where you are geographically, might be today.

Here is the news flash:

We greet you this Fall from islands of schooling in the South and from the West! Although our student faculties have left the asphalt land of NYC, we still think about the achievement and scholarship that took place this summer.


This Friday to celebrate you and all that you have contributed as both students and teachers, you are cordially invited to join us for an Opening Reception of a show organized by Trust Art and Kidd Yellin called '5 Social Victories', an exhibition dedicated to charting the evidence, processes, communities, and achievements surrounding five visionary public art projects, including the School of the Future by Cassie Thornton and Chris Kennedy, Wildness by Seth Aylmer, Humanity by Anne McClain, Dreamers by Justin Tellian, and Vulture by Dave Olsen.


The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, September 17th at 7:00 pm with the exhibition on view from September 17th-26th, 2010. Kidd Yellin is located in Red Hook at 133 Imlay St. Brooklyn, NY 11231 ( Directions: 4/5 to Borough Hall or A/C/F to Jay St. to B61 Bus (to Van Brunt & Verona St.)


Remember that the future is always in the past as we share our continuing knowledge of a better education in the present.
Please keep in touch.


Still building the school,
Chris + Cassie

Also: The Jackson Five - Medley 1972

Teatro

TeatroStageFest, a unique, and family friendly, festival of circus, music and dance will run June 17-30, 2010 in New York City.  

Some anticipated highlights are below:

From Argentina, Fulanos (“Everyman”) – a dazzling exploration of human nature in a tour-de-force performance by La Arena's troupe of acrobatic actors on six ladders.

From Spain, m³- A NoSpace Odissey – You think your New York apartment is too small?  Wait until you see this comical fringe masterpiece in which a city dweller must learn to live in the largest apartment he can afford: a one cubic meter size box.

From Brazil, Isadora.Orb: The Final Metaphor – What would happen if NASA decided to send to outer space a module ship with theater, music, dance and video artists? Discover it in this stunning multimedia exploration about creating art in outer space.

From Peru/NYC, Oh! Yantay – A colorful family-friendly adaptation of the classic Inca tale of Ollantay, considered the first play to be performed in the Americas.

From Brazil, Animals of Brazil – The jungle's many endearing animals come to life in this whimsical carnival of Brazilian music, choreography and awe-inspiring puppets.

From NYC, I Want You By My Side – An all-teen cast stars in Tere Martínez’s new play about a college freshman who’s on top of the world, until she is forced to face the possibility that she may be HIV positive.

Don’t miss El Museo del Barrio’s FREE outdoor Summer Night Concert presenting Chico Mann’s Electro-Freestyle-Latin-Afrobeat fusion.

The festival's website, which is available in both Spanish and English, says the box office is open!

The Great Work

Here are three upcoming theater events produced by Brooklyn-based theater companies. In each of these grassroots organizations, teaching artists play a significant role; using their professional expertise in theater arts to help educate young people, and create positive social change in our communities.

Go see.

REDBULL THEATER COMPANY

RUNNING OF THE BULLS

Monday June 7, 6:30pm

Only 10 "Young Buck" Super-Discount Tickets Available
for the second annual

 honoring F. MURRAY ABRAHAM • MICHAEL STUHLBARG •  THE HOWARD AND MARCIA OWENS CHARITABLE TRUST and THE ANGELO PATRI MIDDLE SCHOOL with MATADOR AWARDS FOR CLASSICAL THEATER 


Join host Michael Cerveris and special guests Robert Cuccioli, Paige Davis, Roberta Maxwell, Patrick Page, Laila Robins, and more for an evening featuring fun entertainment including flamenco dancing, special guest performer Malcolm Gets, fine dining, great company, and spectacular views.  Celebrate Red Bull Theater, honor four contributors to classical theater, and be the first to hear about our 2010-2011 Season.



RED BULLET DISCOUNT


Limited Number of "Young Buck" Seats for Only $100
Buy Tickets Now
 

www.redbulltheater.com


212.352.3101 


Use Discount Code "YB"

The Performance Project @ University Settlement Presents


IMPOSSIBLE COUNTRY


Conceived & created by THE MUD/BONE COLLECTIVE




FIVE PERFORMANCES ONLY!


June 2-5 @ 7:30pm, and June 5th @ 4pm

When life is no longer possible in your own country, when you are forced to flee and begin again, how do memories of the past influence your present?  Inspired by the true stories of refugees living In New York City, Impossible Country explores the conflict between honoring the past and embracing the present.  



Directed by:
Mahayana Landowne**



The Performance Project @ University Settlement


184 Eldridge Street, NYC
 (corner of Rivington - 2 blks south of Houston)



Advance tickets at 
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/98447
 or call 800-838-3006



Join Us for an Evening of Food, Wine and Theater


Benefit Performance and Celebration
 

Thursday, June 3rd



Text Architecture by:
Sandi Carroll & Jordan Dann
Performed by:
Christopher Burris*, Sandi Carroll*,
 
Sarah Douglas*, W. Kerry Huang, &
 



Jennifer Kidwell*






SARAH RUHL’S PASSION PLAY

 

Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play 

Directed by Mark Wing-Davey
EXTENDED TO JUNE 5th!

 Hailed by the New Yorker’s John Lahr as “extraordinary”, “bold”, and “inventive”, Sarah Ruhl’s PASSION PLAY takes us behind the scenes of three communities attempting to stage the death and resurrection of Christ. From Queen Elizabeth’s England to Hitler’s Germany to Reagan’s America, Ruhl’s exploration of devotion takes us on a humorous yet unsettling journey filled with lust, whimsy, and a lot of fish. (3.5 hours with 2 intermissions)

The PRESS has faith in PASSION PLAY. Read the raves from The New York Times, Time Out New York, Associated Press, and more!

Read the April 18th New York Times feature on PASSION PLAY: Sarah Ruhl’s Sunday School

PASSION PLAY is staged at the Irondale Center inside the historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, as the centerpiece of a community FESTIVAL highlighting the intersection of religion, art, sexuality, and politics. This festival is produced by a COALITION of artists, arts groups, academic institutions, and local community members.

Sprung

In a brilliant stroke of event planning, the New York Botanical Garden has designed an entire exhibition around poet Emily Dickinson, who ,they point out, was "an avid gardener " prone to welcoming house guests with a bunch of carefully selected wildflowers, and a poem.

Emily Dickinson's GARDEN: The Poetry of Flowers, will be receiving visitors from April 30th to June 13th, 2010. 

The exhibition includes useful resources for teaching artists, and step by step instructions for making your own floral bouquet.

Spring is sprung.

Also: The Divine Ms M - The Rose

This Is Our Youth

Hipsters, and early-career teaching artists of all ages might be interested to know about Young Educators in the Arts; the latest in youth movements. YEA's first big public event is this Thursday, April 29th. Arts educators, TAs and arts administrators who consider themselves young, or new to the field are invited.

Details are below:

Emerging Leaders in Arts Education: Needs, Networking and Next Steps

Presented in association with the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

Thursday, April 29, 2010
6:00 – 8:00pm
Bowery Wine Company
13 East First Street
New York, NY 10003
$5 for non-members (RSVP to yeacollective@gmail.com)
Free for members of the NYC AIE Roundtable (Register with the Roundtable:http://nycaieyea.eventbrite.com/)


Are you interested in the future of arts education? Join the YEA and the NYC AIE Roundtable for an informal networking mixer, happy hour and discussion for arts administrators, teaching artists, teachers and students (individuals new or relatively new to arts education strongly encouraged to attend). We will be joined by Edward Clapp, editor of the upcoming book "20 Under 40: Re-inventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century" (http://www.20under40.org/), who will share some of his experiences and what he has learned from collecting essays from young and emerging leaders in arts education from around the world.

Space is limited! RSVP to yeacollective@gmail.com ASAP!
Find YEA on ning: http://youngeducatorsarts.ning.com
Follow YEA on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yeacollective
Friend YEA on Facebook: YEA Facebook Page

Also: The Fab Four - Revolution

Urban Adventures

Teaching Artists with an interest in urban wildlife might be interested to know about Safari 7, a self-guided nature tour that follows the number 7 subway line into the borough of Queens, and beyond.

The project, which excites me to no end, is part of Earth Day Celebrations, and will launch next Monday, April 19th. A detailed blurb and links are below:

Safari 7 is a self-guided tour of urban animal life along New York City's No. 7 subway line. Traveling from Manhattan's dense core, under the East River and into Queens, the nation's most ethnically diverse county, we hope you can use Safari 7's resources to better understand the complexity, biodiversity, conflicts, and potentials of our urban ecosystems.



EXHIBITION DATES: Mon Apr 19 – Sat Apr 24, 2010.
HOURS: 10am-7pm (Mon Apr 19 – Fri Apr 23) and 10am-5pm (Sat Apr 24).
PRESS EVENT: 11am Mon Apr 19, with the exhibition curators
LOCATION: Vanderbilt Hall Grand Central Terminal

The exhibit, organized with MTA Arts for Transit, includes 3D maps, audio listening stations, and large-scale drawings about animal habitats, behaviors and life cycles amidst New York City’s urban culture and history. This exhibit is a trail head for Safari 7, a self-guided tour of urban wildlife on the MTA Number 7 subway line: Look around, take a map and download a podcast before embarking on the subway.

This exhibit is in conjunction with EarthFair organized by Earth Day New York.

Music and Spectacle

New York City Opera has apparently survived its recent brush with financial ruin. When people ask me why, and they do, I say there are lots of reasons to love Opera--music and spectacle are just the two most obvious answers. I dig the out of control narratives--it's life made ludicrously large, and gorgeous.

On April 3rd, New York City Opera is giving us another chance to love opera.

A Family matinee of L’Étoile. (Est il possible?) And tickets start at just $6!

Details from their website are below:

NEW YORK CITY OPERA
EMMANUEL CHABRIER
L'ETOILE FAMILY MATINEE
APRIL 3, 2010

Introduce your children to the music and characters of
L’Étoile, Chabrier’s hilarious opera about a madcap king whose destiny is linked to one unlucky peddler. Together they try to escape a grim fate foretold in the stars. Sung in French with English dialogue and supertitles, this special one-hour version of the opera will follow an interactive program for families, featuring the New York City Opera Orchestra and select cast members.

Ticket holders are also invited to a special pre-performance concert at 12:00pm on the Promenade by the New York City Opera Children's Chorus and the InterSchool Orchestras of New York. 

Sung in French with spoken dialogue in English, all with English Supertitles.

Date
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 1:30pm

The March

Teaching Artists who care to know, might want to know about the following March 4th Actions in defense of Public Education. More information is located on the website of the local organizer, and below:

MARCH 4th Actions

DEFEND EDUCATION

Rally at Gov. Paterson’s Office @ 4 pm

633 Third Ave. @ 41st St.

Then March to the MTA Hearings at FIT

Seventh Ave. @ 27th St.

Facebook event page

• Stop the school closings and privatization of public education
• Stop the cuts to K-12 and higher education
• Restore the free student MetroCard
• Full funding for all educational needs
• Education is a right – Free, high-quality education for all
  
  

And: Nina Simone - Go Limp

Defend Education

March 4th is a National Day of Action to Defend Education, which, you may have noticed, is dying the death of a zillion budget cuts. 

The crisis is nationwide. The reasons are numerous and varied, but the main cause is fallout from the economic apocalypse and blatant disregard for the facts.

To those who believe that public education is the foundation of our democracy this is the time to say something, such as "stop!"

The call to action for this national day of protest originated in California, which is now threatening to eliminate art teachers entirely, as part of a broader strategy to fill huge holes in the statewide education budget.

At her self-titled blog, Writer/Activist Arlene Goldbard, examines the issues in her usual clear-eyed fashion; setting the crisis in education within a larger conversation about the importance of fostering a "hunger for learning" in a society which encourages apathy, and undermines democracy.

Teaching Artists who care to join the struggle, can  check the national organizer's website to find links to protest events in their state.

The New York event planning committee website is here.

Also: Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land

Listings

Messages on the ATA Digest today include the following items posted by ATA Executive Director, Dale Davis.

Are you on Dale's List?

From the ATA Digest:

• A Call for Teaching Artists With Disabilities Fellowship Program

Application deadline: April 23, 2010

VSA recognizes the positive influence of the arts to advance teaching
and learning in the classroom. Because a skilled teaching artist can
foster creative engagement and help build an inclusive environment,
VSA is seeking outstanding teaching artists with disabilities for the
Teaching Artist Fellows program.

The VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship program seeks to identify, engage,
and support teaching artists with disabilities in the visual and
performing arts.

Find more information on this fellowship @ http://www.vsarts.org/ or email info@vsarts.org

• Announcing the 2010 VSA arts Playwright Discovery Call for Scripts
The VSA arts Playwright Discovery Program invites middle and high
school students to take a closer look at the world around them,
examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others. 

Find more information on this call for scripts @ http://www.vsarts.org/ or email info@vsarts.org

•Building A Creative Life as a Teaching Artist
Panel Discussion presented by the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation and
Moore College of Art and Design
Friday, March 19, 2010, 6:00-8:00pm
Moore College of Art and Design, 20th Street and the Parkway,
Philadelphia.

Find more information on this event @ http://bartol.org/teaching-artist-programs/workshops/march19/

Cultural Calendar

I am not here. I'm at the annual Face to Face AIE conference, which is held this year at the spectacular Park Avenue Armory.

If I can get a signal, I'll post comments on Twitter.

Also, someone sent me this email announcement about a play by Teaching Artist Judith Sloan, whose work has been featured in the New York Times.

I have been meaning to tell you, because I think you'll want to go:

Yo Miss! Teaching Inside the Cultural Divide, Volume 1.
Conceived, written and performed by Judith Sloan
Directed by Michael Dinwiddie

What happens when a middle-aged teaching artist survives a near fatal car accident and collides with the oncoming traffic of Hip Hop culture?

At the Nuyorican Poets Café
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, March 4th, 5th, 6th
All shows start at 7 PM.

Address: 236 East 3rd Street Between Ave B & C
New York City

$15 adv/$20 door/$10 groups of 10 or more
Please call the Cafe at 212.505.8183 for group sales.

Proceeds to benefit EarSay’s Youth Education project for immigrant and refugee teenagers in Queens.

http://www.earsay.org

No Sleep Til Brooklyn

If you are not yet a card-carrying member of the Teaching Artist Union, now's your chance. The regular monthly membership meeting takes place on the 3rd Sunday of each month, and a peek at the calendar says it's nearly time.

Details below:

TEACHING ARTIST UNION MIXER

Sunday, February 21st

3-5pm

Bring your stories, curricula in development, your ideas, your laptop or your knitting project and come for the afternoon. Normal meeting time and place! Come discuss and co-work. It's a great time to catch up, and we'll be back to skill-sharing and the regularly programmed schedule in March!

Christopher Kennedy will be your guide from 3-5pm.

Splinters and Logs || 4th Floor
1013 Grand St. |Brooklyn| L Train to Grand St.
3-5PM

WEBSITE: http://www.teachingartistunion.org

EMAIL: teachingartistunion@gmail.com

Bold, Cautious, True

At the Katonah Museum in New York State, an interesting exhibition of work from the Civil War era takes its title from a Walt Whitman poem.

Bold, Cautious, True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era will be on exhibition in the Beitzel and Righter Galleries until January 24, 2010.

The show presents paintings by Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer and others. Patrons may preview images from the exhibition online.

The image attached to this post is by Eastman Johnson. He lived from 1851-1899 and you can read his digitized personal correspondence on the website of the Smithsonian.

Also:

As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

As toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods,
To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)
I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all could
understand,)
The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose--yet this sign left,
On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,
Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life,
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone, or in the crowded street,
Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave, comes the inscription
rude in Virginia's woods,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

Hands On

MOMA is offering free hands-on artmaking workshops in conjunction with the exhibition Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity

"Bauhaus Lab is a new interactive space that reimagines the historic Bauhaus classrooms in which students and teachers of many forms of art experimented with innovative pedagogical approaches. Led by artists, educators, and art historians, an ongoing series of hands-on art-making workshops offers participants of all ages the opportunity to engage in techniques and processes integral to the Bauhaus, such as drawing, collage, graphic design, color theory, and mechanical construction."

On Saturday, November 21st, the workshop will cover Paul Klee and Johannes Itten: Bauhaus Curricula. Students will create works on paper using the artist's theories and techniques, including automatic drawing, which is fun, as I recall.

Admission is first come first served.

Join ATA on Facebook.

Events Unfold

Unfortunately, we live in interesting times. Luckily, Teaching Artists on both coasts are taking charge of their professional lives, and spectacular things are happening--many of them free.

Hold tight!

COMING UP IN NEW YORK CITY

The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable presents

By Teaching Artists for Teaching Artists

A chance to examine best practices & work one-on-one with fellow TAs to share & strengthen your lesson plans.

Join us for a professional development presented BY Teaching Artists FOR Teaching Artists

Workshop


4:30 – 7:00pm

Wednesday November 18th


Brooklyn Arts Council
55 Washington Street
Suite 218
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Click Here to Register!

COMING UP IN THE BAY AREA

Second Workshop (part one took place Oct 3rd: Mind Your Own Business)

Saturday November 7th 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Online and In-the-Know: Educational Resources for Teaching Artists

A half-day workshop (including breakfast snacks) led by Megan Simmons of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education. This interactive, hands-on workshop will engage participants in finding, using, and modifying high-quality, free, and freely available online resources. Participants will reflect on their own processes and experience how Open Educational Resources (OER) can impact their teaching, using OER Commons (www.oercommons.org) and web-based collaboration tools, such as wikis and nings. Web resources from such services as the National Endowment for the Humanities, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center Institute, Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge, and other arts-rich, education based sites.

About ISKME The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education is an independent, nonprofit research institute located in Half Moon Bay, CA, that helps schools, colleges, universities, and the organizations that support them expand their capacity to collect and share information, apply it to well-defined problems, and create human-centered, knowledge-driven environments focused on learning and success. ISKME's OER and Arts Education Project, supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation, engages teachers and teaching artists in trainings around collaborative learning strategies and shared online resources and processes.

Fee: $35 for TAO Associates/$15 if you already attended TAI Workshop on Oct 3rd Mind Your Own Business..

REGISTER NOW!

Also: Janis - Get It While You Can

In Performance at the White House

This week, PBS will broadcast In Performance at the White House, a concert hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The show will be on the South Lawn, and performers include: Marc Anthony, Jimmy Smits, Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, George Lopez, Los Lobos, with Sheila E. as the musical director.

Check local listings and read more about the program at PBS.

Starting tomorrow, you can also view the show online.

Quack

I think today might be your last chance to see Theaterworks USA's Click, Clack, Moo at the Lucille Lortel in the Village. Tickets are free and it goes up at 10:30 AM and at 1:00 PM.

I saw it, and my one word review is "Hilarious."

All day long Farmer Brown hears "click clack moo, clickety clackety moo..." The cows are typing and protesting their working conditions! The world premiere of a hilariously "moo-ving" new musical about compromise, based on the award-winning book by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

JULY 21 - AUGUST 28, 2009
All performances are at the Lucille Lortel Theatre,
121 Christopher Street, between 7th Avenue and Hudson Street.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETING INFORMATION

Gosh, they were all so funny.

The Cow. The Chickens. The Duck!

The Duck.

Seriously, rush. Experience the Duck.

The Heat

The City of Newark's Summer In the Park Concert Series is underway.

I have perused the schedule and it looks to be a terrific time.

Expect Jazz, Blues, and Swing.

Newark is very close to many places, including my heart.

NJ Pac is there, for instance--like a jewel in the city's ear.

Also, from Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra:

ENOBARBUS

I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion--cloth-of-gold of tissue--
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

Make Plans

The New York City Arts in Education Roundtable helps arts organizations share information and resources. Among other community-building events, they produce the annual Face to Face Conference.

Oh look, someone's throwing a party.

2009 ANNUAL MEETING & END-OF-YEAR CELEBRATION

WHEN: Monday, June 22, 2009, 4:00-7:00 PM
WHERE: Kaplan Penthouse, Rose Building, 10th Floor, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, West 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam

FEATURING:

• The Announcement of Election Results for the Board of Directors and other Annual Business
• A Panel Discussion on Federal Arts Education Policies, Programs, and Advocacy Issues (details below)
• End-Of-Year Reception

Good Food! Good Drink! Good Company! No RSVP Required

Panel Description: Two experts on National Arts Education Issues will discuss the latest developments in the arenas of policy, legislation, and assessment. Narric Rome, Director of Federal Affairs at Americans for the Arts, and Najean Lee, Government Affairs & Education Advocacy Manager at the League of American Orchestras, will report to us on such vital topics as the activities of the Arts Education Working Group, the reauthorization of NCLB, the Federal Stimulus Bill and its Social Innovation Fund, the National Service Initiative, and the implications of the soon-to-be released NAEP arts assessments. It promises to be a rich and informative presentation and will include ample opportunity for questions and responses from the floor. Kati Koerner, Director of Education at Lincoln Center Theater and Chair of the Roundtable's Advocacy Committee will moderate the discussion and help us begin to translate this report from Washington into an action agenda for New York.

Directions to Kaplan Penthouse: Walk west from Broadway along the north side of 65th Street (past the construction); take the stairs (or the elevator just past the stairs) up to the promenade; walk past the Walter Reade Theatre to the Rose Building. Take elevator to the 10th Floor.

Free Publicity

If you are a fearless leader, you already know that marketing and promotion are expensive.

Luckily, Education Week is inviting organizations to submit event listings FOR FREE at www.edweek.org/go/calendar.

Deadline for submissions is JUNE 30, 2009 and the blurb is below:

In an ongoing effort to provide educators with the latest information on relevant conferences and workshops, Education Week will publish its 2009 Fall Calendar of Events as a special supplement to the August 26, 2009 issue.

The Fall Calendar is the perfect opportunity for organizations to share their upcoming events with Education Week and edweek.org readers, including administrators, counselors, parents, policymakers, reading specialists, researchers, school board members, teacher educators, teachers, and technology personnel.

All listings are free! Submit your event here!

The print edition of the Calendar of Events will list conferences, seminars, institutes, workshops, and professional-development events scheduled between September 1, 2009, and December 31, 2010, that are of significant interest to K-12 educators and others concerned about schools.

Only events sponsored by nonprofit organizations qualify for inclusion in the print calendar.

I have, as yet, discovered no catch in the offer. 

Sometimes, free really is free.