CONNECTICUT HAS A BUDGET!
After months of negotiations, Connecticut has a budget! The Connecticut Office of the Arts (Arts Commission) received an allocation in the state budget in the amount of $1,497,298 which is level funding from FY17.
Final decisions regarding our FY18 grant programs including Supporting Arts in Place, Arts Projects, Regional Initiative, Arts Learning and Artist Fellowship, will be made in the near future.
For details on DECD/COA’s operating budget, please see Section 1 (Pages 9 & 10) of Public Act No. 17-2: An Act Concerning the State Budget for the Biennium Ending June 30, 2019.
2018 CONNECTICUT ARTS DAY
SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 25, 2018
COA in partnership with the State’s nine Regional Service Organizations and the Connecticut Arts Alliance will presents Connecticut Arts Day 2018 on April 25, 2018!
Connecticut Arts Day celebrates Connecticut’s investment in and support of the arts and reaffirms the significant role the arts play in our state. The day includes networking opportunities and a selection of workshops, performances, and interactive opportunities. The theme for 2018 will be Resiliency!
COA SELECTS SPOTLIGHT HOT SCHOOLS
The Connecticut Office of the Arts’ Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Schools Program’s three year strategic plan charts a course to expand the reach and accessibility of the HOT Approach to teaching and learning in, about and through the arts to a broader constituency. Seven rural, urban, and suburban K-12 schools participating in COA’s prestigious HOT Schools program were selected to serve as Spotlight HOT Schools. These schools have each achieved specific benchmarks along HOT Schools’ progress Continuum. They will receive concentrated resources and intensive services in HOT pedagogy, practice, and leadership to support the continued advancement of each school’s growth and development along the continuum, and they will share best practices with educators state- and nation-wide through multiple visitation and workshop events.
COA’s Spotlight HOT Schools are: Integrated Day Charter, Norwich; Jack Jackter Intermediate, Colchester; John Lyman Elementary, Regional District 13; Lincoln Middle, Meriden; Nathan Hale Arts Magnet, New London; Pleasant Valley Elementary, South Windsor; and R.J. Kinsella Magnet Performing Arts, Hartford.
HOT Schools, nationally recognized for its comprehensive approach and cutting edge practice, strategically links learning in the arts to learning across the curriculum, engaging all members of a school community. Through the HOT Approach HOT Schools prepares teachers to work collaboratively to structure interdisciplinary curricula that promote deep learning of all subject matter, higher order thinking, creativity and teamwork.
For more information about HOT Schools or to visit a Spotlight HOT School select www.higherorderthinkingschools.org.
KRISTINA NEWMAN-SCOTT TO SERVE ON NASAA 2018 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
We are very excited to share that our director, Kristina Newman-Scott, has been selected to serve on the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ board of directors. As part of a rigorous national nomination process, state arts agencies elected Kristina and other exemplary leaders at the NASAA 2017 Leadership Institute in Portland, Oregon.
The NASAA board is not only the governing body of NASAA as a nonprofit professional association, it also is a nationally representative policy board that works on behalf of public funding for the arts for all American communities. The board includes representatives from 20 states and U.S. jurisdictions who come together to encourage state and federal support for the arts and to broaden opportunities for arts participation across America in geographically, artistically, culturally and economically diverse settings.
“I’m honored to serve our nation in this way and particularly for the opportunity to use the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ READI (Relevance, Equity, Access, Diversity, & Inclusion) framework to influence national arts policy and practice,” said Kristina. Newman-Scott will serve a three-year term.
“We are delighted to welcome Kristina to the NASAA board,” said NASAA President and Chief Executive Officer Pam Breaux. “She is an experienced leader who brings with her a dedication to serving the public, keen business acumen and a genuine passion for the arts. We are excited to work with Kristina and we welcome her expertise and guidance.”
Please join us in congratulating Kristina!
PANEL DISCUSSION: RISING SUCCESSFUL YOUNG ADULTS
On Wednesday, November 15 from 6:30 to 8 pm, the Southeastern Connecticut Cultural Coalition will host a panel discussion as part of their Mobilizing Our Future Leaders Series. The topic of the panel discussion is Rising Successful Young Adults: Barriers & Benefits of Becoming a Non-Profit Board Member. Panelists include:
- COA’s Adriane Jefferson, Arts Program Associate and Special Programs Coordinator, Connecticut Office of the Arts
- State Representative Chris Soto, Founding Director of Higher Edge
- Zechariah Stover, President of Rotary Community Corps of Norwich and Treasurer of Sankofa Education and Leadership, Inc.
- Kevin Saythany, Graduate of Three Rivers Community College and member of the Norwich Board of Education
The evening includes remarks by Jennifer O’Brien, Program Director at the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut. The event will take place at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich.
For more information, contact Wendy Bury at 860-448-5135 or Shiela Hayes at sshsealinc@yahoo.com
THE WRITERS BLOCK INK
2017 ACE AWARDS
On Friday, November 17th, The Writer’s Block will celebrate educators, partners and community activists who continue to pave the way for our youth. Their 2nd annual ACE awards event honors community leaders, teachers, artists and students working on solutions through arts, education, and community excellence.
Our very own Kristina Newman-Scott and Adriane Jefferson will each be presented with an ACE award. Adriane will be honored for “taking the spirit of arts, entrepreneurship, education and advocacy to organizations, parts of the nation and world” and Kristina will be accepting an ACE award on behalf of the Connecticut Office of the Arts for being a long-time sponsor and amplifier of the arts.
Full list of 2017 ACE Awards Honorees.
CONNECTICUT MAKE MUSIC DAY
Plans for the first ever Connecticut Make Music Day are under way!
Make Music Day is a free celebration of music around the world on June 21st. Launched in 1982 in France as the Fête de la Musique, it is now held on the same day in more than 750 cities in 120 countries. Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music is open to anyone who wants to take part. Every kind of musician – young and old, amateur and professional, of every musical persuasion – pours onto streets, parks, plazas, and porches to share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. All of it is free and open to the public and Connecticut will be participating this year!
If you are interested in administering a Make Music Day event in your area or connecting with others who are already in the planning phase of administering the festival in your region, then fill out this survey or contact Adriane Jefferson.
POETRY OUT LOUD TEACHERS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Connecticut Poetry Out Loud Teachers’ Professional Development day took place on October 18th at New Britain Museum of American Art. The day was rich with panel discussions, group breakout sessions and teaching artists presentations that helped to enhance the teachers understanding of how to teach Poetry Out Loud (POL) in the classroom. Many participating schools and teaching artists attended this event.
Since the 2005-06 school year, students from high schools across Connecticut have benefited from Poetry Out Loud, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation. This FREE recitation program encourages the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance, which help students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about our literary heritage.
Poetry Out Loud uses a pyramid structure. Beginning at the classroom level, winners from each class will advance to the school-wide competition. Each school will send a finalist to the Connecticut State Finals. The winner of the Connecticut State Finals will advance to the National Finals in Washington, DC. On average, more than 200,000 students nationwide take part annually.
Connecticut is unique in our use of embedding Connecticut teaching artists into the program, as a resource and tool for the students and teachers of participating schools. Our teaching artists facilitate workshops that help to bring out the best performance from the students. In addition they help the teachers come up with unique and engaging ways to get their students excited and ready for The Poetry Out Loud Competition. This year we have some amazing new teaching artists along with some of our veteran POL teaching artists! We have reworked the teaching artists-to-student structure to make for a fun-filled learning program for everyone involved.
For more information contact Adriane Jefferson.
ART CAN CHANGE LIVES
For more than a dozen years, the Connecticut Department of Correction has been working with the Judy Dworin Performance Project on innovative arts projects that help people in and out of prison heal and re-enter society.
Making Me Whole. Prison, Art & Healing is a 30-minute documentary that follows teaching artists as they partner with social workers and use movement, song and the spoken word in the rehabilitation process.
We invite you to take a moment to view Making Me Whole. Prison, Art & Healing, a production of the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and the Judy Dworin Performance Project.
OFFICE OF THE ARTS WILL BE CLOSED
The Connecticut Office of the Arts will be closed on Friday, November 24th for the first of three mandatory furlough days. The remaining two will be December 26th and 27th.