Alameda County Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership » Arts Active Parent

ARTS ACTIVE PARENT April 1, 2006 Volume 1, Issue 5 Monthly Newsletter of the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership Alameda County Office of Education Sheila Jordan, Superintendent
Dear Alameda County Parents, March was National Arts Education Month. As you know, in Alameda County we celebrate it as Art IS Education month because we believe that the arts are essential to excellent and equitable education for all our kids. This 7th annual Art IS Education in Alameda County has featured record participation with over 200 events across the county. If you were handed an Arts Active Parent lapel button at your school event, please keep wearing it all spring to demonstrate your support for arts in the schools. If you or your group didnt get buttons, I still have a few left so please contact me right away and Ill get them to you! What Can You Do? Three Suggestions for April 1) Have you signed our online petition supporting the proposed 100 million in the state budget for arts education? While recognizing that we need more (this works out to $20 per child, K-8) we say this is a good start, and we want the state legislators representing Alameda County to know how we feel! This is a very easy action step. Just go to www.artiseducation.org, and click on the link to the petition. If youve already signed it, please forward the link to any other like-minded Californians you know. Our goal is 1000 signatures by May 1st. In May, Alliance representatives and young spokespersons will present the signed petition to our legislators in Sacramento. 2) If you have an arts learning event coming up at your school, make sure to invite the legislators that represent your school community. This is a perfect time as they begin negotiations on the state budget to see real children in real schools engaging in the powerful process of arts learning. A complete contact list of the local offices for your mayor, state and federal legislators is available at the Art IS Education at www.artiseducation.org/artised/promote.html#Policy. 3) This is for inspiration, which we can all use more of! If you are not already familiar with SPARK*, a weekly KQED television show about the Bay Area Arts scene, I hope you will give it a try. Last week their season opener included a segment about ASCEND, a K-8 small school in Oaklands Fruitvale district, a 5-year old public school with arts at the center of all they do. To view this short segment on your computer, visit www.kqed.org/arts/places/profile.jsp?id=922. (You will need realplayer software, a free download.)
		Parents Making a Difference 100 Families Project in Oakland: Art & Social Change
		Conceptualized and funded by venture capitalist F. Noel Perry and facilitated by the Center for Art and Public Life at California College of the Arts (CCA), the projects purpose is to demonstrate and celebrate the power of families, the creative spirit of Oakland and how art can connect families to families, families to neighborhoods and neighborhoods to neighborhoods. One hundred families from four Oakland neighborhoods (East Oakland, Chinatown, Fruitvale and West Oakland) have participated in 10 week sessions over the past year, working together under the guidance of professional artists to create paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works centered on the theme of family. The families are encouraged to create individual art projects as well as work together to create a collaborative art piece. Work from all 100 families will be shown in an Oakland Museum of California exhibit in January 2007. You may see a preview of the West Oakland families work at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th Street in Oakland, exhibit opening April 27.
			To left, a maskmaking workshop in the Fruitvale. Above are a photo from a West Oakland workshop and a mother and son at the Chinatown workshop.
Free and Inexpensive Arts Activities for Families in April Our schools are holding more arts events than ever, and it looks like Art IS Education Month events will spill over and merge with the end of school year events. Remember that younger kids enjoy events at high schools. Here are a few choices for April, both school-based and sponsored by community arts organizations that offer programs for young people. Many more activities exist, so use this list for inspiration! Some (especially school based) will NOT be free. Good public high school programs generally need to rely on box office revenues to keep their programs going.
Urban Promise Academy Arts Learning Anchor School Exhibit, through April 30, School Hours (check in at the office) U.P.A., 3031 E. 18th St. Oakland, Contact 510-879-1640, debsandweiss (at) yahoo (dot) com Hallway displays make learning through the arts visible through photos, student and teacher reflections and samples of work. Berkeley High School Lab Band Spring Concert April 7 , 2006, 7:30 p.m., BHS Schwimley Little Theater (Allston & M.L.K. Jr Way) Crucible Youth Spring Student Art Show April 7: 6:30 pm. and April 8-9: 11 am The Crucible , 1260 7th Street in Oakland Contact: 510-444-0919, youth (at) thecrucible (dot) org Art created by students in The Crucibles classes. All ages welcome. (The Crucible is holding spring break camps April 10-14) Cal Shakespeare Teen Scene Performances April 8, Cal Shakes Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley Contact: 510-548-3422, beisenberg (at) calshakes (dot) org Area teens in Cal Shakes classes perform scenes from Shakespeare. Cal Shakes holds youth classes and programs year round.	Bands Across the Valley April 20, 7:00 P.M. California High School, 9870 Broadmoor Dr., San Ramon Contact 925-833-1204 , holthekara (at) dublin (dot) k12 (dot) ca (dot) us A joint district concert with elementary band players from Dublin and San Ramon elementary schools. Free. Skyline High School Concerto Concert April 25, 7:30 pm, Farnsworth Theater, Skyline High, 12250 Skyline Blvd. Contact 510-879-3060 x203, skylinehsband (at) yahoo (dot) com Traditional end of year performance by Skylines orchestra, jazz band, advanced band, and others. Reno Jazz Festival, April 28-29 Several county high schools have jazz bands who are attending this famous annual festival, including Berkeley High, Foothill High in Pleasanton, and Skyline High in Oakland. If your school is going, or even if you just love jazz, consider a trip to Reno the last weekend of April! Cheer for our local kids as they perform with about 280 middle school, high school, and college bands from all over the Western U.S. See information on their website, www.unr.edu/rjf/.
	View Previous Issues of Arts Active Parent Online! Click on the links below to read all the tips, ideas and parent spotlights from past months... January, 2006 March, 2006
ALAMEDA COUNTY ALLIANCE FOR ARTS LEARNING LEADERSHIP For information about the Alameda County Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, how it supports arts education in public schools, and how you can get involved, visit www.artiseducation.org. If you're a leader in a parent group that helps to support arts programs, we invite you list your group by following the "Post Your Resources" link. This newsletter is also produced in a hardcopy format. I want to provide copies to any parent group or parent resource center I can. If you have a meeting coming up, or a place where parent come, please just let me know how many copies you would like and where and when I can drop them off. If you have comments about this newsletter or suggestions for future content, please reply to this email. We are interested in hearing from parents of kids all over the county, in all kinds of schools, about your successes and challenges in supporting arts learning in your school. If you know someone who should be receiving this newsletter, please have them email me. Very best wishes, Kathy Kahn, Arts Active Parent Coordinator Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership Alameda County Office Of Education 1890 Leimert Blvd., Oakland 94602 510-482-5776 ArtsActiveParents (at) artiseducation (dot) org We gratefully acknowledge the Walter and Elise Haas Fund for sponsoring the Arts Learning Parent Involvement Project to create stronger ties between homes and schools around the arts.