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September 2006 |
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In This Issue ·
Creative
problems call for creative solutions ·
River of Words contest for students ·
IAC hosts 2nd Poetry Out
Loud Competition ·
Arts
partner program uses puppets to build student’s self-confidence ·
Artist Frantzen creates
Portrait of Maquoketa ·
NEW: Iowa folklife
curriculum now online! ·
Act like a business? Why aim so low? ·
Iowa’s
American Masterpieces IAC
Calendar
Links In-Box of Artist
Opportunities Contact
Us 600 E. Locust (515) 242-6194 Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Newsletter Editor: |
Creative problems call for creative solutionsBy Anita Walker, IAC Executive Director
We’ve also discovered a wealth of creative
solutions to common challenges facing our cultural non-profits. Here are just
a few examples:
Our cultural
non-profits are making a difference in communities across our state everyday
providing education, enrichment and inspiration. But at the same time, behind the scenes,
they are little laboratories discovering creative new ways re-invent
themselves, grow and thrive. The Department of Cultural Affairs needs your advice. Please plan to attend a constituent meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 12 to discuss the upcoming legislative session. The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. in Classrooms A & B at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust, Des Moines and should last no longer than two hours. Your help is greatly needed to guide the department’s 2007 legislative agenda. Bring your creative ideas on how the Department of
Cultural Affairs can promote, advance, lead, support, encourage and provide
models for If you are able to attend but have not indicated your intention to attend, please let me know but regardless please come. RSVP by Friday, Sept. 8 by contacting Gordon Hendrickson at Gordon.Hendrickson@iowa.gov or (515) 281-8875. If you are not able to attend but would like to provide input to the Department of Cultural Affairs regarding the development of departmental legislative priorities, we have prepared a brief survey for you to use in making your thoughts known to us. To access the survey, please click on the following link or copy and paste this link directly into your browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=316752526590 Please complete this survey by September 15. Your survey responses will be analyzed to help the Department develop a legislative agenda for the coming session. Thank you for your participation. K-12 students have an opportunity to participate in an
international poetry and art contest called “
classroom level, with curricular resources provided by
the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry
Foundation. School-level contests are held, and winners of the
school-level contests move on to the State Poetry Out Loud competition on
March 10, 2007 at the To learn more about the national Poetry Out Loud program, go to www.poetryoutloud.org. Interested? Want to involve your students? Send an email to Mary Sundet Jones at the Iowa Arts Council, at mary.sundetjones@iowa.gov. Students at JSA is an educational environment focusing on academic
achievement through an arts infused curriculum. The APA program allowed them
to partner with Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre in JSA staff had this to say at the conclusion of the program: “I would like to congratulate the Arts Council for their support of a very effective method of teaching children – learning curriculum through the arts. More and more studies continue to surface suggesting that you must allow children to learn with the language that suits them best and many, many of those languages come in the form of the arts.” The other two partnerships that completed three years of
APA involvement in 2006 are Staff members from the Iowa Department of Cultural
Affairs (DCA) education department were on hand Aug. 9 at the School
Administrators of Iowa (SAI) Conference in downtown Participants in the conference had the opportunity to
enter a drawing to win their choice of a grant writing workshop, a
teacher-in-service History Day or a creative writing workshop. Winners were
James Sutton of “The DCA booth was busy all day,” said Oropeza. “It was a wonderful experience and we were all very encouraged by the administrators looking to bring more history and arts programs to their schools.”
“The portraits were painted publicly in the store window so visitors could watch the process,” Frantzen said. “People from every sector of our community participated. Those who posed shared their lives with me, their joys, sorrows, failures and successes, their opinions and their beliefs as well as their countenance.” The result was 180 portraits which she completed July 19, some of which are on display at the Old City Hall Gallery. She is now working to create prints of the paintings for distribution. Each portrait subject will receive their print as a thank you, and additional individual prints will eventually be available for sale. Though the process took longer than Frantzen anticipated, she said she was not prepared for the stories that came from her subjects. “The portraits started to take more rather than less time, contrary to what I anticipated,” Frantzen said. “I didn’t realize how fascinating people would be and that they would want to share their life stories with me. In doing this, the portrait sessions became both a visual and oral journey into lives.” Frantzen attended the “I would have been unable to do this project without the grant,” she said. View photos from “Portrait of Maquoketa”. The Iowa Arts Council announces a revised and updated
version of the folklife curriculum: Iowa Folklife Online explores a variety of
The Iowa Arts Council is grateful to the For information about this learning guide, contact Riki Saltzman, Folklife Coordinator, Iowa Arts Council, at riki.saltzman@iowa.gov or 515/242-6195. by Andrew Taylor, author of The Artful Manager: a blog on the business of art and culture at www.artfulmanager.com. Reprinted with permission. In his recent monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins makes a rather bold statement: “We must reject the idea – well-intentioned, but dead wrong – that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become ‘more like a business.’” His point is that most businesses are poorly run, and that many business practices correlate with mediocrity, not greatness. So, to him, telling nonprofit organizations to “run like a business” is like telling artists to lower their standards, or telling a visionary leader to “aim low.” In the Arts Administration MBA degree program I direct,
we get to see both sides of the question – dwelling in a The Iowa Arts Council has received funding this year for
an exciting project under the auspices of the National Endowment for the
Arts’ American Masterpieces program. This funding has opened the door
for IAC to work with Iowa Public Television to co-produce two half-hour
documentary programs (to air in spring, 2007) about visual art and artists in
American Masterpieces is intended by the NEA to combine arts presentations with education programming to introduce Americans to the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. The NEA launched the program in 2004, providing funding for institutions throughout the country to create programs consistent with the overall theme. As part of American Masterpieces, each state’s arts agency was allotted funds to launch statewide programming that addresses the overall goal. |
