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IAC Calendar |
June 5: Deadline to register for "Laying a Foundation: Defining Arts Integration" workshop for organizations and teaching artists
June 12: Iowa Arts Council Board meeting, Des Moines
June 20: "No More Starving Artists II," - artists conference -- 9 a.m.- 4 p.m., Des Moines Social Club, 1408 Locust St., Des Moines. More information, tickets at www.iowatix.com.
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Check it out regularly for articles of current interest, announcements, and hot topics that are important to the arts in Iowa.
Have you sent in the final report for your IAC grant? Don't delay! Find forms here.
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Artist opportunities, cultural events listings and more at the In-Box. |
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 IAC, Gallagher-Bluedorn Workshop: Arts Integration in Education
 The term "arts integration" has been around for years in education, but how are we really defining it? Is it just about singing songs from the Civil War during that unit in Social Studies? Is it about real learning in both the arts and a non-arts subject? Should teaching artists be prepared to "integrate" their art form into any and all classroom subjects?
The Iowa Arts Council and the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center at the University of Northern Iowa will host "Laying a Foundation: Defining Arts Integration" this summer to help organizations and teaching artists learn about arts integration in education. Registration applications are available at www.gbpac.com and must be received by the Gallagher-Bluedorn by June 5, 2009.
Developed by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the one-day workshop will be offered twice- Tuesday, Aug. 4, and Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 - from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust Street in Des Moines.
The workshop registration fee is $35, but artists affiliated with one of several partner organizations pay only $25. Breakfast and lunch are provided each day.
For more information, contact Amy Hunzelman at the Gallagher-Bluedorn at amy.hunzelman@uni.edu or (319) 273-3679; or Dawn Martinez Oropeza at the Iowa Arts Council at dawn.oropeza@iowa.gov (515) 281-5773.
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"No More Starving Artists II" June 20  Artists! You've told us you want more information about marketing your work, business tools and getting your work seen and heard by others. Learn about all these at "No More Starving Artists II" Saturday, June 20, 2009 from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. at the Des Moines Social Club, 1408 Locust St., Des Moines.
Some of the great workshops that will be part of this day are:
- Marketing for Artists (presented by Springboard for the Arts)
- Pricing Your Work: Getting Paid for What You Do (presented by Springboard for the Arts)
- Expanding Your Digital Footprint with Social Media (presented by Lava Row)
- Emergency Preparedness (presented by Craft Emergency Relief Fund)
Cost to attend is $30 and includes lunch. Register at www.Iowatix.com. Call (515) 281-4657 for more information.
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Pierson Reflects on Poetry Out Loud Experience
by Mia Pierson
 My name is Mia Pierson. I am a sophomore at Roland-Story High School in Story City and I recently went to the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington D.C.
As a participant, I was required to memorize three poems from their Web site with at least one pre-20th century and one 25 lines or fewer. The poems I chose were "The Glove and the Lions," by Leigh Hunt; "Hush," by David St. John; and "Under the Vulture Tree," by David Bottoms.
In our school, the Poetry Out Loud competition takes place in the classroom. I won the school competition, I finished first in state, and I continued on with the hopes of being named Poetry Out Loud's 2009 National Champion.
Leaving Des Moines with a gray landscape at a chilly 45 degrees, I arrived in D.C. with sunny skies at 90 degrees. Wearing a jacket, coat, jeans, and tennis shoes, I immediately wanted to go to the hotel to change. I was greeted there and received all of my necessary documents - the schedules for the three days I was staying, nametags, and giveaways. The meet-and-greet wasn't starting for a couple hours, and our rooms weren't ready, so we went to record my poems just down the street. When finished, we moved on to the meet-and-greet, and I was welcomed into a circle of states. We shared our "grages," as we called it (grade + age = grage), and broke into smaller groups getting to know one another. After this we went to the opening banquet where we ate delicious food and heard from Shawntay Henry, the 2008 champion, who gave us a welcome greeting and shared her experiences from the year before.
The next day, we were divided into three regions - I was in region two - and presented throughout the day. Region two didn't begin until that afternoon which allowed me and my mom to visit the Smithsonian and learn about our country's history. Then, with gut wrenching excitement, we left for the competition.
Personally, I didn't get past the first round. I did learn, however, a lot about what it takes to get far in the competition. This included what looks and sounds good on stage, as well as the importance of a performer's presence and pronunciation. I was blown away by these kids with mongo talent who were the same age as I. They were such sweet individuals; I was so glad to have made it that far. It was an honor just to be there and to have met and got to know two of the top three finalists in the end, who were from my region.
The next morning, we took a tour of the White House, which was only a couple blocks away. We then moved on to the Senator Luncheon, where some met their state senators, and everyone got the joy of listening to Ms. Henry again about her experiences after winning the 2008 competition. Then we moved on to the National Finals which we all were excited to see. We each had our hopes on different individuals...friends, and were bubbling to find out who would get the title. The competition was fierce with the few familiar faces on stage as well as new ones. As the finalists were called, the applause roared for everyone on that stage. Will Farley from Virginia, however, snatched the title with tears and thank you's.
We all cried with happiness and disappointment all the same. We were so proud of everyone. We were so sad to have to leave the next day; some before dawn. We went to the after party and gorged on the nacho bar, trying to beat the clock before it made us leave for home. Multiple after-parties followed, but I eventually went to bed and missed some goodbyes the next morning.
What I took away from it is this: no matter the title, no matter the tears, we all were winners in our parents' eyes, in our state's eyes, and in our friend's eyes. I know it sounds cliché, but sometimes the most obvious realizations can be most powerful. We set a new standard for our nation to see. What I'll remember most are the people and the city. Standing among architecture and life made me feel so warm. All the new people I got acquainted with and made lifelong friendships with will never be forgotten. Someday, I hope to be so blessed to see them all again.
Photo: Pierson performs during the National Poetry Out Loud Competition in Washington, D.C. Photo (c) James Kegley. |
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Smithsonian Folkways Online Magazine
Smithsonian Folkways' new online magazine is fabulous resource, which includes links to teaching tools, podcasts, and artists' spotlights. For this premiere issue, check out the article on Pete Seeger, the video spotlight of Orlando "Puntilla" Rios, another spotlight on Los Camperos de Nati Cano (2009 Grammy Award winners), and photos of Panama's Kuna Indians.
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DCA Awards Cultural Grants
The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs has awarded $264,500 to Iowa cultural organizations as part of the Iowa Community Cultural Grant program. As a result, nineteen organizations will be able to hire workers for projects and activities that add historical, ethnic, cultural, and tourism value to their communities.
The Department received 50 eligible applications requesting a total of nearly $760,000.
Recipients of the FY2010 ICCG recipients will be posted soon at www.culturalaffairs.org.
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Arts Outreach Initiatives: Outreach Through Dance
By Riki Saltzman, Iowa Arts Council Accessibility Coordinator
Professional dance and modern dance in particular are underserved art forms in Iowa. This was poignantly illustrated by a workshop at Mitchellville Women's Prison, where Shawn Womack, assistant professor of theatre at Grinnell College, and dance colleagues performed a trio of pieces, "Over Time: Three Decades of Dances."  Although Womack has worked with prison populations before, she credits Grinnell students for her current involvement. "The prison program has been a very active student-driven volunteer program for six years," she said. "Several of my students were teaching creative writing, play writing, and art at Newton and at Mitchellville." Teaching at Mitchellville was her first step to "get back into thinking about how artists build community relationships." An informal dance performance was next. Womack with Shellie Cash (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music), Deborah Breuleux (Houston, Texas), and Renee McCafferty (Northern Kentucky University), traveled on a cold January night to the women's prison to perform dances about women's bodies, age, grief, friendship, place, history, and aesthetics. The performance, talk, and discussion dramatically illustrated what can happen when an underserved audience is exposed to a new art form. Women inmates spoke openly about their fears that they wouldn't understand modern dance. They spoke of their reactions to the various pieces as well as the verbal and musical accompaniment. They expressed their admiration for women of 50-plus years who continued to stay in great shape, dance, and maintain long-term professional and personal friendships. And they laughed, wept, and clapped in total understanding. This article is the second in a series providing examples of artistic outreach to diverse groups in Iowa.
Photo by Jason Hatcher, courtesy of Shawn Womack
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Orange City Arts Council Selects Calsbeek as Director
 The Orange City Arts Council has hired a new executive director, and one that is well-known for community involvement.
Janine Calsbeek will serve in the new position on a part-time basis. She replaces longtime Executive Director Joyce Bloemendaal, who served 22 years as the Orange city Arts Council's executive director. Calsbeek seems excited to put her mark on the organization.
"We have a lot of ideas," said Calsbeek, and she rattles off things like a Web site, an arts calendar, plus the traditional standbys like summer community band concerts. "We want to bring art to the people."
Calsbeek, a graduate of Northwestern College with a bachelor's in English, has been active in the arts as a children's art teacher for the city of Orange City, the arts council, the public library and Northwest Iowa home educators. She has been a volunteer for numerous organizations, including the arts council board, and has worked as an assistant office manager for Bethesda Christian Counseling and a host family coordinator for international students at Northwestern College.
Calsbeek and her husband Doug have written for the Sioux County Capital-Democrat for more 20 years, something she will continue doing, though less frequently.
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Iowa Folklife Survey to Continue in North Central Iowa
In 2008, the Iowa Arts Council identified, photographed, and interviewed folk artists in the 34 western counties of the state. Starting this summer, thanks to continued funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, we'll be looking for folk and traditional artists in the 18 counties in north central Iowa (north of US 30: Kossuth, Winnebago, Worth, Mitchell, Hancock, Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Humboldt, Wright, Franklin, Butler, Webster, Hamilton, Hardin, Grundy, Green, Boone, and Story).
"Folk and traditional arts include the everyday knowledge, art, and lore that are passed from one person to another through imitation or word-of-mouth," said Riki Saltzman, Iowa Folklife Coordinator. "These are traditions that are learned in our families, communities, and religious or ethnic groups rather than through formal training and include traditional tales, music, dance, foodways, crafts, rituals, celebrations, and occupational lore."
This survey will encompass the traditional arts from north central Iowa's lakes, rivers, and farms as well as those about local foods, auctions, Polka bands, and quilting. We'll also be looking at various ethnic traditions (e.g. German, Norwegian, Lao, Tai Dam, Lao, Mexican, Guatemalan, Somali, Asian Indian, African American) and more. Once the IAC has identified and documented new artists, we'll add them to our online resources for community and school programs.
If you know of folk and traditional artists who should be recorded in this folklife survey, please send their name(s), a short description of the traditional art form, and contact information to Riki Saltzman, Riki.Saltzman@iowa.gov.
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9th Annual Midwest Folk Festival Aug. 1-2 in Bishop Hill, Ill.
 The 9th Annual Midwest Folk Festival will be Aug. 1-2 in Bishop Hill, Ill., just west of the Quad Cities.
The Illinois Arts Council and Bishop Hill Heritage Association in conjunction with Company of Folk, the Iowa Arts Council, and Wisconsin Arts Board proudly present this free outdoor event that celebrates diverse cultures and folk artists of the sponsoring states. The annual festival has drawn thousands of visitors in its various locations.
The festival will showcase the music and dance styles of a diverse group of ethnic and folk artists from the region. Work created by approximately a dozen artists and showcasing a variety of cultures represented in the Midwest will also be on display. A family area, led by participating festival artists, will offer hands-on activities for children of all ages.
Bahri Karacay of Iowa City will be one of the featured Iowa traditional artists at this festival. A pediatric neurology researcher at Children's Hospital at the University of Iowa, Bahri plays saz (an instrument resembling a lute) with a variety of bands in Iowa City and is also the nucleus for the new Turkana, with renewed emphasis toward performance and composition of Turkish popular music.
For more information about the 2009 Midwest Folk Festival, contact Susan Dickson, (312) 814-6740 or susan.dickson@illinois.gov. Or see the Resources section of the IAC's Folk & Traditional Arts web pages.
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New Online Arts Resource!
This excellent guide, Handbook for Tennessee Folk Artists*, is useful for artists of any discipline. The handbook brings together business, legal, and professional advice for practicing artists. First published in 1989, this edition includes some new topics reflective of changing times, as well as helpful new internet sources.
"This is an amazing resource," said Iowa Arts Council Folklife Coordinator Riki Saltzman. "And it would be highly useful not just for folk and traditional artists for but all artists trying to make it as professionals. There's even information related to income limits and types of income allowable for artists receiving Social Security payments and food stamps."
Iowa artists should take note that many references to more specific sources of help are particular to Tennessee.
*This is a large file (30.2 MB), and it may take some time to download with a slow internet connection.
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Obama Selects Broadway Producer for NEA Top Spot
Excerpted from The New York Times, May 13, 2009
 The maverick Broadway producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The appointment ends months of speculation about who would be selected to lead the nation's largest and most important arts organization.
Mr. Landesman, who would fill the post vacated by Dana Gioia, is expected to lobby hard for more financing for the arts. But he is not famous for his skills as an administrator or diplomat. Rather, Mr. Landesman is known for his energy, intellect and irreverent -- and occasionally sharp-elbowed -- candor.
While Mr. Landesman has spent his career in the commercial theater, he earned a doctorate in dramatic literature at the Yale School of Drama and stayed on there for four years as an assistant professor.
Though a creature of the for-profit theater, he has put his force behind work that other producers might have considered too risky for Broadway, like Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Angels in America," and the musical "Jelly's Last Jam."
Landesman will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before his post becomes official.
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ARTicles...of Note
Nonprofit Organization Lures Artists to Help Revitalize Chattanooga, Coosa Valley News (April 27, 2009): Founded in 2007, CreateHere, a nonprofit, public-private group in Chattanooga, Tenn., is offering housing, moving, and workspace initiatives to bring artists to the city as a starting point for revitalization.
Satisfied Web Site Visitors More Likely to Donate, Volunteer, Philanthropy News Digest (May 2, 2009): Using the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology, the report found that highly satisfied nonprofit website visitors are 49 percent more likely to donate money to a nonprofit, 38 percent are more likely to volunteer, and 66 percent are more likely to use the site instead of a costlier channel as a primary resource.
Creative Enterprises Help Rural Economies, DailyYonder.com (May 7, 2009): "...The creative economy-from the arts to innovative design-holds as much promise in the rural United States as it does in the cities and metropolitan areas that most people focus on when they discuss the creative class in the US."
Obama Budget Increases Funding for NEA, NEH, Sarasota Herald Tribune (May 8, 2009): Despite budget-cutting in many areas, the president asked Congress Thursday to give the National Endowment for the Arts $161.3 million, which, if approved, would be its highest level of funding since 1992. The administration also requested $171 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities. If approved, that will also be the humanities office's highest appropriation since 1995.
Art Program Brings Out Seniors' Creativity, Gotriad.com (May 14, 2009): Create and Celebrate Elder Arts, a month-long event sponsored by the Center for Creative Aging-North Carolina, is featuring theatrical performances, live readings and public storytelling, and art exhibits focusing on senior artists.
Seniors Get Back to the Beat, The News & Observer (May 16, 2009): "New Horizons," a musical group affiliated with Duke University's lifelong learning program, is part of a nationwide effort to encourage seniors to come back to playing music or start for the first time ever.
Science Suggests Arts Are Good For Students' Brains, Baltimore Sun (May 18, 2009): For years, school systems across the nation dropped the arts to concentrate on getting struggling students to pass tests in reading and math. Yet now, a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines.
Michelle Obama Talks Up Importance Of Arts Education, The New York Times (May 19, 2009): The first lady, Michelle Obama, visited New York City on Monday to promote the arts, celebrating opening night at the American Ballet Theater and the reopening of part of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among her audience at the museum were dozens of public schoolchildren. "This is your place, too," she told the children.
Economy Sparks New Creativity in Artists, The New York Times (May 20, 2009): Many artists echoed Ms. Holland, testifying that the recession had strengthened their commitment to their work or allowed them to concentrate on their art-since the time spent on side jobs had diminished-or had even been a source of creative inspiration."
Changing the Art on the White House Walls, The Wall Street Journal (May 22, 2009): The Obamas are sending ripples through the art world as they put the call out to museums, galleries and private collectors that they'd like to borrow modern art by African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and female artists for the White House. In a sharp departure from the 19th century still lifes, pastorals and portraits that dominate the White House's public rooms, they are choosing bold, abstract art works.
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Technology Help for Nonprofits
TechSoup.org can help arts organizations in Iowa with critical technology needs.
TechSoup.org offers nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology needs by providing free information, resources, and support for nonprofits. In 2008, the site received the 2008 ArtsTech Award from Carnegie Mellon University in recognition of the $100 million in technology costs saved for the Arts to date. (See TechSoup.org's profile in The New York Times.)
A related site, Techsoup Stock offers software donations to nonprofits from 35 major technology providers, including Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Intuit, and Adobe (for a fairly small administrative fee). To qualify, organizations must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or a library.
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2009-2010 Cultural Exchange Fund Program Announcement
The Association of Performing Arts Presenters will award travel subsidies through its Cultural Exchange Fund to individual presenters, nonprofit presenting organizations and to groups of presenters traveling to see the work of artists, companies and/or to develop and advance projects with international artists and their collaborators. Applicants must be active members of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
Visit www.artspresenters.org for more information on how to apply for the grant, or contact Alison McNeil, toll free at (888) 820-ARTS or amcneil@artspresenters.org.
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