Executive Director Claire Peeps announced today that the Durfee Foundation has launched a new website. Check it out at www.durfee.org.
GIA Blog
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Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
It is rare that a pundit (and ardent reformer) lays out clearly and crisply the core assumption driving the past thirty years of school reform. It is not only rare but startling when that insider then questions the assumption, suggesting that it is a hunch, not a fact. That is what Mike Petrilli does in his recent posting, “The Test Score Hypothesis.”
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Maria Popova at Brain Pickings:
In his fantastic recent talk from TEDxVancouver, my friend Jer Thorp — data artist in residence at The New York Times and Brain Pickings regular — takes us on a sweeping tour of his work and ethos, living at the intersection of science, art, and design... Underpinning Jer’s examples is a powerful common thread of humanizing data and making it a living piece of our personal histories and cultural poetics.
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From Keith Bellows at National Geographic:
Zita Cobb is building a future that respects the past. Her Shorefast Foundation, founded in 2006 on Newfoundland’s rugged Fogo Island, aims to parlay 400 years of local culture, centered historically on fishing, into a thriving economy bolstered by the arts and tourism. To that end, the foundation is funding the construction of art studios—complete with a residency program for guest artists—and a 29-room inn, set to open this year, where visitors and locals will mingle in common areas. The foundation will also grant micro-loans to help locals start their own businesses on the 92-square-mile island. Cobb, who made her fortune in the high-tech industry, is at the vanguard of a culturally responsible form of entrepreneurship.
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John Killacky for ARTSblog:
Recently I served as a panelist for the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Forty-nine applicants wanted to be embedded in scientific research teams. They sought to explore the ethos, mythologies, and realities of this extraordinary continent.
Composers wanted to listen to the wind, water, animals, and shifting ice. Visuals artists hoped to delve into infinite striations of whiteness: the effects of transparency on ice, the glitter of ice crystals, and light and shadow patterns on the surface and internal features of the frozen landscape.
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The Bush Foundation Board of Directors have announced the appointment of Robert H. Bruininks, Ph.D., to act as the Foundation’s interim president, effective March 1, 2012. Former president Peter C. Hutchinson stepped down in January.
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In March, the GIA website slide show of member-supported projects is provided by our colleagues at the Manitoba Arts Council in Winnipeg. Established in 1965 “to promote the study, enjoyment, production and performance of works in the arts” throughout the Province of Manitoba, the Council uses a peer assessment process to make awards to professional arts organizations and individuals in areas including arts education, literary arts, performing arts, and visual arts.
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From Huffington Post:
We can guess what our brains go through while we're dancing; we experience euphoria, elation, happiness, and probably nervousness for those with two left feet. While we're just conjecturing, scientists at Bangor University are discovering precisely what goes through the brain while we're shaking our groove thing. Dr. Emily Cross enlisted the help of contemporary dancer Riley Watts to examine how the brain responds to movement, both choreographed and improvised.
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From Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah at the Chicago Tribune:
Arts programming was a factor leading to improved standardized test scores at three schools in Chicago over three years, according to a report released today by the educational arts non-profit Changing Worlds and Loyola University.
The study is just the latest calling for more arts education in Chicago Public Schools. With the district moving to a longer school day next year, the Chicago Teachers Union and parent groups like Raise Your Hand have called for more time devoted to enrichment classes like music and art and less time devoted to test preparation.
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A new report from The Paul G. Allen Foundation examines cultural organizations in the Pacific Northwest that have succeeded in the face of economic turmoil and change. Bright Spots Leadership in the Pacific Northwest is the product of a six-month exploration by Helicon Collaborative and builds on Dynamic Adaptability, a series of conversations among arts leaders held in Seattle over the last two years.