Don't Forget This Important Board Meeting!

reminders
Originally uploaded by dharmacat

This is just a reminder that our next CAAN Board Meeting is Tuesday, June 9th at 2:00. The meeting will be held at the Main Line Health Building in Broomall, the front conference room by the lobby will be our meeting space.

Todd Darr, our Business Consultant volunteer from the Arts and Business Council, will be joining us. It's an important meeting for CAAN and I will look forward to seeing you next Tuesday.Hope you all have a great start to your week. Happy June!

Meaghan

PA Arts Funding!

Dear National Guild Member:


The Pennsylvania Senate recently passed a state budget that
eliminates all funding ($14 million) for the arts. It also eliminates the state arts council, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA).
As a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the
Arts, you know how important the arts are to your students and their families. Many of you receive support from the PCA to help make your programs more robust and more accessible. Many have received support from the PCA to attend our conferences and meetings.The PCA has hosted our national conference twice in
recent years, once in Philadelphia and once in Pittsburgh.

You may not know that the PCA has been more supportive of community arts education than any other state arts agency in the US. As a grantmaker, convener and advocate for the public value of the arts, they demonstrate extraordinary leadership and innovation. In fact, the PCA's innovative grant process was recognized by the Kennedy School of Government as one of 50 finalists in its "Innovations in American Government" competition.

The Guild has worked closely with the PCA's staff to help you build strong and sustainable programs. They have been steadfast in their commitment to supporting community arts education.

Now they need our help-and they need it now.
Go to the Citizens for the Arts website and do two simple things:

• Sign up to receive action alerts.
• Contact your state senator and state representative to urge their support for state funding for the arts in the budget for next year. It is quick and easy to do. Consider sending personal letters as well, from your staff, your board and your students and parents.

Then, spread the word to your board, staff, parents and students.

• Put a message on your website with a link to Citizens for the Arts in PA: www.citizensfortheartsinpa.org
• Have your staff and board add a message to their email signature with a link to Citizens for the Arts.
• Make sign-up sheets available at classes and events to register people for Citizens for the Arts.

Be Creative

• Arrange to have your students play for legislators and their staff. Go to their district office and play for them and leave the message of the importance of the arts. Leave behind a painting or print as a reminder.

Don't let this happen in Pennsylvania. By advocating for public support for the arts, you not only help yourself but all community arts education providers across the United States.

Sincerely,Jonathan Herman
Executive Director
National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts
520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 302
New York, NY 10018
(212) 268-3337 ext. 15

Eva Zeisel: Still Creating Beauty at 102!

TED.com is a great site...ideas worth spreading. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. But its scope has become ever broader. TED brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives--in 18 minutes--all recorded on video.

Here a great video from the ceramics designer Eva Zeisel looking back on a 75-year career. What keeps her work as fresh today (her latest line debuted in 2008) as in 1926? Her sense of play and beauty, and her drive for adventure. Listen to Eva Zeisel: The Playful Search for Beauty for stories from a rich, colorful life. It's worth spreading!

About Eva:

Her forms are often abstractions of the natural world and human relationships. Work from throughout her prodigious career is included in important museum collections across the world. Born in 1906, Zeisel declares herself a "maker of useful things." Zeisel currently resides in New York where she continues to design furniture as well as glass and ceramic objects.

2009 PennPAT Spring Artist Workshop

Showcasing: Why, Where and How? PennPAT's Spring Artist Workshop is open to all Pennsylvania-based performing artists and groups, and will be offered in Philadelphia (April 16). For complete details and information on how to register, please visit their website.

The purpose of Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT) is to increase opportunities for professional Pennsylvania-based performing artists to obtain successful touring engagements.

Age & Art...

An excerpt from an MMCA Marketplace interview with PA artist Linda Benton McCloskey--when asked what made her decide to become an artist and how old was she when she knew:

"Actually, it wasn’t until I was in my late fifties …. Years ago when I was a young high school student, loving my art class, I mentioned to my art teacher that I was thinking about art as a career. Her response to me as that she felt that I didn’t have a talent in the art field and that it would better to pursue something different. And, I believed her... never painting, just admiring those who could... one of my co-workers suggested that I take a beginners watercolor class held in the evening. My first thought was 'Are you kidding? I haven’t picked up a brush for over 40 years.' But, what did I have to lose? I took that first class and the first night my teacher asked me to paint a landscape. Afterward - looking back on that 1st painting - it was awful - my first reaction was 'my art teacher was right - I don’t have talent.' But I was encouraged to continue to try… the rest is history."

Watch Amy make a cool thing.

Need a little lift today? Pour yourself a cup of tea, sit back, relax and enjoy this little 7 minute film about Amy--who made 17 things--making a cool 18th thing together with a bunch of people.

Amazing this power of the internet...of YouTube...of creativity...of one person. Follow Amy's internet trail for more or just smile and enjoy this cool 18th thing.

And now, for your fun viewing pleasure...The Beckoning of Lovely.

2009 CAAN Meeting Calendar

CAAN meetings will be held bi-monthly, on the second Tuesday of the month. The time will rotate between morning and afternoon.

2009 CAAN General Meetings

(a.m. meetings in purple, p.m. meetings in green)

• Tuesday, March 10 - 2:00-3:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 12 - 9:00-10:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, July 14 - 2:00-3:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, September 8 - 9:00-10:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, November 10 - 2:00-3:30 p.m.

If you are interested in hosting one of these meetings, please contact Meaghan Brown.