THE BITTER GAME at Single Carrot Theatre

Arts Every Day 10th Anniversary

Cinderella at Chopticon High School

The Jemicy School – Send a Troupe to Festival Grant

Studio 39’s The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

Apply now for a $500 EJK Mini-Grant

Paper Dreams Now Playing at Imagination Stage

“Firebird” Takes the Stage

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: AACPS Teacher Specialist — Arts Integration

CAC Fifth Annual Chip in for the Arts

Queer Interiors | Art & LGBTQI+ Experience

MAEA and Baltimore Clayworks Artist/Teacher Professional Learning Series

Montgomery Middle School Teaches Rock

Imagination Stage Presents The Jungle Book

Register Now for Maryland Centers for Creative Classrooms

The Arts are Alive in Maryland Schools—T- Shirts Available until Monday

Scholarships for Private/Studio Instruction!

Maryland Dance Association Festival

Caroline County Students Curate and Install in Annapolis

Register Now for Maryland Centers for Creative Classrooms – Late Registrations are now being accepted

Register here

Click here to learn more

Click here to purchase a t-shirt and support arts education!

The Arts are Alive in Maryland Schools—T-Shirts Available Now! Prince George's County Public Schools Theatre

Fest

Art Programs at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art

Studio 39 Visit

2017 ARTS Gala – A CULTURAL TAPESTRY: Renaissance through the Arts

Kent County Fifth Graders Learn About Art and Science at Hegland Glass

Maryland Teaching Leadership Summit

Senior PVA Student in the Spotlight

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: Artists in Education Specialist

Young Audiences: Summer Data

The NEA Foundation Has a Grant Application for You!

Vincent E. Thomas/VT Dance performing in THE COMPANY OF MEN…Part II

Maryland Citizens for the Arts Welcomes New Executive Director

Calling all artists: The National Veterans Day poster contest now under way

Scholarships for Private/Studio Instruction!Do you have students who display extraordinary natural abilities in music, dance, and theater arts? If so, The Scarborough Foundation awards scholarships and grants to Maryland public school students in elementary, middle, and high school to assist in the advancement and pursuit of their potential through the arts. The scholarship or grant will be a non-renewable gift paid to the organization providing the course of study on behalf of the student. Deadline for application submission is April 15, 2017. Click here for the scholarship application.

The closing piece featured for 80+ dancers! Brilliant teachers create brilliant students AND the whole piece was created in 2 hours! Congratulations to the Maryland Dance Alliance for a beautiful festival!

Maryland Dance Association Festival

Artists from Caroline County helped install and curate the Spring First Lady’s Gallery and Treasury Building Exhibitions in Annapolis! A special ‘thank you’ to this group of creative, energetic people led by Mary Rosoff, Susan McCandless and the teachers!

Caroline County Students Curate and Install in Annapolis

A compelling and brilliantly performed THE BITTER GAME at Single Carrot Theatre asked difficult questions about the relationship between police and the black community. This is a must-see for every person of every background.

THE BITTER GAME at Single Carrot Theatre

Baltimore County students performing at the Maryland Dance Association Festival at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts

Prince George’s County Public Schools Theatre Fest

The Arts Every Day 10th Anniversary Recognition Ceremony was a gathering of arts education royalty... and a little bit like arts education church! Congratulations to the staff, board and honorees for a terrific evening!

Ken Attends the Arts Every Day 10th Anniversary Recognition Ceremony

I loved my time with the actors from Suitland High at the PGCPS Theatre Fest!

Art Programs at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art

So thrilled to have attended the opening night of Chopticon High School’s Cinderella! A great performance by the cast, crew, pit, and creative team!

Cinderella at Chopticon High School

Studio 39 Visit If you ever doubt the power of arts education, just spend the day at Studio 39 in Annapolis. The term "student engagement" is an understatement! I will search for a new way to describe off-the-charts student presence! Congratulations to Dana Parsons for creating a powerful day of learning!

Soap carving at the Ward Museum of Waterfowl Art.

The Jemicy School has been awarded one of two Educational Theatre Association’s Send a Troupe to Festival grants!

The Jemicy School is a private school that serves students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences, processing issues, attention deficit disorders, and executive function deficits. Troupe Director Sean Elias says “The benefits of attending Festival are boundless and are sure to pay dividends both in my classroom, in their art form, in my Thespians’ maturation, and within their lives.” A current student struggled in his previous school, but after participating in the theatre program at Jemicy explained, “Getting involved with the theatre has been life-changing. It’s something I want to do, I don’t consider it work.”

Read more here.

The Jemicy School is a Recipient of a Send a Troupe to Festival Grants

Arts integration at its best!! Environmental science and visual art. Every Maryland student should have this experience!

MSDE Fine Arts OfficeJanuary 2017

2017 ARTS Gala – A CULTURAL TAPESTRY: Renaissance through the Arts

Adults are Encouraged to Play at Studio 39’s The Brothers Grimm SpectaculathonThe Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon weaves different stories together, narrated by Kohner Evans and Matthew Lucente, who play Narrator 1 and Narrator 2. “He’s playful in the fact that he never takes anything seriously,” Matthew stated when asked about his character, “It’s actually very interesting that the character is actually a lot like me. And so I get to play with the fact that I get such great dialogue and such a great opportunity to just make my character whoever I want. Usually you don’t get that liberty, usually there’s a set in stone this is how a character has to be. And so it’s fun for me.”

The senior class is hoping to teach that being playful is important for everyone, which is why they’re targeting the working population, reaching out to several businesses to come to their performance. “I hope that during the performance they get that they can let loose,” Katrina Stubbs says, who plays the Enchantress and Gretel.

Students are currently in rehearsal. The performance will take place April 20th, at 6 pm in the Outdoor Courtyard at Studio 39, 291 Locust Ave, Annapolis, MD 21401. An interactive pre-show will begin at 5:30 pm. Bring your picnic blankets and snacks! Admission is free. For more information, please call the Studio 39 Office at 410-280- 1501 or email dparsons@aacps.org.

Spectaculathon characters rehearse for the 2-minute finale wrap-up! L-R: Miel Hunt, Anna Courtade, Seth Hanley, Kohner Evans, Austin Ubannwa, Katie Bishop, Collier Randall

On March 11 and March 18, Kent County Public Schools’ art teacher, Aimee Boumiea and three elementary students visited David and Patti Hegland in their glassmaking studio in downtown Chestertown. The students were chosen through an essay contest, and the winners were those with the best response to why they wanted to learn about making glass.

The students had an opportunity to learn about the science behind art glass while they created artistic pieces of their own. The students learned about equilibrium thickness and reactive colors.

The program is part of the Arts in Motion program through Kent County Public Schools and was sponsored through a grant from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust. The idea for the program came from Tom McHugh, KCPS Facilitator for Fine Arts, and was championed by Fine Arts Supervisor Gina Jachimowicz as a great way for students to see art and science in action. David and Patti Hegland are nationally recognized fine artisans, having won the Niche award for glass in 2013.

When asked about their participation, David Hegland stated that they are supporters of public education and had a great time with the students. He said, “It’s amazing how quickly the kids learned and were able to put together their own pieces of glass art. They gained an understanding of the physics of glass and had fun composing their own works of art.” Each student left the program with one or two pieces of glass art that they created as well as a better understanding of how scientific concepts are applied in the real world.

Kent County Fifth Graders Learn About Art and Science at Hegland Glass

A Mini-Grant is an award of up to $500 given to public schools and libraries to implement a proposed program. Mini-Grant programs are creative and innovative…they take place inside the classroom or out in the community…they bridge disciplines and grade levels from preschool to 12th—and are funded solely by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. Here are some examples of successful past programs:

a public story walk a multicultural portrait project a school garden bookmaking creating a puppet show an intergenerational publication or

activity

March 31, 11:59 p.m.: New deadline for submissionBe sure to include an email address to which you have free access. You will receive an email confirmation that your submission went through, with a link to your application to save as a PDF or print out. If you don’t receive the confirmation, email them at foundation@ezra-jack-keats.org with the subject line “Mini-Grants.”

http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/how-to-apply-for-a-mini-grant/

Apply now for a $500 EJK Mini-Grant

David Hegland of Hegland Glass working with students from Kent County elementary schools to create glass art.

Maryland Teaching Leadership SummitThe Maryland Teacher Leadership Summit is a two-day summit designed to promote and develop teacher-led initiatives across the state. Modeled after the successful National Teach to Lead Summit, the Maryland event will:

Spotlight and support a selective group of teacher-led initiatives across Maryland;

Provide teacher-led teams hands-on training to refine their program models, identify supports, and communicate their initiatives to key stakeholders

Promote teacher leadership among key local systems level stakeholders including superintendents, principals and national and local partners engaged to advise and support teacher-led teams to refine innovative proposals;

The Maryland Summit will be held on Tuesday, July 18th and Wednesday July 19th for teacher-led teams selected by peers through an application process. July 17th is an optional welcome reception. The Summit will include critical friends and partner organizations that will support teacher-led teams to refine their program/proposal designs and advocate for their initiatives locally.

Location: Chesapeake Bay Foundation - Philip Merrill Environmental CenterDates: July 17-19th

Team Applications are due: Friday, May 26, 2017 at 11:59pm ET

For more information: https://sites.google.com/site/mdteacherleadershipsummit/home

March 11 – April 9, 2017Best for Ages 1-5

Imagination Stage is excited to present its first dance performance-based production in the My First Imagination Stage series. A collaboration with Mons Dansa Dance Company of Barcelona, Spain, Paper Dreams explores the many facets of creativity, including movement.

Paper Dreams, best for ages 1-5, runs in Imagination Stage’s Christopher and Dana Reeve Studio Theatre March 11 through April 9. Performances are Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Tickets are $14, with a $5 lap seat for children under 12 months. Tickets may be purchased online at www.imaginationstage.org, at the Imagination Stage box office, or by calling 301-280-1660.

Paper Dreams – Now Playing!

The dancers discover their wastebasket paper world.

[L-R: Sara Herrera, Anna Lynch]

The cast learns the opening number.

March 15, 2017 - OWINGS MILLS, MDTowson University Community Dance (TUCD), the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Baltimore, and the Columbia Orchestra will join the stage for a first-ever collaboration to present, "The Firebird and Other Heroic Tales" on April 2, 2017 at 3pm at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts.

The story of "Firebird" will be narrated by Greg Jukes and performed by dance students from both the Towson University Community Dance and Owings Mills JCC dance programs. The Columbia Orchestra will accompany the choreography and will use the original ballet music composed by Igor Stravinsky.

This magical production is family-friendly and tells the story of a heroic prince in pursuit of a beautiful princess and a magnificent firebird with magic feathers, assisting the prince in the defeat of an evil magician. The program also includes music from Star Wars and more.

Tickets may be purchased in advance ($11/child; $16/adult) or at the door ($14/child; $19/adult). For more information on "The Firebird and Other Heroic Tales" and to purchase tickets, click here.

“Firebird” Takes the Stage on April 2nd at 3 pm.

Senior PVA Student in the Spotlight

All good things must come to an end. Anna Courtade, a senior at Annapolis High School and actor in the Performing and Visual Arts (PVA) program, will be performing her last musical before she goes off to college to pursue a career in theater. And she’s going out with a bang. Landing the second main character in Into the Woods, the Baker’s Wife, was a huge surprise. “I wasn’t actually going for Baker’s Wife,” Anna admitted when asked about the auditioning process, “And it happened and I’m very happy that I did. I hadn’t realized how much I feel I relate to her in a way. Everyone in the show wishes, and they work to get this wish, and they don’t think about the consequences. Baker’s Wife is very in the moment, so she doesn’t think about what’s coming next, like she goes very strategically through things and I feel like that’s something I very much do. That’s me, and I just love her.”

When asked how she rehearses for her big role, Anna replied, “Well I’m constantly listening to the music or recordings from our lovely accompanist Laura, on the OneDrive. That’s all I listen to, I don’t think I’ve listened to anything for a very long time because of this show! And all I think about is this show because of that. So I constantly am running through my lines and I always put myself in the character, thinking of realistically, why am I saying these things?- and applying my actions and subtext. In a typical rehearsal [at Studio 39] we work through what’s been scheduled for the day and we will go through blocking or music, if that’s what’s needed. We’re expected to be very prepared coming into rehearsals so we’re supposed to be able to polish and make things great when we go into rehearsal. And that’s mostly what rehearsal is meant for, is to polish things and take them to the next step.” And as she takes her next step towards college, she will go, as she says, from “great to amazing!”

Students are currently still in rehearsal until April. Into the Woods premieres Friday, April 28th, at 7:30 pm, at Studio 39, 291 Locust Avenue in Annapolis. Additional performances will be held on Saturday, April 29th, at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Admission is free but seats can be reserved in advance. For more information or to reserve tickets, please call the Studio 39 Office at 410-280- 1501 or email dparsons@aacps.org.

Estimated start date of July 1, 2017.

Position Summary:Provides direct support and resources to all schools for Arts Integrated instruction and implementation. Participates in collaborative planning with teachers and administrators in the Arts Integration Schools, the Arts & Humanities (EEE) Schools, and others as requested to plan, model, and implement high-level arts integrated lessons, assessments, and curriculum mapping across all disciplines. Provides effective professional learning in Integrated Arts Teaching and Learning county-wide throughout the academic year. Makes recommendations on materials of instruction which effectively support arts integrated teaching and learning, and works with curriculum writers to develop effective arts integrated lessons, strategies, and assessments based on current research findings including national and state standards. Monitors and assists in the management of the implementation of Arts Integration programs at designated elementary and secondary schools. Assists schools in developing an atmosphere and environment conducive to the intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of students through the arts, Artful Thinking Routines, and other appropriate arts-based strategies. Assists in the design of co-curricular programs in a variety of school-related settings and activities.View the full job description and application here.

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: AACPS Teacher Specialist – Arts Integration

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: Artists in Education SpecialistOrganization Description: Young Audiences/Arts for Learning, founded in Baltimore in 1950, is the country’s foremost arts-in-education non-profit organization. The Maryland chapter of Young Audiences (YA) provides more than 9,000 arts education opportunities to nearly 200,000 students, artists, and educators throughout the state each year. The staff, board, and teaching artists of YA are passionate about generating opportunities for all students to imagine, create and realize their full potential through the arts.

Job Summary:The Artists in Education Specialist partners with artists, teachers and community organizations to meet their needs for arts integrated programming and professional development services. This is a full-time position that reports to the Education Director. Pay will be commensurate with experience and we offer a competitive benefits package.

Requirements:This job is a key role in the organization and to perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

A passion for the arts in schools, arts integration and the role of teaching

artists/community artists in education. Five years as a teacher in the public school system, with current

certification OR five years as a high skilled teaching artist. Three-five years of experience planning, implementing and

evaluating arts integrated lessons as well as helping others plan, pilot and assess their own arts and arts integrated lessons.

Demonstrated ability in observing teachers and/or artists and providing constructive feedback.

Knowledge of the College and Career Readiness (Common Core) Standards, National Core

Arts Standards and/or Maryland Fine Arts Standards, and MSDE's Teacher Professional

Development Standards. Experience in project management, including data and budget tracking.

Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

To Apply:To apply send resume and cover letter (including salary requirements) to jobs@yamd.org.

View the full job description here.

CAC Fifth Annual Chip In For The Arts

Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 7:30 AMCompass Pointe Golf Course, Pasadena, MD

Sign In 7:30am | Tee Time 8:30am Individual Players $135.00 Foursome $540.00 Corporate Sponsor $665.00 (Includes four players & Tee Sign*) Tee Sign Sponsor $125.00Lunch $30.00

The Chesapeake Arts Center PresentsFifth Annual Chip In For The Arts

Enjoy a fun day of camaraderie, competition, relaxation and a chance to win great prizes while supporting the Chesapeake Arts Center. Registration includes golf, breakfast, lunch and an award ceremony.

Prizes will be awarded for: Longest Drive, Closest to the pin, & putting contest

Please call the CAC at (410) 636-6597 to reserve your spot by Wednesday, April 5 ,2017

Young Audiences: Summer Data Low-income Baltimore City Public Schools students who participated in a new arts-related summer academic program from Young Audiences avoided summer learning loss and, in many cases, gained ground on their national peers in standardized testing, according to evaluations released Tuesday. The new findings showed potentially groundbreaking progress in tackling summer learning loss, a chronic challenge facing public schools.

The Young Audiences Summer Arts and Learning Academy (YA Academy), run by the Baltimore-based arts-education non-profit Young Audiences of Maryland in partnership with City Schools, was free for students and held at four sites across the city: Gardenville Elementary, Thomas Jefferson Elementary/Middle, William Pinderhughes Elementary, and Fort Worthington Elementary/Middle. Eighty-eight percent of the participating students were from high-poverty Title I schools. “These results were a pleasant surprise given that we generally expect that students will lose ground over the summer,” commented Dr. Marc L. Stein, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, who conducted a separate program evaluation for Young Audiences which looked at participating students’ academic skill and social-emotional development. “The Young Audiences summer program combines many of the best practices of summer learning programs and appears to be a promising model. These findings deserve to be investigated more rigorously to find out how and for whom the program appears to be working.”

“This is not your typical summer school program,” said Stacie Evans, Executive Director of Young Audiences. “We taught literacy and math through the arts every day and instruction was collaboratively taught by teaching artists and teachers specifically trained in arts-integration methods. If you walked into one of our classrooms, you might have seen students using hip hop music to help solve word problems in math, or creating dances to summarize and sequence main events in a story.”

Young Audiences external program evaluation participants found:

79% of students who attended at least 75% of the program and who took pre- and post-tests had a positive change from the first to the last week of the program on a curriculum based measure of mathematics.

Approximately 60% of students who attended at least 75% of the program and who took pre- and post-test writing prompts showed positive change in their structure and content of their writing.

The Baltimore City Public Schools evaluation found:

For math, statistically significant results showed that students in grades 3-5 who regularly attended (defined as attending at least 75% of the program) the YA Academy improved 1.8% percentile points in national student rankings on i-Ready standardized testing from the spring of 2016 to the fall of that year. That compares to a decrease of 2.8% percentile points for city schools students who did not attend any summer programming.

In reading, YA Academy students in grades 3-5 with regular attendance fell only .8% percentile points while students who did not attend any summer programming fell 2.1 percentile points upon returning to school in the fall.

Results for all grade 3-5 students regardless of attendance rate showed Young Audiences attendees falling just .3% percentile points in math and .7% in reading. These were significantly smaller losses than students with no summer programming (down 2.8% in math, down 2.1% lost in reading).

In literacy, only 3% of the students in grades K-2 attending the YA Academy did not meet their benchmark goal (the empirically derived target score that represents adequate reading progess1) on the standardized DIBELS assessment in the fall after returning to school compared to 8.1% of students not attending any summer programming not meeting the benchmark.

71% of students who attended 75% of the program and were administered pre- and post-assessments showed growth in at least one out of three social emotional competency areas over the course of the program. The social emotional competencies studied were relationship skills, self-awareness, and goal directed behavior.

“The arts offer an extraordinary opportunity, particularly during the summer, to reignite the joy of learning and to set young people on the right course to start the school year strong. These impressive results from Young Audiences mirror findings of the landmark Wallace Foundation study showing that elementary school students with high levels of attendance in high-quality, voluntary summer learning programs can experience benefits in math and reading,” commented Matthew Boulay PhD, National Sumer Learning Association founder and interim CEO.

Links to complete City Schools and Young Audiences Evaluations

YAMD evaluation City Schools evaluation

A BMA Workshop for TeachersSaturday, April 1, 20178:30 AM-1:30 PM

Join the BMA on Saturday, April 1st for an important teacher workshop on art and the LGBTQI+ experience. Explore the Queer Interiors exhibition with artists Rahne Alexander and Jaimes Mayhew; hear from young people in the LGBTQI+ community about their experiences; learn fundamentals about LGBTQI+ identities and how to be a good ally to your students and colleagues with Kate Bishop of Chase Brexton Health Care; and make a button that visually communicates a vital part of your own identity.

In addition:

A light breakfast is included Receive print materials to support your

understanding of LGBTQI+ issues and identities

Receive 10% off in the BMA Shop

This workshop is $20 for Members and $25 for Non-Members. Please visit https://artbma.org/educators/workshop.htmlto register.

Queer Interiors | Art & LGBTQI+ Experience

Jaimes Mayhew and Rahne Alexander. Photo by Jill Fannon.

Educators are full of innovative ideas to improve their own teaching and their students’ learning. But in many cases, their schools and districts simply don’t have the funds to implement these projects. What’s a creative educator to do?

Apply for an NEA Foundation grant! The next deadline is June 1, which gives you plenty of time to figure out the details of how to put your ideas into practice. To help, we’re highlighting a few recent grants that received funding from the NEA Foundation.

MAEA and Baltimore Clayworks Artist/Teacher Professional Learning Series

Saturday, April 29th, 2017 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Join the MAEA for the next professional learning session about Collaboration & Shared Vision with Baltimore Clayworks on April 29th from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM.

How can artists communicate and work with community to generate new works? What inherently collaborative processes require that we work together to make meaningful artworks? Learn new skills to bring to your own studio practice and the classroom in this workshop focused on sharing ideas to make lasting artistic statements with our most important collaborators- our students and communities. Join Herb Massey, renowned educator and community artist, along with experienced Clayworks staff Lynette Rogers and Caroline Phillips in facilitating a valuable information exchange and creating workshop where we will bring new life to traditional clay forms.

Click here for more information.

The NEA Foundation Has a Grant Application for You!

Vincent E. Thomas/VT Dance performing in THE COMPANY OF MEN…Part II

Maryland Citizens for the Arts Welcomes New Executive DirectorThe Board of Directors of Maryland Citizens for the Arts (MCA) is pleased to announce the selection of Nicholas Cohen as the organization’s next Executive Director. Mr. Cohen comes to MCA from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) where he served as Director of Community Engagement and Education Programs.

In his role at the BSO, Mr. Cohen oversaw programming that annually provided access to music and the arts for more than 100,000 patrons from all across Maryland. Mr. Cohen served as a member of the transition team charged by Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh with developing a comprehensive engagement plan for the city’s youth. An avid musician, Mr. Cohen is also the contrabassoonist with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Bethesda, Maryland and has played with other ensembles, including the Annapolis Symphony. “Nicholas brings to MCA a diverse set of experiences as a musician, educator and arts administrator, as well as a passion for arts advocacy,” said Peter T. Kjome, President and CEO of the BSO. “In joining MCA as its new Executive Director, I look forward to continuing my life’s work of advocating for the arts and advancing the belief that the arts should be an accessible human right. Working closely with MCA’s Board, I am excited to serve the wonderful and creative citizen artists and cultural institutions that we have in Maryland and to continue the bipartisan tradition of strong and sustainable public funding for the arts,” said Mr. Cohen.

Mr. Cohen succeeds John Schratwieser after his very successful seven-year tenure leading MCA’s arts advocacy and service programs, a time during which the Maryland State Arts Council’s appropriation grew more than $6.5 million (52 percent). Mr. Schratwieser will remain with MCA through the end of the current Maryland General Assembly legislative session before returning to his adopted home of Chestertown, Maryland to serve as Director of the Kent County Arts Council and launch ARTikultur_MD, a new artist residency program. “On behalf of the Board and its members, I would like to thank John for his extraordinary service to MCA. He has been a tireless and immensely effective advocate on behalf of Maryland’s artists and arts organizations,” said Mr. Gallagher.

Montgomery Middle School Teaches Rock

How do you end up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Practice, practice, practice, sure. Or you could take Ms. Levy’s class at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown, Md.

Of course, you’ll still have to practice. The course Randi Levy teaches is called “Rock Band,” and it’s designed to turn out little Jimmy Pages, Stevie Wonders, Ringo Starrs and Aretha Franklins. And at the end of the three-year program, the eighth-graders take a class field trip to Ohio, where they tour the rock hall and perform on its stage.

Levy spearheaded a pioneering program to teach popular music. Students sign up in sixth grade to study guitar for a year. In seventh grade, they can switch to keyboards, bass or drums. They form bands and rehearse and perform together.

Levy created the curriculum herself. It isn’t just how to strum a power chord or whip off a paradiddle. It’s the history of popular music, which of course is the history of the U.S.A. and how its signature musical inventions — from rock to rap — have colonized the planet.About 150 kids take Rock Band at Clemente. Traditional orchestra classes are offered, too, and about 60 percent of students take some form of music — a percentage three times higher than at most secondary schools.

Levy has helped start similar programs at other Montgomery County middle schools, including E. Brooke Lee, Newport Mill, Martin Luther King Jr. and Takoma Park.

Click here to read more.

MCA Welcomes New Executive Director Nicholas Cohen.

Each year the VA’s National Veterans Outreach Office, in conjunction with the Veterans Day National Committee, publishes a commemorative Veterans Day poster. The poster is selected from artwork submitted by artists nationwide and is distributed to VA facilities, military installations around the world across cities and town in our nation. It also serves as the cover of the official program for the Veterans Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery.

Poster guidelines, submissions must:

Be 18” x 24” at 300 dots per inch, scale down submissions to 9”x12.”

Submissions are not restricted to “human centric” presentations, such as a joint color guard. Imagery of American icons, monuments or scenery can qualify, for example, the American flag.

Represent Veterans from all branches of service. The Committee may select a particular submission but ask the artist to make modifications to the original design. Additional changes may be required prior to printing.

Reflect the diversity of our Veteran and military population in terms of race, gender and disability status.

Include sufficient information to demonstrate that the image is the work of the artist and is not copyrighted material (i.e. photos and concepts).

To view examples of past winning submissions visit the VA Veterans Day poster gallery.

Submit electronic versions as .jpg images or PDF files by email to vetsday@va.gov or send copies of artwork on a CD with artwork files to:

Veterans Day National CommitteeDepartment of Veterans AffairsATTN: Micheal Migliara (002D)810 Vermont Avenue,NW Washington, DC 20420

The deadline for submissions is April 15. A selection committee will convene in May 2017 to review submissions and make a final selection.

Questions should be directed to the Veterans Day Coordinator at vetsday@va.gov or find out more online by clicking here.

Calling all artists: The National Veterans Day poster contest now under way

Imagination Stage Presents The Jungle Book

April 22-May 28

Swing through the jungle with Mowgli and friends!

Imagination Stage welcomes audiences to the jungle with The Jungle Book. Directed by Janet Stanford and based on the story by Rudyard Kipling, this Greg Banks script explores Mowgli’s relationship with his jungle family, the environment, and his responsibility to both.

The Jungle Book, best for ages 4+, runs April 22-May 28, 2017 in Imagination Stage’s Annette M. and Theodore N. Lerner Family Theatre. Tickets start at $10, and can be purchased online at www.imaginationstage.org, at the Imagination Stage box office, or via phone at 301-280-1660. Group rates are available. To RSVP to Press Weekend, April 22-23, please email press@imaginationstage.org.

Kipling’s acclaimed classic deals with timely issues in this new, lively version. Mowgli is a human child brought up in the jungles of India by a family of wolves. The embittered tiger Shere Kahn may be stalking him, but Mowgli is a quick learner. His friends, Baloo the goofy bear, and Bagheera, the savvy Jaguar, teach him how to gain the trust of the four-footed hunters, the birds, and the snakes so that he will never be friendless. He falls into a bad crowd of silly monkeys who lead him astray and play a mean trick on him. How will Mowgli escape from the deep, dark well? And, how will he save himself when Shere Kahn turns the wolf pack against him? Mowgli learns to respect his environment and the wisdom of the animals. And he realizes that, as a grown man, it’s his responsibility to protect them.