Report Card Time: Here’s How Our Children Are Doing Studying Music And Art

The arts assessment measured students’ knowledge based on their ability to understand and interpret historical pieces of art and music. One question, for example, asked eighth graders to identify the instrument at the beginning of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” (It’s a clarinet.) The report also looked at their creative abilities. In one exercise, students were asked to draw a self-portrait, which was then scored for attention to detail, composition and use of materials.

2017 Index: The Twenty “Most Vibrant” Arts Communities In America

“The overall index is composed of three dimensions: supply, demand, and government support. Supply is assessed by the total number of arts providers in the community, including the number of arts and culture organizations and employees, independent artists, and entertainment firms. Demand is gauged by the total nonprofit arts dollars in the community, including program revenue, contributed revenue, total expenses, and total compensation. Lastly, the level of government support is based on state and federal arts dollars and grants.”

The Day They Dropped A Piano From The Sky (And Inspired Woodstock?)

Whether Woodstock would have happened without Sky River is, of course, anybody’s guess, but Sky River absolutely would not have happened without an even less-heralded event called the Piano Drop, a one-day Dadaist spectacle held on April 28, 1968, in a tiny town (its population was just 455) northeast of Seattle called Duvall. As the name of the event suggests, the Piano Drop featured a dropped piano (which organizers hoped would land on a specially prepared wood pile with a resounding crash), plus music by Country Joe and the Fish. Depending on whom you talk to, at least 3,000 and as many as 5,000 people showed up for this experiment in sonic mayhem.

What Other States Can Learn From Rhode Island’s Arts Incentives

“While Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the country, [it] has become a powerhouse when it comes to attracting artists and art lovers to its shores. And the method by which state leaders have leveraged Rhode Island’s tax code to benefit the creative community could serve as a model for other states looking to cultivate a stronger arts economy.”

What The Two French Presidential Candidates Propose For The Arts

“[Emmanuel] Macron … has declared his intention to maintain the cultural budget in exchange for greater efficiency. He wants all schoolchildren to have access to cultural and artistic education, and has proposed a €500 annual ‘culture pass’ for young people. … [Marine] Le Pen, meanwhile, … has made no overall budget commitment. However, as part of her focus on French patrimony, she wants to increase funds for heritage and conservation by 25%. She also wants to stop the sale of national buildings and palaces to foreigners and the private sector.”

This Year’s NFL Football Draft Is At The Philadelphia Museum Of Art (Huh?)

“Standing on those steps and seeing that this is such a heroic moment, this is a culmination for these [draft picks], we set out on, ‘Could we create a theater? Could we build a theater here?’ ” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s senior vice president of events. “We know it’s going to be complicated. We know it’s going to be audacious. But this is what we have to do, and the Parkway itself was natural. It’s a home to so many iconic events over the years.”

We Need To Split The ‘Millennials’ Into Two Separate Generations

“Old Millennials, as I’ll call them, who were born around 1988 or earlier (meaning they’re 29 and older today), really have lived substantively different lives than Young Millennials, who were born around 1989 or later, as a result of two epochal events that occurred around the time when members of the older group were mostly young adults and when members of the younger were mostly early adolescents.” Jesse Singal, an Old Millennial, explains.

Some Numbers On America’s Culture Economy (And California’s Place In It)

The data, which look at the economic role of the arts at the federal level, show that the arts and cultural sector contributed nearly $730 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014, the year for which the agencies evaluated data. That is roughly 4.2% of the U.S. economy for that year. (The NEA’s annual budget, as a point of comparison, is $148 million.)

What One Red State Will Lose When The NEA Is Gone

“If any state knows the value of publicly financed art, it may be South Dakota: One of its biggest tourist attractions, Mount Rushmore, is, among other things, a colossal federally funded sculpture. … [The NEA’s] generally small grants can have a bigger impact here than they would at the Metropolitan Operas of the world.” Michael Cooper visits the Coyote State to see in action some of the arts programs funded by the agency the Trump administration proposes to eliminate.