“Music Is Everybody’s Language” is the theme of this year’s Music in our Schools Week (March 7-13), a national effort of the Music Educators National Conference to emphasize the importance of music in the education of schoolchildren.
Affiliated state organizations of menc are now organizing committees for the public-awareness projects of the week.
Some of the committees will seek proclamations in support of music education from school boards and officials in government. Others will promote media coverage of the week’s events or schedule school performances by professional musicians.
A folder of printed material from menc includes suggestions for how to observe the week: such as by organizing committees; writing news releases for the press; acquiring air time and writing programs for radio and television stations; and recruiting speakers.
For information, write Music Educators National Conference, 1902 Association Dr., Reston, Va., 22091 or call (703) 860-4000.
The State of Wisconsin will nurture 80 of its artistically talented teen-agers this summer in a program called Artists Studio ‘83. Between June 26 and July 9 at the camp, each student will study one of five subjects: creative writing, dance, jazz improvisation, theater, or the visual arts.
The state’s department of public instruction and the Wisconsin Arts Board are sponsoring Artists Studio, now in the second season of a five-year effort to establish a state summer camp for the arts. They will choose the high-school students, who will participate in the program at this summer’s camp site, an environmental center in Poynette.
As “apprentices” of master artists, the students will spend six hours each day on their art form. Their evening hours will include programs in all of the arts.
Applications are due March 1 (for dance, jazz improvisation, and theater) and March 15 (for creative writing and the visual arts). For information, write or call Kyle Berney at the Wisconsin Arts Board, 123 West Washington Ave., Madison, Wis. 53702, (608) 266-9737.
Using museums to “extend” school classrooms is the goal of the Art Enrichment Program, a project of the Austin Independent School District and the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery of the University of Texas at Austin.
Nearly 400 4th- through 6th-grade students have their classroom lesson on a particular art medium augmented with a field trip to a museum or other site. The students incorporate their experiences on the trip into their own art work during subsequent classes. The area institutions that received grants this year to participate in the program include zoos as well as museums of history, art, natural history, and science.
The project is supported by a federal grant from the Institute of Museum Services and by funding from the Huntington Gallery, the Austin Independent School District, and the Junior League of Austin.--tf
