Keeping the Arts Alive...

There are some big things happening for ArtPeace right now! We are coming together - moving toward a merger - with a long-standing arts learning organization with a quality reputation, Young Audiences of Rochester, part of a national network.

This process has been challenging - moving into a new office, organizing, sharing space and resources, getting a new finance department, changing insurance carriers, a big audit with a new accounting firm, shifting personnel, seeking new opportunities in partnership, working together, joint and separate committee and board meetings, working with an outside consulting agency, etc. It's exciting but also one the hardest things in the history of the organization. It means really shifting a lot of what we have built. It's like preparing your "baby" to go off to school and to rely on you less.

These collaborative efforts are ultimately about lifting up this important work in the community, seeing its value as a legitimate profession / area of specialty and seizing community opportunities to make our mark! Coming together widens the scope and deepens the impact of the arts learning work that can be done for the benefit of a more expansive array of kids. Educating and employing youth using the arts, technology and entrepreneurship is our niche, the core competency that other youth services organizations don't have. This new organization is a force that is here to stay and open to working with any other youth organization or program to bring the arts to life!

Together we are STRONGER! This new company has an emphasis on a diverse array of talented, professional and experienced artists to offer anything from an assembly program, to a school residency, workshops, training, curriculum development or deep arts integration. We have developed a small arts and technology integrated school program and deep, meaningful learning experiences that center around the arts, but teach science, math, history, health, language and english language arts, as well as real-world life and job skills. In addition, there are structured arts-based programs, such as "Creative Entrepreneurs" where youth are employed to start creative businesses and "The Possibility Project" where young people write scripts from their own life stories and combine these theatrical pieces with original music and dance. There are special literacy programs, researched and developed nationally, as well as projects that focus on early childhood, when play, imagination and creative exploration is so important.

We are skilled at handling the hardest-to-reach youth, providing urban/suburban/rural young people with year-round opportunities to get engaged, express themselves and learn in ways that tap into the various learning styles. The possibilities are truly limitless when it comes to arts, youth and learning with so many creative, thinking people. If we do our jobs correctly, true social change will emerge from these efforts. There may even be a few new tricks up our sleeves! Some things that just may be really innovative, fresh and new! We can't wait to unveil the new brand, name and vibe into the Greater Rochester community. It's also ground-breaking in that we are doing all this with real collaboration at the heart of it. In the spirit of lifting up our young people, as well as the artists and the thinkers to create a generation of awake and ready individuals who are rising up to the challenges of the global citizenship in the 21st Century.

Wow. I didn't plan for the blog to take on this promotional feel to it, but what is happening is exciting, as hard as it is, and as many extra hours it takes hiding out in the office! It's hard not to share it!

However, I have another big project that I need YOUR help with. I am writing a book called Keeping the Arts Alive... for the Search Institute. I'd like to include some thoughts from others in this book. Please let me know how the arts have impacted YOUR life! Send a picture, a video, a song, a poem, words, a quote - but let me know how arts, arts learning, an arts-based job or dream of the arts has impacted your life, career, personal development, self esteem, healing or learning. Please post them here or send them to me via email at kris@artpeace.org. You can also find me on Facebook, LinkedIn or follow on Twitter. So many ways we can connect! Please send me your thoughts and ideas as soon as possible so they may be considered for inclusion in the publication.

Ciao,

Kristin

To Sleep or Blog?

It's 7:28am, kids just got on the bus. Go back to bed or blog?

I signed up for a world of paper when I decided to start and administrate a NYS not-for-profit organization. All this and NO PROFIT too! Smart. Well, when I die from stress and lack of sleep, please bury me in all the paperwork on my dining room table. Complete it for me too, would you?

All this and begging for money too! Don't you want to lead another of the thousands of non-profit organizations that are under-funded? Come on.

When I was born my parents looked at me and said "someday, our daughter will be a maker of change." Now, it sometimes feels like I'd rather make change at a book store or little coffee house. That way when some arbitrary decision to cut funding comes along, I won't have to face letting go of staff or deciding how much to slice of my own salary.

Boy, I think I should have gone back to bed.

Let's start again. There is a deep and infinite source for GOOD and healing and LOVE in the Universe. Awaiting our tapping in. Better go knock.

Peace, Brothers and Sisters.

Kris

Arts are SERIOUS Education!

What's on my mind???...

Saving ARTS in schools and in the community - that's what! Whether that be important school art teachers, music teachers or arts-in-education residencies, teaching artists, after school arts, etc.

Several young, fresh and vibrant art & music teachers are losing their positions at East High School because other schools are cutting and East's teachers don't have as many years in. These are people who are teaching some of the toughest kids in challenging situations.

There is Mr. Louis who is taking additional time out of his day to give individual piano lessons to help Emmanuel (8th grader) deepen his talent. This kid loves the piano and he can really play! He loves it and it is one main reason he comes to school when other things don't excite him!

This band teacher also started a high-energy DRUMline out of 7th and 8th graders who have never touched a drum.

Then there is sweet Ms. Andrews who took an energetic, sometimes naughty, group of 7th graders last year and turned them into the ArtPeace@East chorus when East had not had any chorus going for years. Now she teaches AP@E 7th and 8th graders and has created a school-wide choir!

I hear about amazing teachers at School of the Arts and other places being asked to leave.

Cuts are never happy times, but it is disheartening when we who passionately advocate for arts, arts & technology integration, arts-in-education keep speaking out to PROVE the value of the arts - often to be ignored or marginilized again and again!

Schools don't mind hanging student paintings on the walls or all over district central office, but do they FIGHT to keep these positions going?

Arts are proven over and over again to WORK to educate students, lift scores, improve attendance and make learning more engaging and lively!

Arts are not frivolous, Friends, or expendable. They are to be taken SERIOUSly!

Eyes need to be opened about the pure power of the arts. The humanities tie directly to the arts - you can't teach ELA, Social Studies, World Languages, etc. without tapping into the arts. It doesn't mean abandoning Math and Science. These are not in separate silos.

We are all WHOLE PEOPLE who are working to raise and educate WHOLE CHILDREN (when we can look past our own selfishness to remember the real needs of children).

The Arts & Technology can shine a light on all subjects and be integrated into all academic areas to make learning more engaging, easier to grasp and fun for kids! Art for Art's Sake is needed as well as Arts as a vehicle for teaching all subjects -- yes, even MATH & SCIENCE!!! Guess what, there is even RESEARCH & DATA to show it!

This isn't a plea from the pollyannas and hippies singing Kumbaya around a fire...but a charge from the greatest minds in BRAIN RESEARCH!

Eliminating art from education is like eliminating beauty from nature.

Arts and technology are an integral part of who we are as people and it is essential to healthy communities and individuals - the need to think creatively, to use ingenuity, invent, be flexible, think on your feet and all the skills of improvisation in an unpredictable world are necessary!

Support Americans for the Arts, support ArtPeace, support your schools, support your child's education and the gift of a colorful world. Imagine our world without it...

Thanks,

Kristin Rapp

What Happened to the Century When the World Was Made with Art & Peace?

Today is Jesse's birthday (he is my son). He turned 7. Well, it is after midnight now so yesterday was technically his b'day. Big party this weekend.

Wow! We live in interesting times right now, eh? It seems enlivening and invigorating to see such dramatic shift and change in play, as unsettling as it can be at times. For the most part, I maintain a cup half full perspective.

I am excited that ArtPeace is bringing City at Peace-Rochester's Through Our Eyes to the stage this weekend for its WORLD PREMIERE. It is happening at East High Auditorium at 7:30pm on Fri and Sat, May 29 & 30. I think it is going to be great. These diverse young people (13-19) from throughout Monroe County have worked hard and are also learning skills in conflict resolution, peacemaking, social change and leadership development. The City at Peace founder is in town this weekend and other City at Peace alumni will be on hand to help make the show a success!

ArtPeace is scrambling to get through the end of the year at ArtPeace@East (7th & 8th grade arts and technology integrated school program at East High) and to get ready for their evening showcase "Change Through Perserverance" to end the year - 7-9pm at East High Auditorium.

We are also preparing the way for the 5th annual ArtPeace Young Entrepreneurs program which will be bigger than ever this year! That is bound to be fun and lots of work. The plan is to have many cool businesses -- silk screening, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, culinary arts, landscaping and horticulutre, music and sound recording, dance and movement, visual arts, etc.

We are still looking for our home to house the program and to stay in for the year. Oy! That has been a tough process and I am ready to click my ruby slippers and find the right place.

There is a lot going on and I am still trying to balance it with time with my kids. We haven't had a nanny or child care all year so it feels good to take care of our kiddos in the midst of my husband, David, and I working for ArtPeace full time. We are looking for angels to help us keep it going and create the CENTER we dream of (capital funds campaign)! The youth of this community need the myriad of creative, entrepreneurial, literacy-enhancing and fitness producing projects we can offer! Adults too.

I am very determined to make things soar in 2009-2010 despite the world view.

All things are possible...

Peace Y'All and shout back if you're listenin'...

Kris

Saw the Mayor on Channel 8 last week talking about kids and crime and the NEED to have after school work programs! ArtPeace couldn’t agree more!

ArtPeace is working with other youth, education and arts organizations to come together in a bigger way so as to not duplicate services. The time is NOW!!!

ArtPeace stands READY to work together and
TAKE ACTION NOW
with other community organizations and citizens,
sharing and extending resources to:

1. CREATE PEACE!

2. Employ youth and adults in challenging and productive ways!

3. To educate and ENGAGE young people!

The time is now. We must not let the “economy” of dollars stop us from innovating…and building an “economy” of thinkers!

What’s needed now is a focus on our strengths and on what’s good. Our resources are plentiful when directed properly and it will be our young people that will create the next generation of revolutionary ideas, inventions and new avenues of prosperity!

ArtPeace and other local organizations can serve more kids and adults on the East, Central and West sides of the city right away if the proper funds are raised! Who will step up to help make this happen?

Unused space in this community has been identified in several areas. Many more empty houses and buildings throughout our city sit unused. Why not make these into active centers of creativity, action and education??

THE TIME IS NOW!

ArtPeace can start tomorrow with at least 5 other businesses in collaboration and probably many more... Will YOU join us??

LOOK at our young people with fresh eyes, in a good light, and inspire them to ACTION alongside us.

We are the peacemakers, we are the dreamers of dreams, we are the leaders who will rise and transform this community unto a new day dawning...

THE TIME IS NOW!

Exec Dir Dreams

I was speaking to my executive coach the other day who instructed me to surround myself with dream builders rather than dream killers! There are certainly some dream killers in the world, aren't there?

I find that working with big bureaucracies makes my dreams seem small and dim...barely legible....kinda foggy.

I like having dreams though and they keep that flame sparked and at least vaguely kindled inside and despite the closing doors, I am reminded that anyone who ever did anything cool did so after many doors closed, rejections and stupid mistakes. Well, I have done the research in those areas but am gratified by the successes and by the opening doors too.

Had lunch with a banker today. Not sure how someone like that sees someone like me but have to be sure that it was an experience worth having. Good can come of it (though the "dream" that included a big check with ARTPEACE written on it did not come true quite yet! Doh!!)

To be certain, those are on there way...flowing in.

Ciao, All. Sure would love to hear from you.

Kristin

To Blog or Not to Blog...

Caught the blog bug for a bit, but now I wonder. Who reads the blogs of others? Do we write them mostly for ourselves? Is this my new journal? I have heard it is important to read blogs before you write one. I have read a few...

Here's a little update on ArtPeace. We are in negotiations with our contract with the Rochester City School District. Always a tricky thing. The ArtPeace@East program is doubling this year and we are going with the flow... 160 students in all. 1 new administrator. 10 teachers. 3-4 artists... teaching in arts and technology integrated ways.

The Young Entrepreneur Program had its 4th successful year! It was a wonderful showcase. Bittersweet as we honored Jessica Avilas - young culinary arts apprentice who was killed this summer and Tiny Glover, storyteller and ArtPeace teaching artist, who passed away this April.

We were joined at the showcase of entrepreneurial work by lots of friends, including Mayor Bob Duffy, Supt Jean-Claude Brizard, Jean Howard (Mayor's Chief of Staff), Hon. Elaine Spaull, Hon. Carolee Conklin, City Council members, RCSD representatives, East High representatives, ArtPeace Board Chair, Steven Schwab, Board members Nancy Zawacki, Sara Huges, Angela Johnson, Shane Dale, etc. Also Channel 13, our new friends this summer.

We are working to continue the Young Entrepreneur Program going all year long at the beautiful, historic landmark building, the Jonathan Child House at 35 South Washington Street, across from the Rochester City School District Central Office. It's our home. We want to stay.

All support is appreciated!!

Check us out at www.artpeace.org - throw us a bone.

G'Night All.

Kristin