Maryland Citizens for the Arts

Check here to find out what MCA staff & colleagues are looking at on the web. Items of general arts interest and a lot of Maryland-focused content. Follow us to stay in the know about the arts community and arts advocacy. MCA (Maryland Citizens for the Arts) represents Maryland artists and arts organizations of all disciplines. Its principle mission is to promote adequate funding for the Maryland State Arts Council and to advocate for the arts at the state and federal levels.

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Inspiring and beautiful TED talk by artist Aaron Koblin

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And the wonderful, astonishing truth is that the arts are utterly useless. You can’t eat music or poetry or dance. You can’t drive your car on a sonnet it or wear it on your back to shield you from the elements. This “uselessness” is why politicians and other painfully literal-minded people during times of budget crises (which is pretty much all the time now) can’t wait to single the arts out for elimination. For them artistic activity is strictly after-school business...They don’t realize that what we artists offer is one of the few things that make human life meaningful, that through our skill and our talent and through the way that we share our rich emotional lives we add color and texture and depth and complexity to their lives."

--Composer John Adams, excerpter from his recent commencement address to The Juiliiard. Brilliant and inspiring...read the full text of the address here: http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/john-adams-address-the-juilliard-school-106th-commencement-ceremony-2011-05-23

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Continuing our trend of posting items related to arts education lately, here is apart one of a blog post on the NAHS. Does your local high school have a chapter? Why not?

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A pdf of a brochure created by VH1's Save The Music campaign describing 25 distinct things teachers can do to advocate for music education at their school. Great and thorough list!!

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Article and video about a collaborative program in Frederick, MD between arts organization The Delaplaine and Maryland State's Department for the Aging - arts therapy for seniors with alzheimer's disease.

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Today and tomorrow there is a national Boy Choir Festival taking place in Baltimore. As a tribute, we're posting this video of a photographic montage put to beautiful singing from the Maryland State Boy Choir.

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What was any art but an effort to make a sheath, a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining, elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose?

This is a quotation from Willa Cather's novel The Song of the Lark. It's a beautiful thought the protagonist (Thea Kronborg, an opera singer) has while looking at some old pottery shards.

[schoolsandeducation]

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Maryland for Dance created this PSA video called "Why I Dance." We think it's pretty great, don't you?

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From the WHite House blog - this entry is from Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She writes about the President and First Lady's belief in the need for arts education.

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The Nonprofit Finance Fund lists 7 takeaways from a conversation on what financial 'success' means in the performing arts industry.

As arts advocates, we at MCA focus on the importance of public support for the arts, but we musn't forget the importance of funders and organizations to have long-term fiscal responsibility in mind.

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NASAA (National Association of State Arts Agencies) sent out this informative recap of NEA Chairman's testimony at a Congressional hearing yesterday.

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A short post from the Utne reader about author Arlene Goldbard's views on artists helping to fuel the economy.

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BSO Musicians at Schaefer Memorial Event on Flickr.

Via Flickr: A brass quartet from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra graciously agreed to join arts supporters awaiting the cortege stop at the Washington Monument. Their playing was beautiful and helped capture the mood of grateful remembrance. One of the trumpeters brought his son along (pictured at left) to soak in the event as well.

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A good short overview of the current state of public funding for the arts across the U.S.

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"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

--Albert Einstein

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This video was created by high school students in Boyertown, PA in protest of proposed cuts to arts education funding. They were not allowed to show the video at the School Board Finance Committee meeting, but you can enjoy it and help spread the message!

More info on their situation: http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/04/08/news/doc4d9f0faf204ac326435640.txt