Join us this Thursday evening, as we’ll celebrate the work of these students with a public reception from 5-8pm at The BrickHouse Community Arts Center, 106 SE 2nd Street, Madison. Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, May 10, 2012
5:00pm until 8:00pm

The Madison Middle School 6th & 7th grade art students will be sharing with us “Interpretations of Matisse” and “We’re Going Buggy” at The BrickHouse Community Arts Center this May. These works represent 165 students, which will account for an entire year of 6-week art mini-classes with instructor Ginny Freitag.

All Double Header events are free and open to the public, refreshments are always served, and are sponsored by the Madison Area Arts Council.

From our friends from Americans for the Arts, and they’re good for you!

We came across this website from a friend this morning, enjoy!

From our newest desk offering, ‘things we know nothing about’, comes news of a Fine Arts Night or something like that anyhow, again, check back with the desk about this, anyhow via Matt Groce,

Check out a night of young artists! Madison High School’s 6th annual Fine Arts night, Monday February 14th at 7 p.m. in the MHS Auditorium–Concert Choir, Wind Ensemble, Show Choir, Oral Interp, Student Artwork, Light show by Zach Zingmark and ice cream after the concert! A free-will offering will benefit the fine arts at MHS.

Alright, we hear you, but not so well, so come on Bulldogs, you gotta share better than this, give us a little something, something.

If you have something to share with us, as we do like the sharing, send an email on over to contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org

If you or your organization would like to help us with providing this valued program once again to our area schools, feel free to email us at contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org

South Dakota schools and communities have the opportunity to book professional artists to teach weeklong courses to students of all ages. 

Our council, the Madison Area Arts Council, has been a long time advocate and supporter of arts education, not only within our local schools, but within our greater community as well.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we’ll announce a special community program to highlight this week, and our continued efforts to sustain and strengthen the arts within our community.

H. CON. RES. 275

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Whereas arts education, comprising a rich array of disciplines including dance, music, theatre, media arts, literature, design, and visual arts, is a core academic subject and an essential element of a complete and balanced education for all students;

Whereas according to Albert Einstein, `After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science

and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well.’;

Whereas arts education enables students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, imagination and creativity, discipline, alternative ways to communicate and express ideas, and cross-cultural understanding, which supports academic success across the curriculum as well as personal growth outside the classroom;

Whereas the nonprofit arts sector contributes to the economy and plays an important role in the economic health of communities large and small with direct expenditures of wages and benefits as well as goods and services;

Whereas to succeed in today’s economy, students must masterfully use words, images, sounds, and movement to communicate;

Whereas as the Nation works to strengthen its foothold in the 21st century global economy, the arts equip students with a creative, competitive edge;

Whereas where schools and communities are delivering high-quality learning opportunities in, through, and about the arts for children, extraordinary results occur;

Whereas studies have shown that schools with large populations of students in poverty can be transformed into vibrant hubs of learning through arts education;

Whereas studies have also found that eighth graders from underresourced environments who are highly involved in the arts have better grades, less likelihood of dropping out by grade ten, have more positive attitudes about school, and are more likely to go onto college;

Whereas attracting and retaining the best teachers is vital and can be achieved by ensuring that schools embrace the arts, becoming havens for creativity and innovation;

Whereas arts education has the power to make students want to learn not just within the arts, but other areas of study;

Whereas art is integral to the lives of many United States citizens and can improve the vitality of communities and the Nation; and

Whereas the week beginning on the second Sunday of September would be an appropriate week to designate as Arts in Education Week: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress–

(1) supports the designation of Arts in Education Week;

(2) calls on governors, mayors, and other elected officials from across the United States to issue proclamations to raise awareness of the value and importance of arts in education; and

(3) encourages the President to issue a proclamation encouraging the people of the United States to observe such week with appropriate activities.

Passed the House of Representatives July 26, 2010.

Emmeline Elliott

The Madison Area Arts Council hosted a community reception for cowboy poet T.J. Casey as part of the Chautauqua Series. Casey spent a week as an artist-in-residence at the Madison Elementary School. He spent time teaching students how to write cowboy poetry, including how to use meter and rhyme in a poem. About 25 to 30 people stopped by the meet-and-greet at the Madison Public Library.

Copies of four of T.J.’s music CDs were for sale, including “Pure ‘D’ Cowboy,” which was named Country-Western CD of the Year through the National Traditional Country Music Association and the Rural Roots Music Commission in 2009. His CDs “Giving Back” and “Giving Back 2” are part of his Giving Back Foundation, which supports farmers and ranchers affected by natural disasters. T.J.’s CDs can be purchased from his website at www.tjcasey.net/. He is also a singer/songwriter, composer, humorist and storyteller.

T.J. said he enjoyed working with Madison’s students throughout the week. All of the students wrote a poem, he said, and some of them even wrote two. Several students came to the reception to say hello, get an autograph or ask that question on so many youngsters’ minds: how long did it take T.J. to grow his mustache? He said he’s been growing his mustache for two years.

Refreshments were served at the reception and T.J. drew Angela Behrends’ name as the winner for a free Dairy Queen Blizzard.

Submitted Article

 Traditional artist T.J. Casey will conduct workshops for local students as part of the South Dakota Arts Council’s Artists In Schools & Communities program.  The artist will work with various grade levels during the week-long residency at the Madison Elementary School, October 19-23, 2009.

A cowboy who believes in the preservation of our western heritage and the Cowboy Culture, T.J. Casey brings the west alive with poetry and music. In 2002, his Trickling Water was published by International Water Education for Teachers (WET) Discover a Watershed Series. That year Casey was also included in the elite group of 140 cowboy poets honored through publication in the anthology The Big Roundup. Author of Whispers of Sage and A Cowboy’s Thoughts in Rhyme, Casey has centered his artist in residence work through arts councils in Montana, North and South Dakota, Nevada and Alaska along with Arts Northwest and Wyoming Arts Alliance. His latest musical release, the decidedly traditional CD Pure D Cowboy, rose to number six on the Western Music Charts, with the song Cowboy Don’t Change Your Ways topping out at number one and another song, It’s In My Blood nominated for a Native American Music Award. He has recorded another compact disc, Blue Montana.

Casey uses his art with western music to pass on to a younger generation the strong morals and values that he learned growing up on the land. Students are a vital link in preserving the western heritage, a lesson Casey strives to teach along with the fundamentals of cowboy poetry and a love of nature. His main objective is to utilize the natural talent and imagination of students and give them the confidence to believe in themselves while learning to express themselves through cowboy poetry.

This program is sponsored by The Madison Area Arts Council, with support provided by the South Dakota Arts Council with funds from the State of South Dakota, through the Department of Tourism and State Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org