A huge congratulations to Aditi Bhatia, SJHA senior, a winner of the Congressional Art Competition! The piece was selected by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. Aditi has been invited to travel to Washington DC where she will participate in a special ceremony with other winners in the competition and Members of Congress. Her art piece will be hung in the capitol building.

Do you need something new to add to your after school program? Check out Freshi. This unique program offers students the opportunity to learn Digital Filmmaking, Stop Motion Animation, Game Design, Music Mixing, Screenwriting, Stunt Fighting, Voice Over, or Digital Photography.

This showcase featured students’ work from the Advanced Multimedia class.  To see the movie trailers visit Gunderson’s school website.

Acting classes will be offered this summer for children and teens ages 5-16. If interested in learning more visit sjrep.com.

Get creative this summer and join Starting Arts in a large variety of Visual and Performing Arts Camps. Performing Arts will include the musical Oliver, directed by Mike Boston, and Camp Wild West for some of the younger performers. Interested in creating movies? Join their Film Camp! Or if you are interested in learning an instrument join their Guitar Camp. For those K-2 kids that are interested in visual arts, join Art Fun Drawing, Painting, and Cartooning! For more information see the attached form STARTING_ARTS_SUMMER_CAMPS.doc or visit startingarts.com.

Need some inspiration? Take 17 minutes to watch this award winning video on a music program in Venezuela. Ted.com En Español, English subtitles.

By Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland

Why do we teach the arts in schools?
In an educational system strapped for money and increasingly ruled by standardized tests, arts courses can seem almost a needless extravagance, and the arts are being cut back at schools across the country. For more on this article visit www.boston.com

The Silicon Valley Art Museum’s mission is to provide a virtual online art gallery and a free source of educational art programs for emerging artists. Check out this website for beautiful and thought provoking images of current artists and their works and learn how you can help support your child’s creativity at home. http://www.svam.org/education_3.html

Will our culture suffer if we don’t do more to teach the arts? On Monday December 1, 2008 there will be a week-long discussion on the state of arts education. A group of arts and education leaders will debate issues in arts education and discuss where we need to go from here. Look in the right column of this page for the question.
http://www.artsjournal.com/artsed/

Angels on Stage is a theater troupe of children with different abilities.  They are currently looking for middle school, high school, or college age students that would be interested in being Buddy Coaches. If you are interested in seeing the program, you are welcome to stop by the Historic Hoover Theater on Saturday mornings and see the rehearsals.  For more information about Angels on Stage visit http://www.angelsonstage.org/