VOL. 12  NO. 2

	In This Issue
	Sena Jeter Naslund Appointed Poet Laureate
	On the National Front
	Arts Council News
	Governor's Awards in the Arts New Board Members Commerce Arts and Humanities Director New Administrative Branch Manager Workshops and Seminars Putting the Pieces Together Pre-Jury Workshops Access from the Word - Go! Workshops Grant Awards
	Craft Marketing News
	Focus on Folklife
	Kentucky Arts News
	Resources and Reports
	Hot Dates

The Blue Moon is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet. Please send comments, questions and information to the Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts Council, Old Capitol Annex, 300 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1980 or call 502-564-3757, toll free 1-888-833-2787.
E-mail: kyarts@ky.gov

Bush Budget Proposes Level Funding for National Endowment for the Arts in 2006

Despite an overall reduction in federal discretionary spending proposed in the administration's fiscal year 2006 budget, the funding proposal President Bush sent to Capitol Hill on February 7 asks Congress to hold even on spending for the National Endowment for the Arts at the 2005 level of $121.264 million.

The administration's budget proposal explains that overall growth in discretionary spending is being held below the projected rate of inflation to 2.1 percent--"even after significant increases in defense and homeland security"--meaning a reduction in real terms for total discretionary spending in the budget proposal. In fact, in non-security discretionary accounts, the president has proposed to cut spending by nearly 1 percent.

Funding for the arts endowment includes support for the American Masterpieces initiative, which, according to the budget document, "continues the National Endowment for the Arts' commitment to support programs of indisputable artistic merit that reach communities large and small in all 50 states, as well as to provide substantial and engaging educational programs for the nation's schools."

The budget submission also includes funds for the Challenge America program at $14.922 million, down from $21.427 million appropriated by Congress for 2005.

The budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities, like that for the National Endowment for the Arts, is held level in the president's proposal, with $138.054 million. The only significant increase in funding for the cultural agencies goes to the Office of Museum Services, with a requested funding level of $38.915 million for 2006, up from $34.8 million in 2005.

The president's budget again zeroes out funds for the Department of Education's Arts in Education program. In FY 2005, Congress approved an appropriation of $35.92 million for the program, just slightly more than the $35 million available in 2004.

For more information about the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies report go to: http://www.nasaa-arts.org/nasaanews/2005_bush_budget.shtml.

From the Travel Arts Partnership Newsletter

(Published by the Art Knowledge Corporation in partnership with the Arts & Business Council Inc. Copyright 2004 by the Art Knowledge Corporation.)

More Money From Fewer Visitors
There was good and bad cultural tourism news for New York City in 2003. Although the cities cultural attractions drew fewer visitors than the previous year - 15.8 million cultural visitors in 2003 compared to 16.9 million in '02 - cultural visitors spent $8.2 billion in '03 compared to $7.6 billion in '02. According to the survey by NYC &Company, 12.5 million cultural visitors - tourists who visited the Big Apple specifically for its cultural attractions - were domestic and 3.2 million were international. An earlier survey showed total domestic visitors in '03 totaled 33 million.

2005 U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Summit
The cultural tourism community is coming together ten years after the historic 1995 White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. At that first national meeting of every segment of the tourism industry, cultural tourism leaders saw the issuance of a significant white paper, entitled "Cultural Tourism in the United States," which outlined strategies in each of nine issue areas. The 2005 summit meeting, which will be limited to 350 delegates representing key constituencies, will Be held October 6-8 in Washington, DC. The summit will develop new cultural tourism marketing concepts and will revise and update the 1995 White Paper. An advisory committee will develop the program agenda and offer speaker recommendations. The Shop America Alliance will serve as event planners, with sponsorship from the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Travel & Tourism and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

A Really Big Attraction
An exhibition of King Tut treasures 27 years ago helped trigger the blockbuster museum concept, drawing record crowds to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And now, the boy king is returning to the United States this June. But this version, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, " will bypass the Met because the museum doesn't charge extra fees for special exhibitions. The museums where the exhibition will be shown, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, and The Field Museum in Chicago, will be charging fees and reports indicate they will be much higher than usual because the Egyptian government hopes to raise as much as $50 million from the tour to help finance museum activities in Egypt. The exhibition will feature some 50 objects from King Tutankhamen's tomb and some 80 additional treasures.

A National Treasure
Hollywood does an excellent job in promoting its movies, but there's even greater public exposure for films when two Convention and Visitors Bureaus add their marketing muscle to the package. Since the recently released movie, "National Treasure," was filmed on location in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, and features key historic sites in each city, both the Washington, D.C. Convention & Tourism Corporation and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation recognized a unique opportunity to promote visits to their cities. The result was a joint $200,000 marketing campaign by both Convention and Visitors Bureaus that included publication of a special brochure featuring sites filmed in the movie and opening night preview receptions in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. Film fans can book movie-related travel packages through March 31.

Click here for more...

KET Keeps Its Tool Box Handy

"Toolkits" Are a Valuable Resource for Teaching the Arts

By Todd Piccirilli
(First printed in Arts Across Kentucky, Spring, 2005)

A Chinese proverb on teaching says, "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." No one, perhaps, practices this principle of involvement as much as those who teach the arts--assuming, of course, that they have the necessary tools at their disposal.

A few years ago, following requests from Kentucky's K-12 arts teachers for more and better resources, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Gene Wilhoit sent out a challenge "to develop dynamic and powerful ways to bring life, depth, and meaning to the instruction of arts and humanities across Kentucky."

In response to that challenge, Kentucky Educational Television (KET) worked with the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Center, Stage One and Speed Art Museum to create prototype "toolkits" in dance, visual arts, drama, and music.

The purpose of these toolkits was to put myriad lively multimedia resources, including lesson plans, video segments, interactive CD-ROMs, Web sites, and more, in the hands of the state's K-12 teachers to help their students meet Kentucky academic standards in the arts. The response from teachers has been nothing less than overwhelming.

"The toolkit is great," said Angela Duncan, an art teacher at Prichard Elementary School in Carter County, who pilot-tested the Dance Toolkit prototype in her classes. "It helped me understand dance better and present it better to my students."

Since these prototypes were introduced and tested in 2001 and 2002, KET has introduced fully developed arts toolkits for dance and drama, both of which have proven wildly popular. The Visual Arts Toolkit is in the works for a June 2005 release, and the Music Toolkit will follow.

In addition to providing a much-needed resource for teachers, however, the arts toolkits are playing a major role in the state's arts scene by featuring hundreds of Kentucky artists, artworks, and art venues.

"The Kentucky focus of the toolkits is one of its most exciting aspects," said Nancy Carpenter, director of arts and cultural programs for KET. "The toolkit helps teachers access excellent resources from Kentucky artists and arts organizations and exposes Kentucky students to the wealth of creativity and artistic professionalism in their home communities and home state."

Just prior to the publication of this issue of the Blue Moon, KET received thrilling news! The annual National Educational Telecommunications Association awards provide recognition of excellence in public broadcasting, and this year honored KET with six awards. The awards included one in the Instructional Media-Instructional Media Product category for its "Drama Arts Toolkit." The toolkit also received the association's highest honor, the "Best of the Best" award. Partners for this project include the Kentucky Arts Council, the Department of Education, the Kentucky Center, Stage One and other arts and education associations across the state.

Visit KET's Web site for more information. www.ket.org/artstoolkit.

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