Arts Active Parent Newsletter informs the community each month with news about advocacy issues and parents who are making a difference, as well as free and inexpensive arts activities for families in the community.  Click here to sign-up to receive the Arts Active Parent Newsletter. 

Please click on a link below to read a past issue of Arts Active Parent Newsletter.

Month	Advocacy Theme(s)	Parents Making a Difference
June 2008  In English – En Español	Educate yourself this summer. A new report from EdSource discusses the achievement gap between African American students and their white and Asian peers in California schools. The Arts Active Parent handbook is available.	A family art & science fair hosted by the Hayward Adult School/Hayward Parent Nursery School. The second annual Oakland Youth Arts Festival. A fundraiser and celebration for the Attitudinal Healing Connection in West Oakland.
May 2008  In English – En Español	The new Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership website, artiseducation.org, offers powerful new ways to contact your legislators, and to help you encourage your friends and relatives in other parts of California to contact theirs.	Parent organizations at two Oakland high schools (Skyline and Oakland Tech) support their performing arts programs by volunteering in the lobby for spring concerts.
April 2008  In English – En Español	Join our letter campaign and tell California legislators what you think about the $4.8 billion budget cut proposed for K-12 education.	Parents in Piedmont and Emeryville sent letters to legislators about proposed massive education cuts while Arts Active Parents and the Parent Leadership Action Network both held legislator panels and forums for parents to make their concerns known directly to legislators representing Alameda County and the Bay Area.
March 2008  In English – En Español	Art IS Education Month (which is also national Arts Education Month) is a very good time to contact elected officials and remind them how crucial arts learning is to the future of our society. The Alliance offers a workshop that will provide some tools to do that.	West Oakland families take part in a 10-week “100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change” program. Oakland’s Bret Harte Middle School says farewell to long-time Parent Center Coordinator.
February 2008  In English – En Español	New national telephone poll shows most Americans think arts learning is vital to a well-rounded education. California’s upcoming budget cuts threaten education, arts funding.	Families create art together at Paden Elementary in Alameda, part of a larger program that puts the arts at the heart of the learning process. Parent leaders for arts gather for networking at Lincoln Square Rec Center in Oakland.
January 2008  In English – En Español	Getting to know your elected officials can be good for public policy and your school. Includes advice about how to get them on campus.	Hayward Mayor Mike Sweeney is one of the judges for an art show at Stonehurst Elementary School in Hayward Unified. OUSD School Board Member Kerry Hamill attends a performance of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at Oakland Technical High School.
November-December 2007  In English – En Español	No Child Left Behind has narrowed curriculum in schools across the country. Does adding more minutes of reading instruction make kids better readers? Apparently not.	Arts Active Parents in Dublin elementary schools have joined to inspire and support change for all the schools. Photos show a meeting at Dougherty Elementary, where the parents have introduced a new Art History curriculum, and Dublin Elementary, where moms are volunteering for the Fall Festival.
October 2007  In English – En Español	Insights from the Arts Education Partnership Conference: To be successful, schools need parent support, but not just raising money and volunteering for events.	100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change creates powerful family interactions around art, and its example can be translated into a school community as Family Art Night.
September 2007  In English – En Español	Arts learning has evolved beyond “paper pumpkins” and other Friday afternoon crafts. Arts active parents can influence their schools to provide richer opportunities for our kids to learn in and through the arts.	Berkeley Arts Magnet holds campus cleanup and New Families picnic in August to get the school year off to a good start. June’s Arts Active Parent Workshop included a lively panel discussion by parents from 7 schools in 3 districts.
June 2007  In English – En Español	Some unprogrammed time to make art can invigorate your children’s imaginations this summer.	The Kids Chalk Art Project in Alameda aims to make the Guinness Book of World Records in May 2008. Arts Active Parents in Emeryville support programs in the school, and also gather together for their own arts learning.
May 2007  In English – En Español	Parent energy is high around campus activities in the spring. How can you keep the momentum going so you don’t have to start all over organizing parents in the fall?	Parents at Sequoia Elementary School in Oakland organize a Multicultural Festival, Potluck, and Silent Auction. Parents at Skyline High School in Oakland wield brooms and hammers at a Theater Work Day. The school’s performance space is heavily used year-round.
April 2007  In English – En Español	Through their behavior, parents model for their kids how to behave in the face of adversity. One of the positive qualities that arts learning brings is the ability to turn disappointing events into positive change.	Peralta Elementary School in Oakland was heavily damaged by an arson fire this month. Parents and community come together to create a beautiful campus in the temporary home of the school. Oakland Technical High School Parents are working with the school to recreate the performing arts program that has been allowed to languish in recent decades. Photos are of a fundraising event which included live student performance and a screening of their new documentary, “Exposition.”
March 2007  In English – En Español	Art IS Education Month is a great time to get involved in expanding arts opportunities at your school. Attend a free workshop and be inspired.	Piedmont Unified has an annual Chalk Art Fundraiser. Students and families “purchase” squares on the playground and create chalk art masterpieces together. Funds raised go to visual arts in the district, but the real value is in the community coming together for a fun day.
February 2007  In English – En Español	Communicating for Motivating Change is a key concept for the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership. There is great power in simply saying what you believe.	A group of parents and community members (representing more than a dozen schools in three districts) came together at the Oakland Museum of California on a Saturday morning to create a statement of shared beliefs. You can sign it too!
January 2007  In English – En Español	The skills needed to succeed in the 21st century are the skills of an artist: creative problem-solving, independent critical thinking, self motivation, persistence and patience, inventive imagination, flexibility, and comfort with new experience.	Kaiser Elementary School in Oakland has structured a curriculum that includes instrumental music for all 4th and 5th graders. Photos show parents celebrating their kids’ hard work at a holiday concert.
December 2006  In English – En Español	California state Arts Block Grants mean new funding to support arts learning for all kids in California.	Arts Active Parent Leadership Council meeting attracted about 40 participants from nearly 30 different schools.
November 2006  In English – En Español	Research is catching up with what we already know: Arts learning is vital for our kids future as happy, healthy, responsible citizens. State and national policy lags behind, but is beginning to shift.	Parents in Alameda Unified raise funds for classroom arts programs with their annual fundraiser, Circus for Arts in the Schools.
October 2006  In English – En Español	There are many ways to be a voice for better education. Pay attention to issues on the ballot in the upcoming election, and attend educational events. Knowledge is power.	Peralta Elementary School in Oakland welcomes California Arts Council Director to campus for an Arts Learning in Action tour. MOCHA teaches Oakland kindergarten teachers how to integrate arts throughout the mandated Open Court Reading Program.
April 2006  In English	Looking back on Art IS Education Month: How can we keep the spirit going year round?	100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change demonstrates and celebrates the power of families, the creative spirit of Oakland and how art can connect families to families, families to neighborhoods and neighborhoods to neighborhoods.
February 2006  In English	Parents can take specific advocacy steps to encourage California lawmakers to approve the millions that the Governor has proposed specifically for arts education.	Tilden School in Oakland, serving special needs and mainstream kids ages 3 through third grade, has arts at the center of every classroom day. At Family Arts Night, parents dance and create alongside their kids.
January 2006  In English	What is an Arts Active Parent? Are you one? What can you do about it?	Arts Active Parents in Emeryville attend a workshop called “Parent Voices: Discovering the Superhero in YOU!”