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National Endowment for the Arts and Jazz at Lincoln Center
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Long Beach, CA - The National Endowment for the Arts today announced the launch of NEA Jazz in the Schools, an educational resource for high school teachers of social studies, U.S. history, and music. The five-unit, web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and as a means to understand American history. The curriculum is produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz, and supported by a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation. The announcement was made at a press conference as part of the International Association for Jazz Education’s annual conference.
NEA Jazz in the Schools will include a teachers’ guide with five curricular units featuring teacher tips, cross-curricular activities, and assessment methods. Each kit also includes student materials, a timeline poster, a CD, and a DVD featuring video and musical excerpts along with all print materials in digital form. In February 2005, a sampler containing the first curricular unit, which addresses the advent of jazz and the role of African Americans in its development, will be available online. September 2005 is the launch date for the complete kit.
NEA Jazz in the Schools is made possible through a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications. The foundation supports programs and organizations focusing on literacy and education, technology and work force development, and domestic violence solutions.
Please Note: The first curricular unit of NEA Jazz in the Schools will be available in February 2005 with the complete kit available in September 2005. We invite you to return to this web site during those months for information on how to order the materials. |
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said, "The NEA is committed to creating model programs of artistic excellence and broad national reach, especially in the area of arts education. Following on the success of our Shakespeare in American Communities educational toolkit, we look forward to providing high quality, free materials to teachers to help them fill their classrooms with jazz music and history. We are pleased to have Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Verizon Foundation as our partners in this important endeavor."
"Since our inception, Jazz at Lincoln Center has been committed to creating jazz listeners of all ages through education, concerts, and broadcasts," said Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis. "It's our privilege to be working with the National Endowment for the Arts to further this mission, and we're looking forward to reaching a whole new audience - our American history and social studies teachers and their students. Jazz music gives us a different, more homegrown mythology, with heroes like Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Jazz provides a voice for some of our nation's most significant historic events."
"This Verizon Foundation grant reflects our commitment to help organizations implement innovative youth programs that use teaching tools available in this broadband age," said Patrick R. Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation. "We are pleased to play a role in this exciting initiative that will reach thousands of students through the use of web-based technologies."
The National Endowment for the Arts has taken a leadership role in supporting jazz artists and organizations since 1970, providing millions of dollars in grants and awards. NEA jazz programming has grown significantly in recent years to include an expansion of the NEA Jazz Masters programs as well as broadcast initiatives, musical recordings, publications, and research. The NEA Jazz in the Schools program continues the NEA’s enhancement of its jazz programs, investing in jazz education to help reconnect young people to a defining American art form.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts--both new and established--bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children’s concerts, lectures, adult education courses, film programs, and student and educator workshops.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, President Derek E. Gordon, Chairman of the Board Lisa Schiff and Jazz at Lincoln Center Board and staff, Jazz at Lincoln Center will produce hundreds of events during its 2004-05 season. This is the inaugural season in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new home – Frederick P. Rose Hall – the first-ever performance, education, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz.
The Verizon Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications. In 2003, the foundation awarded more than 21,000 grants totaling about $70 million to charitable and nonprofit agencies that focus on improving basic and computer literacy, enriching communities through technology, and creating a skilled work force. The foundation uses its resources in the United States and abroad to develop partnerships in technology and connect them with organizations serving the needs of diverse communities, people with disabilities, victims of domestic violence, and the economically and socially disadvantaged. For more information on the foundation, visit www.verizon.com/foundation.
National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal
agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506