Arts

In celebration of Black History Month, the Department of Education’s Student Art Exhibit Program and Blacks in Government collaborated to provide employees and guests an opportunity to enjoy a jazz informance—an informational performance created by students of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and rising star jazz saxophonist Tim Green. Dr. JB Dyas, vice president for education and curriculum development at the Institute, affirming that jazz is America’s indigenous music, said it was “invented only 100 years ago [and] … evolved from the African American experience here in the U.S.”

Student artists cut the official ribbon to open the PTA Reflections exhibit to the public and ED employees in the headquarters lobby. Official Department of Education photo by Paul Wood.The U.S. Department of Education’s Student Art Exhibit Program partnered with the National PTA Reflections program for the sixth time to host the opening of a new exhibit at the Department’s headquarters titled "Diversity Means." For the past 44 years, the Reflections program has allowed millions of students across the country and at American schools overseas to unite around a common theme and compete in one of six mediums: dance choreography, film production, music composition, literature, photography, and visual arts.

Guests attending the exhibit opening included student Reflections winners, families of the students, local and national PTA members and staff, teachers, Department of Education staff, and arts enthusiasts. Student winners traveled from Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and North Carolina, as well as nearby Maryland and Virginia to be honored in Washington D.C. For many of the students in attendance, this was their first time visiting the nation’s capital and an experience of a lifetime.

Ten grantees of the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) are also 2012 Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) grant-award winners. On Tuesday, December 11, 2012, the Department of Education announced 16 RTT-D applicants that competed successfully for the first-time district-level grants that will support reform efforts in 55 school districts across 11 states.

On Friday, Oct. 12, the U.S. Department of Education was fortunate to host the ninth annual Student Art Exhibit opening of works by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers (AYAW) 2012 Scholastic Award winners. Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary for Innovation and Improvement, welcomed hundreds of guests—students, teachers, parents, policymakers, leaders from both public and private arts and education organizations, and other stakeholders—to celebrate in person the more than 50 young artists and writers whose works are in the exhibit.

(September 19, 2012) The U.S. Department of Education today awarded a grant of $6,640,000 to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to implement and expand its efforts in arts education and arts integration at the national level. Beginning with the first year of a three-year program, this grant will allow all children access to the life-changing benefits of an arts education.

“The study of the arts can significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds that students will go on to graduate from college,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Arts education is essential to stimulating the creativity and innovation that will prove critical to young Americans competing in a knowledge-based, global economy.”