February 2021
Advancing the heART of Education
A monthly newsletter about Fine Arts in Iowa
ATTENTION
overwhelmed and exhausted educators!
If this is you, keep reading because help is on the way.
Tuesday, February 9, 2021 at 6 p.m. CST.

We invite you to attend this FREE session where we will share how the Fierce and Fearless STEAM Teacher Training (FFST) program will support you in moving out of overwhelm and exhaustion and back into your love of teaching again for the 2021-2022 year.

FFST will introduce you an innovative framework that will reduce your stress and bring creativity back into your classroom while showing you how to design engaging, standards-aligned STEAM (bringing science, technology, engineering, and math to your arts education) in any environment or situation.

More than just PD, this program will give you a year’s worth of interactive STEAM lessons and access to a team of mentors and professionals that will support you all year long.

By the way, at the info session, you’ll learn how you can get this program for FREE, and also receive supplies and a stipend worth $1500.

Ready to be fierce and fearless for 2021?

Learn more about the program HERE.

Sign-up HERE for the February 9 info session.
The Iowa Arts Education Data Project showcases Iowa’s arts education data through a user-friendly, interactive dashboard. The dashboard is intended to promote meaningful dialogue around arts education across the state and to encourage equitable and data-driven decisions by schools, districts, educators, community members, and policymakers that support a well- rounded education for
all Iowa students.

The Iowa Arts Education Data Project displays high school course and enrollment data by fine arts discipline – dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and media arts/other – as well as by grade level, gender, and building-majority race/ethnicity and FRL status. Stakeholders can use the data to determine areas of strength as well as areas of need. By providing a variety of demographic lenses as well as various grain sizes by which to view the data – state, AEA region, district, and school – the dashboard provides compelling snapshots of fine arts education access and opportunities across Iowa.


To learn more about the Iowa Arts Education Data Project and view the dashboard and accompanying resources, visit https://educateiowa.gov/artseddata or contact Angela Matsuoka at angela.matsuoka@iowa.gov.
2021 Virtual Advocacy Day - Arts Education is Essential
On January 20, 2021, IAAE hosted a Virtual Arts Advocacy Day for members of the 2021 Iowa legislature. The purpose of our event was to advocate for arts education in Iowa schools, support STEAM education, and ask for continued legislative support of the IAAE mentoring program.

Over 100 volunteers emailed all 150 Iowa legislators. These volunteers used an email template that could be personalized and included links to advocacy support material and an arts education advocacy video. This video featured comments by Emily Tinsman (current Miss Iowa and first-year music teacher), Iowa school students and participants in the IAAE mentoring program.
IAAE also provided Arts Advocacy folders that were placed in the mailbox of all 150 legislators. IAAE also recorded testimony for the Senate Education Committee. This video can also be used for testimony to the House Education Committee and Appropriations Committees later in the legislative session. The event was very successful and would like to thank who participated. 
The Alliance is supported by the contributions of members like you.
Please join us in our mission to support arts education.
Need more information about the Alliance and our programs?

Contact our Executive Director: Leon Kuehner 641-425-0959 leongkuehner@gmail.com

Management support provided by Ferrone Olson LLC, www.ferroneolson.com