R E M I N D E R : The Save the Arts Benefit Show and Art Auction @ The Cocoanut Grove, Sat. June 11

Save the Arts is an organization created by parents, teachers, students, and the community. Their express purpose is to ensure that all Los Angeles Unified School District children from grades K-12 receive a well-rounded education which, naturally, includes the ARTS: Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual and Media Arts.

Due to the current economic situation and budget cuts to education, our children are in danger of losing wonderful Arts Education Programs (go to http://lausdartsed.blogspot.com/ for more details). All of the arts come together to help educate the whole child and allow children the opportunity to be creative and imaginative in myriad ways. The arts teach empathy, kindness, tolerance, patience, teamwork, and compassion. The arts are the great equalizer. You don't have to be rich or an academic scholar to be creative and gifted in the performing and visual arts, you just are. The arts keep students in school. For many children, the arts are a lifeline.

If Arts Education Programs are cut as drastically as planned, our children will lose this important component of their educational experience. Some students' parents will have the resources to expose them to the arts through other means, while most other children will be left without this important part of their educational development. Come, be a part of our "Save The Arts" Benefit by attending the event on June 11, 2011, at the Historic Cocoanut Grove Theatre. If you cannot attend, please consider making a donation and help Save the Arts for a child. http://savetheartsla.eventbrite.com/

Information :: Fantastic News!

On Friday, May 27th, LAUSD announced that the Elementary Arts Program is fully restored to 2010-2011 funding levels for 2011-2012, avoiding a potential 60% cut! Thank you who have worked so diligently to make sure the Arts have been a focus for both the District and UTLA.

The restoration still leaves Arts Education Branch funding levels 30% lower than 2008-2009. Many LAUSD elementary students will still be denied adequate access to the levels of arts instruction at this level. We still need to fight for the restoration of arts positions K-12, but we've dodged most of a potentially devastating budgeting decision.

Schools are now responsible for restoring Arts and other needs through their own discretionary funds: the tentative UTLA/LAUSD agreement relies on school sites to restore many positions. Please engage with your school site council and administration to make sure your local school is doing what it can to give the children what they deserve! Arts for LA and arts teacher Ronda Brown have collaborated on this

informational flyer on using Title 1 funds to fund arts positions and materials, and here is the budgeting document and instructional flyer for purchasing Arts Program positions at elementary schools.
Stay in the loop
Join in the fight to preserve arts education
-Contact Form-
Video Activism
Submit a 60 to 90 second video expressing how the Arts have impacted your life. Upload the video on Youtube, then submit your video here. We are sharing these videos through our Facebook page and on our Friends of the Arts Youtube channel .
Download the Video Activism Campaign Flyer. Feel free to distribute
Fundraising
Save the Arts http://www.savethearts.net/ , a newly founded-organization dedicated to preserving arts education in LAUSD, will be holding a fundraiser event and art auction for the Arts Education Branch at the Cocoanut Grove Auditorium Theatre on June 11, 2011. The Cocoanut Grove Theatre serves the RFK Community Schools on the former Ambassador Hotel site in Koreatown.

- Suzanne Nichols, Executive Director, Save The Arts

http://www.savethearts.net

helpsavethearts@gmail.com