Article: Reaching Out to School Board Members
Use these tips to connect with school board members in meaningful ways to ensure they make arts education a priority
Education, Jobs in the Arts

Article: What’s in Your Arts Education Advocacy Tool Kit?
This article provides an overview for users of the KCAAEN Arts Education Advocacy Tool Kit
Education, Jobs in the Arts

Audio Series: Artfully Speaking
An audio series pulled from lectures, workshops and other events for educators presented by and through the Education Department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Education, Jobs in the Arts

Gear: The Ellipsoidal Reflector Spotlight
One of the jobs of a lighting designer is to be an illusionist; to convince the audience they’re somewhere special
Theater, Jobs in the Arts, Backstage

Article: Busted: The Myth of the Starving Artist
Your child wants to pursue the arts? Don't worry. A new study shows the success and happiness of arts alumni
Jobs in the Arts, Young Artists, Education

Article: Help! My Child Wants to Be an Artist
Why you shouldn't worry when your child wants to be a professional artist
Education, Family, Jobs in the Arts, Young Artists

Article: The Key to a Strong Workforce
How to help students learn skills essential to the 21st century workforce in and through arts learning
Education, Jobs in the Arts, Young Artists, Family

Lesson: Visual Arts Careers
Expose students to three careers in the visual arts. Students will move through three different "art stations", where they can explore Fashion Design, Architecture, and Graphic Design.
Jobs in the Arts, Visual Arts, Architecture, Fashion

Arts Days: December 18, 1946: Leader Behind the Lens
Steven Spielberg may well be the best-known film director working today. His movies read like a list of the greatest American films: Jaws, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan among them. Not only that, but he’s got his finger on the pulse of what makes a movie sell tickets. Lots of tickets: all told, Spielberg movies have grossed more than $8 billion dollars.

Crowd pleasers like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park have also elevated Spielberg in the director’s stratosphere, as well as less mainstream but more demanding works like Munich. In recent years, Spielberg has also often taken on the role of movie producer, creating distribution deals and hiring directors. Actor Harrison Ford sums up this 2006 Kennedy Center Honoree’s vision by stating, "Steven's passion and enthusiasm for ideas and for human understanding is very much what fuels his work."
Movies & Movie Stars, Innovators & Pioneers, Jobs in the Arts

Arts Days: May 08, 1914: Lights, Camera, Action!
Back in 1912, an entrepreneur named Adolph Zukor thought he could bring more movies to the middle class by contracting a group of actors to make a fixed number of movies every year. So he started the Famous Players Film Company. Famous Players partnered with a startup called Paramount Pictures Corporation to distribute its films to theaters; a few years later, it officially merged with Paramount.

Under Zukor’s leadership, Paramount owned all the components of the movie-making apparatus. It employed superstars of the day, like Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino, and acquired film production studios. Paramount even bought hundreds of movie houses around the country where the finished movies would be shown.

The company has been through many mergers since those early days, and has once or twice come close to closing up shop, such as during the Great Depression. Today, however, the company is still growing strong.
America, Movies & Movie Stars, Jobs in the Arts, Art Venues

Video: Lee Blessing: The Power of Theater
In this Power of Theater podcast, part of the Kennedy Center Education Department's American College Theater Festival's summer intensive for playwrights, playwright Lee Blessing discusses the difference between writing for the theater and writing for television and film.
Theater, Backstage, Playwrights & Plays, Jobs in the Arts

Website: Sculpture With Richard Serra
Richard Serra's most recognizable works are monumental steel sculptures. Learn more in this microsite tour.
Visual Arts, Jobs in the Arts, Geometry, Science

Interactive: Fireworks: Art of the Explosion
The Art of the Explosion follows artist Cai Guo-Qiang and pyrotechnician Phil Grucci through the preparation for the performance art piece “Tornado: Explosion Project for the Kennedy Center.”
Asia, China, Visual Arts, Jobs in the Arts

Audio Series: Page to Stage
Taking a musical from words on a page to songs on a stage: in this series, follow along as talented playwrights, designers and directors at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts transform classic works of literature into original theatrical productions.
Literature, Theater, Jobs in the Arts, Music

Audio Series: Theater Conversations
The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, in association with The Dramatists Guild, presents conversations from their two-week playwriting intensive at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Theater, Jobs in the Arts, Backstage

Series: So You Want to be a Singer?
What does it really take to become a professional singer?
Young Artists, Music, Jobs in the Arts, Education, Musicals

Theme: Family & Community
Explore the lives of immigrants and pioneers in early America. Then, drive along US-90 along the Gulf Coast or take a stroll down U Street in Washington, D.C.-- either place you'll be guided by the voices of the musicians who defined the culture of their community.
Backstage, Education, Family, Young Artists, Jobs in the Arts

Arts Days: December 13, 1950: Rebel Without a Coke
An undiscovered actor named James Dean wound up playing a fun-loving teenager in an early Pepsi commercial. He’s the fellow who whacks the player piano, prompting it to magically play a dance tune. As luck would have it, the handsome Dean caught the eye of folks casting a show called Hill Number One, landing him the part of John the Baptist.

More Hollywood roles followed, then a couple of parts on Broadway. All of these early assignments set the stage for feature roles in East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, films with which Dean is most closely identified. Seen in his short life as both a heartthrob and an actor who showed great promise, James Dean also came to embody the restless, but idealistic American teenager.
Movies & Movie Stars, Television, Popular Culture, Young Artists, Jobs in the Arts

Video: Kathleen Turner: The Power of Theater
In this Power of Theater podcast, actress Kathleen Turner discusses the importance of theater as a means of creating a shared experience among strangers and her need to touch the lives of her audience.
Theater, Backstage, Broadway, Jobs in the Arts, Playwrights & Plays

Video Series: The Power of Theater
What does theater "do"? Does it matter in a contemporary, screen-driven society? Drawn from the Kennedy Center Education Department archives, this series examines the way theater impacts modern society and culture.
Theater, Jobs in the Arts, Backstage, Controversial, Playwrights & Plays

Video Series: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia: Backstage Tour
Go backstage with the artists of Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia to learn about the skill and creativity they use to bring charcters to life, and what it's like to be a professional puppeteer on the road.
Puppets, Literature, Jobs in the Arts, Backstage, Theater

Video Series: Garry Golden, Professional Futurist
Garry Golden is a professionally trained Futurist who writes, speaks and consults on issues shaping business and society in the 21st century
Education, Controversial, Innovators & Pioneers, Young Artists, Jobs in the Arts

Video: Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead
Under the direction of Jason Moran, Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor for Jazz, the Jazz Ahead program identifies outstanding, emerging jazz artist-composers in their mid-teens to age twenty-five, and brings them together under the tutelage of experienced artist-instructors who coach and counsel them, helping to polish their performance, composing, and arranging skills.
Education, Jazz, Music, Young Artists, Jobs in the Arts

Video Series: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical
A Kennedy Center production about family, best friends, baby steps, and memories that last a lifetime.
Theater, Puppets, Literature, Animals, Jobs in the Arts

Video Series: Galumpha, The Human Jungle Gym
Galumpha, "The Human Jungle Gym," brings to life a world of imagination, beauty, muscle, and merriment
Dance, Physical Activity, Theater, Music, Jobs in the Arts