You can search by school district, school building, arts discipline, zip code and county.  At the school building level, you can see change from year to year.  The system is set up to accept the 11-12 school year data as soon as it is ready and we anticipate continuing to feed into it as long as the reporting requirements for schools don't change significantly.

This resource only tells one small part of the story, but we hope it will be the start of broader state-wide conversations about how to gather additional data about what services are provided, where gaps exist and how to work together to fill them.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland's capital city.

Every year thousands of performers take to a multitude of stages all over Edinburgh to present shows for every taste. From big names in the world of entertainment to unknown artists looking to build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, music, exhibitions and events.

Our story dates back to 1947, when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to perform at the (then newly formed) Edinburgh International Festival, an initiative created to celebrate and enrich European cultural life in the wake of the Second World War. Not being part of the official programme of the International festival didn't stop these performers - they just went ahead and staged their shows anyway. Year on year more and more performers followed their example and in 1959 the Festival Fringe Society was created in response to the success of this growing trend.

The Society formalised the existence of this collective of performances, provided information to artists, published the Fringe programme and created a central box office. Its constitution was written in line with the ethos that brought these theatre companies to Edinburgh back in 1947: that the Society was to take no part in vetting the festival's programme. To this day that policy remains at the core of our festival and we're proud to include in our programme anyone with a story to tell and a venue willing to host them.

New World School of the Arts has selected a new dean to lead its award-winning music program. Milton Rubén Laufer, DMA, an internationally acclaimed teacher, performer and scholar, will begin in his new post this August when classes resume at the renowned arts conservatory. Dr. Laufer brings a wealth of artistic, academic and administrative experience to NWSA, having held similar positions across the nation. As the Dean of Music, Dr. Laufer will serve as the chief academic and artistic officer for the Music Division of New World School of the Arts, overseeing administration of both the high school and college programs in Music. A pianist since the age of three, Milton Rubén Laufer made his musical debut at the age of twelve in Chicago, where he was born of Cuban and Puerto Rican parents.  

Dr. Laufer's training includes studies at the Music Institute of Chicago, the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnessin Institute, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan, and Rice University. Top prizes in the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition, Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Union League Civic Arts Foundation competition, the Nena Wideman Piano Competition, and the National Federation of Music Clubs' Stillman-Kelley Award highlight some of Dr. Laufer's competitive accomplishments.  

A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Laufer has conducted extensive research in Spanish piano music.  He is recognized internationally as a leading performer and scholar in this area, and his recent editions of Isaac Albéniz's 3 Improvisations for Piano and La Vega are published by G. Henle Verlag of Munich and available worldwide.  

Set in the awe-inspiring majesty of the Colorado Rockies, the Aspen Music Festival and School has carried on the vision of creativity and education that started with the 1949 Goethe Bicentennial Convocation.

Elizabeth and Walter Paepcke of Chicago launched the two-week celebration in Aspen that brought figures such as Albert Schweitzer, Arthur Rubinstein, and many other noted individuals for lectures, symposia, and concerts. Uniting the intersecting worlds of ideas, art, and natural beauty, this event started something special: fostering the growth of the human spirit through the melding of art and nature.

Today, over sixty years later, the AMFS continues pursuing that ideal with an eight-week summer festival of more than 320 events - including orchestral concerts, chamber music, opera, contemporary music, master classes, lectures, and kids' programs. Each day brings concerts to the 2,050-seat Benedict Music Tent (an acoustically superior and award-winning permanent structure that opened in 2000), the beautifully restored Victorian Wheeler Opera House, the exceptional Harris Concert Hall, as well as in churches and other halls around Aspen. Many events are free, and other tickets range up to $80. Lawn seating is always free.

The Festival and School continues to develop both in its scope and reputation. In the near future major construction will begin on the redevelopment of the Castle Creek Campus, as designed by renowned architect Harry Teague.

Aspen continues to bring the brightest young musicians together with the classical music world's foremost instructors. More than 600 students and 130 artist-faculty come each year, as the Festival and School gathers musical influences from far and wide to create a unique hub of innovation and exploration through rich instrumental and vocal programs and so much more. Join us.

by nate green

june 10 2012

NAMPA - Jackie Collins, principal of the Idaho Arts Charter School and former economics teacher, sees charter schools as a free-market solution to the challenges faced by public education.

"Running a school is liking running a business, and a good business keeps its customers happy," Collins tells her teachers at the beginning of every school year. "If kids aren't coming through the door, if we're not satisfying them, you're not going to have a job."

Like many of the state's public charter schools, Idaho Arts, which just finished its seventh year, is thriving. Students score high on standardized tests, parents are happy and the school's waiting list tops 500 hopeful applicants. This summer, workers will finish construction on a new building that will include classrooms, as well as new orchestra, dance and recording studios, allowing the school to expand to 780 students.

To explain the school's success, Collins returns to her metaphor of education as business.

When a group of parents opened the school in 2005, they saw an opportunity. Parents and students wanted a school focused on drama, music, dance and the visual arts, but the Nampa School District didn't offer one.

The charter school attracted customers by giving them a product and service they wanted.

"In a free market system, you can't force what restaurant people can eat at or what gas station to go to. Why should it be any different in education?" Collins said. "It's about choice. It does take money away from the school district, but if the district were doing what we're doing, we wouldn't need to be here."

Read full article.