Listen to what our donors say about why they
support Art in Action.
Art in Action is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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 As a parent of two 6th graders, I have the joy of seeing what they are learning in school and the challenge of trying to keep up. I was fascinated to recently learn in helping them study for a Social Studies quiz, that they are studying Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo Habilis, and other early hominids (stuff I didn't learn about in any detail until my freshman year of college). The quiz was on the distinguishing traits of each group. For example, Homo Habilis was known for its very early use of stone tools. Homo Erectus built fires for warmth and cooking and lived in groups. And somewhere around 50,000 years ago Homo Sapiens began early forms of visual communication. And how do we know this? Why ART, of course. The use of art to communicate ideas was one of the key traits that set apart modern humans from their ancestors.
To me, this means that once the most basic needs were met --food, water, shelter -- our earliest instinct was to create! For tens of thousands of years we've been telling stories through art. It is absolutely essential to the human condition, and innate in all of us.
We share this important history with second graders in our Art in Action lesson on the Lascaux cave paintings. The students learn about some of the most famous cave drawings (from nearly 20,000 years ago) and interpret the meanings of the animals depicted there. They learn about the primitive tools and pigments that were used to create this amazing art and discuss the use of outline, shading, and how the use of lines can show movement. Then the students make their own cave "paintings" using contour line drawing and charcoal shading -- continuing a tradition that began many millennia earlier.
On a different note, as someone who pursued an art history degree, with lots of friends and colleagues that pursued fine arts in college and as a profession, I was often asked the question, "Can you get a job with an art degree?" There's a general assumption that artists end up "starving" due to their choice of profession. But a recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights research that shows that prospects for fine arts graduates are actually quite high -- with income comparable to other liberal arts majors and low unemployment for those who go on to get advanced degrees. But the best findings came from the University of Zurich that found that "Artists generally are happier than the rest of the population." If you are a parent or teacher of an Art in Action student, I bet you already knew that!
And as we near the end of the calendar year, please consider joining us on our mission to bring the happiness and future success that a study of visual arts can provide to students everywhere through a donation to our Annual Fund today.
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Meet Our Event Sponsors
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Carolyn and Richard Brennan
The David B. & Edward C. Goodstein Foundation
Judy and Wally Sleeth
If you or your company want to be an event sponsor, click here.
If you would like to buy a ticket to the event, click here.
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New Partners Help Us Bring Art to More Students
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We are pleased to announce that Art in Action has recently been awarded significant funding from Adobe Foundation, Safeway Foundation, and the Leo M. Shortino Foundation to support an initiative to expand into more Bay Area schools, especially in Santa Clara County, and potentially impact nearly 50 schools, 5,500 students, and over 200 teachers and parent volunteers. Funding from the Palo Alto Community Fund and the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund earlier this year are also funders for this initiative. We welcome this opportunity to work with these generous funders to help us expand our reach.
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Look Who's Lending a Packing Hand!
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Corporate volunteers often help us pack art materials that are used in classrooms across the country, and have lots of fun in the process. In the next few months we will welcome teams from Adobe, Shutterfly, Symantec, and Robert Half. Previous volunteers include A9, a subsidiary of Amazon, Genentech, EA, Yahoo!, Palo Alto Housing Corporation, National Charity League, One Brick, and San Jose State University. Volunteers are essential in helping us pack our ARTboxes. If you or your company would like to volunteer, please contact volunteer@artinaction.org.
Adobe volunteers make great art! |
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Friends of Art in Action Tours
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New Schools - Growing More!
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We welcome the following schools who have joined us this month:
Millikin Elementary School, Santa Clara, CA
Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY
St. Joseph Academy, San Marcos, CA
St. Paul School, San Pablo, CA
Do you know a school that needs a visual art program? Contact Jonelle or call 1.888.566.1982. See our full list of schools here.
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Facebook Contest - Who will be # 3,000?
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Love our new T-shirt design? The 3,000th person to LIKE us on Facebook will win this cool looking shirt. Please share this with your friends and let the games begin!
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Storytelling Through Art Contest for 5th Grade Students
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Internationally acclaimed artist, storyteller and author Faith Ringgold's appearance as the keynote speaker at our annual event Soirée at Sunset on March 7, 2014, is the inspiration for this fun contest. It is open to 5th grade students in any public, private, home school, or after school program. A generous donor has offered to award a $50 prize for the top 10 entries, which will be selected by an impartial jury. Deadline: Jan. 10, 2014. Download contest rules.
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Title I Schools
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We are offering a 5% discount on our visual arts curriculum and materials for NEW Title I schools that order by Dec. 31, 2013. Close the achievement gap and engage students of all learning styles using the Art in Action program. Call 888.566.1982 or email sales@artinaction.org to bring our program to your school.
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Art in Action and Common Core Lesson Integration
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"Where would a cave man get paint?" Ask that question in a room full of second graders and you'll be surprised at the answers they give. This question is a great way to start the discussion for our Prehistoric Art lesson and it effortlessly integrates with second grade Earth science. Students quickly pick up on the fact that charcoal, rocks, and minerals were the natural resources of early humans and see how Paleolithic artists transformed these materials into drawings and paintings of animals on cave walls.
The Common Core State Standards were designed from curriculum integration opportunities like this in lessons where science, visual arts, and language arts come together. Students can analyze a piece of art in the same way they read a text. As they discuss their observations in groups they are meeting listening and speaking standards. Language standards are met through the introduction of art and science vocabulary. And of course, writing about their experience using associated vocabulary, meets writing and language standards. Art in Action provides an ideal platform for cross-curricular Common Core integration in all of our 108 lessons. Click here for more information.
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Art Shows
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The second in a series of public library art shows  this year is on display in 16 San Francisco Bay Area libraries from Nov. 13 - Dec 16, 2013. Stop by to enjoy artwork created by our amazing young artists.
Library schedule and participating schools
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Refer a new school; receive a $100 gift card!
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School Coordinator, Jyoti Chauhan, at Questa Elementary School in Mountain House, CA and Melissa Yoshida-Wood, at
Monte Verde Elementary School in San Bruno, CA received a $100 gift card to the Container Store® for referring Art in Action to new schools.
If you refer the Art in Action program to a new school and they purchase the program, we'll give you a $100 gift card to The Container Store® (while supply lasts). For more details, email Jonelle or call 650.566.8339 x204.
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