Many areas in IAEA’s South Region are located extremely close to this great professional development opportunity!

• Belleville, IL is only 55 minutes away.
• Carbondale, IL is only 2 hours 30 minutes away.
• Edwardsville, IL is only 40 minutes away.
• Collinsville, IL is only 45 minutes away.
• Mount Vernon, IL is only 57 minutes away.
• Marion, IL is only 2 hours 35 minutes away.

How to Register

1. Go to the IAEA membership page and join IAEA or make sure your IAEA membership is current by emailing Colette Rinn, Membership Coordinator, coletterinn@att.net. You can also click here to register for IAEA online.
2. Go to the MAEA website to register for the Spring Conference online by clicking here. After you register you will need to email Linda Bowers at LBMAEA@yahoo.com and let her know your full name, that you have Illinois membership, your member ID number and your online receipt number.
3. Or if you choose to mail your registration form in please write that you have Illinois membership along with your member ID number. Click here for MAEA Spring Conference Mail-In Registration form.

What the Spring MAEA Conference has to Offer

This year marks the 75th MAEA conference and it is going to be held in St.Charles!

The Foundry Art Centre in St.Charles has scheduled the Internationally known Faith Ringlod’s exhibition during the conference! Nationally known artist Zach Smithy is also going to demonstrate his painting techniques on site!

The conference is bigger and better than ever with plans going from Pre-conference activities on Thursday to Post -conference tours on Sunday! Check out all the details at the the MAEA website.

All Kids Can Create is a nationwide call for art for children of all abilities, ages 5-15, to submit artwork under this year’s theme of “What Inspires Me.” Artwork is submitted
online and all entries will become part of an online gallery. 204 artworks (two from each state and the District of
Columbia) will be selected from the online entries to be part of
a live exhibition to be held in Washington DC this August.

Further, teachers who submit their students’ artwork will be eligible to receive a $1500 award for use in the classroom!

More details and entry form are available here: www.artsonia.com/allkidscan

· Certified/endorsed arts educators at each CPS school and associated disciplines, and

· Community arts partnerships at each school.

By creating a better understanding of what arts programming currently exists in local schools and classrooms, ArtLook provides actionable knowledge in the field of arts education, empowering parents, school administrators, local school leadership, art education advocates, and arts organizations to:

ü Prioritize the distribution of resources and services,

ü Identify arts education opportunities,

ü Advocate for equitable access to arts education, and

ü Document and share results to increase the availability and quality of arts programming.

Research demonstrates the importance of the arts in the education of our young people. With 675 schools in the CPS system, many schools have arts programming that is rich and varied, while others struggle to have the programs they desire. ArtLook reveals what exists and where, important information in a system with the objective of providing arts education for every child in every school. Additionally, when you visit ArtLook you can put yourself on the map. Through an innovative partnership with the Arts Alliance of Illinois and its Arts & Education Exchange, which provides information about the arts and arts providers throughout the state of Illinois, ArtLook users can easily enter and update their own program information at www.artseducationexchange.org/

CAEF is proud to support ArtLook, and we encourage you to put yourself on the map today!

The conference will feature 6 workshops exploring a variety of art media, art techniques, grade levels, and audiences.

One CEU credit or one semester hour of graduate college credit will be offered for attending. The registration fee of $85.00 includes conference materials, continental breakfast, and lunch. A special registration fee of $80.00 is available for Illinois Art Education Association Members and a registration fee of $60.00 is available for full-time college students with current I.D. Register online with your credit card at this link. View brochure here.

Opportunity 1#  Looking for individuals who want to participate in a leadership role on Friday, March 3 (at the Hilton in NYC during the convention). There will be 4 focus groups with representatives from each division and each region.

We need to identify 2 middle level teachers from each region who have some experience utilizing museum(s) with their students. We are in search of individuals who can make the date and are willing to commit to important leadership work at the national level.

Opportunity 2# The NAEA Board is in search of one middle level art educator to be on the slate of candidates for NAEA Research Commissioners. These individuals play a critical role in directly setting a focus for the NAEA’s research agenda. Viable research can foster student learning, improve teaching practice, and promote policies that forward art education in decades to come!

If you are interested in any of the opportunities listed above, immediately contact Linda Kieling, the NAEA’s Middle Level Director at kielingl@wlwv.k12.or.us.

Conference presentation proposal forms are located in the Conference section or on the Forms section of the IAEA website. All forms must be submitted to Vicki Kanik by March 15.

Award nomination forms and category descriptions are available now for viewing, downloading for mail in submissions and active for online submission. All nomination forms must be submitted by March 15. You can also access the information

and applications for the undergraduate scholarships, graduate scholarships and IAEA professional development forms on the “Awards+Grants” section of the IAEA website. Applications are also available on the Forms page of the IAEA website. These forms are due by May 25. For additional information or if you have questions, contact IAEA Vice President, Theresa McGee at: theresamcgee.IAEA@gmail.com.

Education through Art: Teaching for Global Understanding & Engagement Conference

Participants of the conference will explore ways education through art may address needs of 21st century learners and assist in preparing citizens who can function competently in local and global communities. Educators will be equipped with resources for preparing students to interact harmoniously among diverse people. Presenta- tions will focus on practical applications, successful models, and effective strategies for achieving these goals while also tending to requirements of curricular and community standards.

Exploring the Past: Archaeology in the Upper Mississippi River Valley

Walking beside thousand-year-old burial mounds, flaking raw stone into tools, learning how potsherds tell us about human behavior, and understanding how humans adapt to complex, ever-changing environments­our 2012 NEH Summer Institute features all this and more.

The Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse will offer a three-week NEH Summer Institute on July 9–27, 2012.  This dynamic learning experience for K-12 teachers will explore how Native Americans and Euro-Americans have adapted to the Upper Mississippi River Valley over the past 13,500 years, and how archaeology leads to an understanding of how human cultures change and adapt through time.

The Institute will feature a one-day excavation experience, field trips to archaeological sites, hands-on laboratory and workshop activities, demonstrations, and classroom activities. Individual projects will help participants tailor the content to their own teaching areas. NEH Summer Scholars receive a $2,700 stipend to help offset their expenses.

Application and other information on the Institute will be available online athttp://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/neh.htm.  The deadline for applications is March 1, 2012.

Educators can tap into this user-friendly Exchange to search for arts programming that helps them encourage student success.

Educators also can post specific arts requests for their classrooms in the Exchange. For example, a high school history teacher could ask for an African dance company to complement his unit about African cultures. A visual art teacher might seek a way to incorporate stop motion animation into her curriculum.

Arts providers can search the requests for projects and respond to educators to craft ideal programs.

The Exchange is open to educators and arts providers throughout Illinois. Arts providers that are based outside of Illinois but do programming in Illinois also are welcome to join the Exchange.

This Exchange will help ensure that every Illinois student has access to a full range of arts programming, while meeting state standards. This service is the first-of-its-kind in Illinois.