From left to right: Abdi Farrah,
Kathleen Ching, Angela Dastrup,
Amanda Gotera and Calvin Rollins.

The Alliance continues to collaborate with national arts education leaders, such as The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Americans for the Arts, Arts Education Partnership, NCTE and the National Art Education Association.  Alliance Executive Director, BJ Adler, worked with colleagues at the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts to convene a panel of highly creative teens—a poet, a photographer, a painter, a harpist and a dancer—to share the impact of their artistic involvement and accomplishments on their secondary education for the Arts Education Partnership Forum in June in Washington, DC. (pictured)

NPR Weekend Performance Today anchor Korva Coleman moderated the panel that included three Portfolio Gold Award recipients from The Awards: Amanda Gotera, a poet from Iowa; Kathleen Ching, a photographer from New York City; and Abdi Farrah, a painter from Maryland. Abdi was also recognized by NFAA as a Presidential Scholar this year and was joined by Angela Dastrup, a harpist from Utah and Presidential Scholar; and Calvin Rollins, a dancer from Dallas also recognized through NFAA ARTS. AEP Forum participants said that hearing about how being seriously involved with the arts impacted these teenagers and their high school experience was a compelling call to action for school reform initiatives that include a strong arts component. To review the panel script, please visit the AEP website:
www.aep-arts.org/ReportJune2005.htm