What: 2025 Wisconsin Creativity Summit featuring a Peter Gamwell and Guest

When: August 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM (CST)

Where: Online (Zoom)

Who: All are invited to participate in this one hour event.

Description:  Join us on August 21 for a conversation with Dr. Peter Gamwell as we explore the impact of creativity in our personal lives, businesses, and education. We'll also honor the legacy of Sir Ken Robinson, a visionary advocate for the arts and creativity, on the fifth anniversary of his passing. A special guest will share how Sir Ken's work influenced them while reflecting on the role of creativity in their own journey. Expect an hour of inspiration, insight, and a touch of humor.

Register Here: Zoom Registration Open Now

Wisconsin has an impressive history of producing world-class musicians – Eau Claire's indie folk star Bon Iver, Milwaukee's R&B crooners Eric Benét and Tank and the classical duo Sista Strings, and Waukesha's guitar innovator Les Paul, to name a few. But you don’t have to be the next Liberace or Al Jarreau to join in on the music-making fun taking place all across the state on Make Music Day.

On Saturday June 21, twenty-seven cities and towns across Wisconsin – more communities than any other state – will join forces to present hundreds of free musical events on the summer solstice. It’s all part of Make Music Day, a global music celebration bringing people of all ages and skill levels together to experience the joy and camaraderie of making music.

Amery, Appleton, Ashland, Baraboo, Beloit, Cable, Cambridge, Cross Plains, DeForest, Dodgeville, Green Bay, Hayward, Kenosha, Land O' Lakes, Madeline Island, Madison, Marshfield, Middleton, Milwaukee, Monona, Oshkosh, Platteville, Shell Lake-Spooner, Stevens Point, Sun Prairie, Superior, and Verona are among the 150+ U.S. cities hosting thousands of Make Music Day performances nationwide, as part of the world’s largest annual music event.  Learn More Here

Twenty-nine Wisconsin schools received recognition for their overall performance
at the Wisconsin State Speech Festival. The event returned this year to UW-Madison, with some
students participating virtually. This year, more than 3,150 students, representing nearly 300 schools advanced to the State Festival. While most schools participated in person, about a dozen only participated online, and one-third had at least one entry who submitting a video of their performance to be evaluated online.  Read More Here

Eleven years after the release of the National Arts Standards in 2014, the National Coalition for Arts Standards (NCAS) has announced the review of the national standards. The National Arts Standards have played and continue to play an integral role in improving and supporting arts education for America's students, with nearly all states having revised the state’s arts education standards since 2014.

This review process will help the National Coalition for Arts Standards gather the latest knowledge, research, and best practices while addressing the evolving needs of the nation’s students and ensure that the arts remain central to a well-rounded education. To best inform decision-making, the public input from the first phase of the review will be analyzed to help NCAS establish goals and determine the scope of the review.

To help all stakeholders understand the review process, the National Coalition for Arts Standards, comprised of ten member organizations, has released an Outline of the Standards Revision Process (below). Additional information and ways to be involved will be shared in the coming months.

If you have any questions, please email contact@nationalartsstandards.org. The National Coalition for Arts Standards (NCAS) is an alliance of national arts and arts education organizations dedicated to supporting and promoting sequential, standards-based arts education as part of a well-rounded curriculum that ensures artistic literacy for all students. The coalition formed in 2011 for the purpose of creating and supporting national arts standards.

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy,” writes Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing. The playwright who defined modern English, oddly enough, knew that words were only half the story. 

Wisconsin’s American Players Theatre (APT) has taken this sentiment to heart. Set in the hills of rural Spring Green, roughly an hour from Madison, the classical venue is creating performances, events, and audience experiences with and by deaf artists, reimagining how theatre tells everyone’s story.  Read More Here

Mark your calendar for the 2025 Wisconsin State Music Conference, October 29 - November 1 in Madison. This year's conference, themed "Building Vibrant Communities Through Music," will include an incredible line-up of sessions, performing groups and exhibits.

Plan to join us for the Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Pre-Conference on Wednesday afternoon! The pre-conference will again offer teachers the opportunity to experience first-hand what is possible when technology is an integral component of a music classroom by intersection with national presenters and colleagues in the field. The pre-conference is complimentary to all 2025 conference participants. Cost is included in the regular registration fee.

Learn more, and save by registering early beginning in June at wmeamusic.org/conference.

Registration is now open for the 2025 Smithsonian National Education Summit on July 15–17, 2025. Offered both virtually and in person in Washington, D.C., this free multi-day event will unite leading voices in education under the theme "Together We Thrive: One Nation, Indivisible."

More than 40 sessions will equip you with classroom‑ready ideas as we all prepare for the United

States’ Semiquincentennial in 2026. Reserve your spot today! Be sure to register by visiting the Smithsonian Education Summit's website.

As the end of the school year approaches, many of us will see former students at culminating events like end-of-year concerts and graduation. These moments provide a perfect chance to hear how these former students have been impacted by their involvement in music education while at your school. The WMEA Advocacy Committee has prepared a quick set of instructions on ways to share these stories in your community. Use these "Where Are They Now" prompts to help create an awareness of the lifelong value of music. These stories can be extremely helpful for decision makers who weren't part of a music education experience growing up and need to understand why students need vibrant experiences in music classrooms.

For decades, arts educators and researchers have debated the purpose and value of arts education—specifically, whether its worth lies in enhancing academic achievement in other subjects or in being valued for its own intrinsic merits.

Rather than assessing the benefits of arts learning for young people as either “art for art’s sake” or “art for academic’s sake,” arts learning expert Kylie Peppler and her research team at the University of California, Irvine asked, “What if learning about or practicing an art could help young people connect more directly to their communities and the world they live in?”

The team identifies five approaches for Connected Arts Learning that emerged from its literature review and follow-up interviews with arts education leaders. The leaders selected already took some variation of the Connected Arts Learning approach in their programs.

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, empathy, and beauty. The arts also strengthen our communities socially, educationally, economically, and improve health and well-being. If you believe everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the arts and every child should be receiving a quality arts education, use the following 10 reasons to show why an investment in artists, creative workers, and arts organizations is vital to the nation’s health and prosperity. Read The 10 Reasons HERE

Stitching the Threads Together, a recent report by RAND, explores the role of the arts in promoting the well-being of all youth. The report summarizes global themes and gaps in the current multidisciplinary literature available to the field. The report outlines five mechanisms that promote youth well-being through the arts:

• Building agency to make positive social change
• Facilitating healing and wellness
• Encouraging self-expression
• Creating social connection and community
• Developing skills and a mastery mindset

The DEL Essentials course is an introductory course that provides an overview of the key components of the DEL model of teaching dance to children and teenagers.

In this 3-day, in-person course, participants will deepen their understanding of the benefits of a comprehensive dance education and explore the DEL pedagogy through a range of learning activities which will include guided movement exploration using the DEL Dance Framework, basics of lesson planning and design, and collaborative dance-making strategies. Learning activities will be anchored in student-centered, inclusive, and culturally responsive instructional practices, centered in social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. 

Register and Learn More Here

NYMAEX, the National Youth Media Arts Exhibit, is a national exhibition for student media arts productions across all forms and educational categories. This exhibit is open to all individuals and organizations that work with PK-12 students to produce media artworks - teachers, teaching artists, Career Technical Education teachers, youth media, schools, after-school programs, all subject areas (English, history, science, math, STEAM, STEM), museums, arts organizations, media arts industry, news, independent, and more. Find out more on the NAMAE website.