ORGANIZATIONS
Sixteen Michigan arts education non-profit organizations are considered “participating organizations” of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival. The participating organizations collaborate to plan and produce the Festival, and each has representation on the MYAF board of directors. Ten of the sixteen also manage the adjudication processes by which students are selected for participation in the Festival.
American String Teachers Association, Michigan Unit
The purpose of American String Teachers Association, Michigan (MASTA) is to support and encourage better and more frequent performances of the literature for strings, including music for solo, ensemble, and string orchestra at all levels of achievement.
MASTA promotes the highest artistic and pedagogical standards in stringed instrument teaching, thus improving the quality and strengthening the status generally of the full orchestras throughout the state.
The American String Teachers Association (ASTA), organized nationally in 1946, promotes excellence in string and orchestra teaching and playing. ASTA pursues its mission through an open sharing of ideas; benefits, services, and activities responsive to the needs of all members; development of strong state leadership and chapters; enhancing the image and visibility of string teaching and study; advocacy for string education; and an inclusive community of string teachers and players.
In addition to integrating the national activities at the state level, MASTA offers sessions at MMC; elementary and junior high summer string camps; Suzuki workshops; Suzuki training; outreach grants; a quarterly newsletter; and the Chamber Music Festival and Competition.
ArtServe Michigan
ArtServe Michigan is the result of a merger between the former ArtServe Michigan and the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies (MACAA) in October 2006. The mission of ArtServe Michigan is to build support for the arts, artists, arts education and cultural activities among the citizens of Michigan through advocacy, services and education.
ArtServe Michigan continues the tradition of service through education, community arts development, advocacy, information, volunteerism and direct support for arts and cultural activities. While its roots are in services to those who create, teach and appreciate our state's cultural activities, its future is in leveraging new growth -- intellectual, educational, spiritual and economic -- through the arts in Michigan's communities.
An independent, non-profit, statewide arts and cultural organization ArtServe Michigan has offices in Southfield and Lansing. ArtServe Michigan is a 501(c) 3 organization and a member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.
Detroit Area Film and Television
Digital Arts Film & Television (DAFT) is a non-profit educational organization that has been providing services to its members and the state of Michigan since 1969. Membership ranges from students and teachers to film/video professionals and enthusiasts.
DAFT's primary mission is to promote media literacy through the creative use of film and video. DAFT does this by conducting workshops and conferences for teachers and media professionals; support for emerging media artists; actively developing student involvement in media arts and studies through an annual statewide festival; scholarships; and special workshops.
Dedicated to creating a more visually literate membership and general public, DAFT sponsors independent film makers, videographers, workshops, monthly screenings, and festivals. DAFT aids in the development of an education resource network and its programs include the Michigan Student Film and Video Festival, the Student Animation Workshop, and the Focal Point Workshop at Cranbrook.
Interlochen Center for the Arts
Interlochen Center for the Arts engages and inspires people worldwide through excellence in educational, artistic, and cultural programs, enhancing the quality of life through the universal language of the arts. Located in beautiful northern Michigan, Interlochen Center for the Arts is the only community in the world that brings together a summer arts camp program, a fine arts boarding high school with college-prep academics, an independent pre-K through 8th-grade day school and summer day camp, two 24-hour listener-supported public radio stations, an engaging and evolving series of arts classes and programs for adults, arts presentations, and eight decades worth of alumni worldwide, including a galaxy of arts luminaries.
Arts lovers, lifelong learners, and the world's most talented and motivated young people are drawn to Interlochen from all over the country and all over the world to celebrate and create excellence in creative writing, dance, motion picture arts, music, theatre, visual arts and academics. This cultural fusion creates an exhilarating energy with global impact.
K/RESA Education for the Arts
Education for the Arts (EFA), administered by the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency, has offered creative learning opportunities for students in Kalamazoo County since 1995. The program has established collaborations between arts education and local cultural institutions: visual arts are taught at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, while dance students study and perform in both college and professional studios. EFA's current technology in its Epic Center digital art laboratories provides advanced instruction in media, music and art. All of the creative pursuits are designed to enhance and complement existing programs in Kalamazoo County high schools.
Michigan Art Education Association
The Michigan Art Education Association (MAEA) is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to serving the needs of both art teachers and art students. MAEA was founded in 1949 and serves the entire state of Michigan. Three liaisons from each of the 18 regions of the state serve on the MAEA Council. The mission of MAEA is to define and establish the role of art education, give support to creative thinking, and to foster study and research in art education
MAEA strives to provide its members with the best and most current information, training, and technology related to the visual arts. The MAEA is aligned with the National Art Education Association and provides its members with additional support through access to nationally recognized professional development, art-related research, and exposure to current best practices. MAEA serves all levels of art educators, from kindergarten to higher education. Numerous state-level adjudicated student art shows, to both educate and advocate the importance of the arts in our society, are sponsored by MAEA.
Michigan Council Teachers of English
The Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) has been serving Kindergarten through College English language arts teachers since 1924. The MCTE is committed to the idea that, in order to deliver quality services to their students, teachers must be supported by an organization that keeps them aware of effective classroom practices, community concerns, and legislative developments.
Members of MCTE receive publications and attend annual conferences that keep teachers informed of the latest and most effective ways to connect with their students. MCTE allows members to gain access to fellow English teachers through their ListServe, blog, and ePals project. Members can also participate in MCTE sponsored community building and professional development programs.
The Michigan Council of Teachers of English is an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English, which is the premier professional organization for Kindergarten-College English Language Arts teachers.
Michigan Dance Council
Michigan Dance Council (MDC), a non profit 501(c)3 organization, was formed in 1995 as a voice for dance throughout the state. MDC works to promote, develop, and encourage dance artists, public interest in dance as an art form, and the preservation of dance through collaborations, audience development, education, membership services, and performances. Through networking and advocacy, it links all the various components that make up the diverse Michigan dance community. MDC's goal is to be all inclusive and multi-disciplinary.
Membership is comprised of dancers, choreographers, educators, musicians, artists, students, dance supporters, and enthusiasts. Services include sponsoring events, such as the Statewide Dance Day and the dance component of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, and publishing a quarterly newsletter and calendar. The MDC webpage also provides the state with an important communication network for artists and the general public. Michigan Dance Council supports dance artists and educators through performance and teaching opportunities and acknowledging excellence with the Dance Educator of the Year Award and the Maggie Allesee New Choreography Award.
Michigan Federation of Music Clubs
The Michigan Federation of Music Clubs (MFMC), part of the National Federation of Music Clubs, celebrated its Diamond Year in 1992. The Clubs are dedicated to bringing the spiritualizing force of music to the inner life of our nation. The 5,000 members of the Federation join with the National Federation in sponsoring the Parade of American Music, Crusade for Strings, and National Music Week. Many junior and high school students receive scholarships and awards from the local clubs and the State Federation to continue their studies. The Junior Festivals, held annually, involve members of the 250 Junior Clubs. During this time, judges may recommend students to enter the competition to perform with the guest orchestra of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival.
Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association
The Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA) was first organized in 1917. The purpose of MIFA is to promote the development of interscholastic speech activities including debate, discussion, theatre, and individual speaking and interpretation events. MIFA operates and coordinates all Middle Level and High School competitive speech activities at the district, regional, and state tournaments. The theatre component of MIFA encourages, through the traveling show process, theatre programs on the secondary school level. A festival system identifies, for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, outstanding productions that best exemplify a total integration of the elements of theatre.
Michigan Music Educators Association
The mission of the Michigan Music Educators Association (MMEA) is to advance the quality of music education in Michigan. To that end, MMEA has served music education since the 1930's. Membership includes educators of preschool through graduate school, public and private institutions, and collegiate, active and retired members. MMEA is the state affiliate of the MENC, The National Association for Music Education, and as such, is active in providing performance opportunities and improving instruction for students, providing professional development for educators, and promoting advocacy for stronger arts programs.
Michigan Music Teachers Association
The Michigan Music Teachers Association (MMTA), an affiliate of the Music Teachers National Association, was founded in 1885. The purposes of MMTA are to promote and encourage the understanding, appreciation and study of the art of music, to elevate the economic and artistic standards of teachers of music, and to promote a closer professional fraternity.
Statewide membership includes independent music teachers, state area music business people, and supporters of music education. MMTA offers teacher certification; an annual conference; State and National sponsored competitions in performance and composition; Student Achievement Testing; College/University Student Chapters; Non-competitive activities; and a quarterly newsletter. Twenty-one local chapters of the MMTA offer its members lectures and performances, monthly meetings, contests, and student opportunities.
Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association
The Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA) is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to provide each student intellectual and creative instrumental music experiences expressed through emotional and artistic communication.
MSBOA is a professional association of over 1,600 instrumental music teachers in Michigan Schools. Founded on a single-district basis in 1934, it has grown to a 16 regional-district association in both peninsulas, serving over 1,900 public, parochial, and private schools.
As one of the areas of the fine arts, instrumental music has as its primary purpose the improvement of the quality of life of the individual. This is accomplished by helping students acquire the skills of musical communication, thereby providing yet another means of sharing ideas with others. For many students, music is the most feasible and enjoyable means of communication available to them. As an expressive art, instrumental music requires growth in physical, intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic areas.
Through numerous student-oriented activities such as festivals, workshops, and teacher in-service functions (district and state meetings and clinics), MSBOA strives to provide continual growth for instrumental music.
Michigan School Vocal Music Association
The Michigan School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA), founded in 1937, is a non-profit professional organization of vocal music educators. MSVMA's mission is to inspire all people to understand and value the art of vocal music and its impact on the human spirit. MSVMA works to improve, promote, and assist vocal music education in the middle, junior high, and senior high schools of the state through a program of clinics, festivals, workshops, contests and conferences, regulated by legitimate and effective means.
VSA arts of Michigan
VSA arts of Michigan promotes creative power in people with disabilities, and seeks to create a society where people with disabilities participate in, learn through, excel in and enjoy the arts. The state office serves to facilitate activities that benefit students, educators, artists, and community arts and human service organizations through education and professional development, classroom workshops, and presentations at statewide conferences, and serves as a resource center for materials and information regarding the arts and disability issues. Over 100 volunteers in Michigan communities conduct classes in the arts, artists-in-residence programs, exhibitions, performances, and festivals throughout the year. VSA arts of Michigan promotes access and inclusion of persons with disabilities in all arts-related activities taking place in the state, and believes that the arts in their many forms enhance an individual's humanity, and that every person deserves access to appropriate learning experiences in the arts.
Western Michigan University, College of Fine Arts
The mission of the College of Fine Arts is to provide scholarly activity, creative experiences, and research that inform and support instruction, performance, and exhibitions. In addition, the College must provide the resources that will allow students to become effective performers, artists, educators, practitioners, scholars, researchers, and specialists in their chosen disciplines. These professionals will be sensitive and experienced in working with diverse populations in schools, arts organizations, communities and families. Critical to this mission are the constant evolution of effective instruction for students; the exploration of meaningful and ever-changing aesthetic issues; educational and artistic partnerships throughout the region; and national and international outreach that enrich the lives of all. The College of Fine Arts at Western Michigan University is one of six colleges in the nation that has all of its programs nationally accredited.