American Studies 2005

35th Annual American Studies Seminar
The Arts in America - Background Information

For a complete list of links and background material relating to teaching about the arts in the ESl classroom, visit the "Arts & Entertainment" section of the Embassy's About the USA website at:
usa.usembassy.de/arts.htm

Conference Papers & Transcripts

Joel Katz:
٠ From The Sneeze to 9/11 and Beyond: A Brief History of American Documentary. A paper by Joel Katz for The Conference on the Arts in America. Berlin, Germany, May 2005.

٠ Clip Playlist for Joel Katz’s talk on the History of American Documentary.

Reports & Articles

∙ A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963
Sandage, Scott
Journal of American History, v80, June 1993, pp135-167
(Access for teachers only)

∙ Gifts of the Muse: Reframing The Debate About The Benefits Of The Arts
RAND, Feb 15, 2005.
Researchers explore the "ecology of the arts, including recent trends in public involvement, numbers and types of arts organizations, sources and levels of financial support, and numbers and employment circumstances of artists working in different fields" and how the arts create private and public value within the framework of a developed body of rigorous and independent research on the arts.

∙ How the United States Funds the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts, October 2004
This report explains the role of the National Ebdowment for the Arts in leveraging other sources of arts support and how the decentralized structure of funding in the U.S. helps to renew the dynamism of the arts in the United States.

Compilations

∙ The Arts in America: New Directions (U.S. Department of State E-Journal, v8, #1, April 2003)
"Some of America's leading experts in various art forms are asked to describe the state of their fields. What's new, for example, in dance or the visual arts? Who are the most notable artists working in theater and music? How do current trends in movies and literature fit in with historical traditions?"

∙ Outline of American Literature (Bureau of International Information Programs/U.S. Department of State)
Essays, syllabi, bibliographies, and other resources for teaching the multiple literatures of the United States

∙ Contemporary U.S. Literature: Multicultural Perspectives (Department of State E-Journal, v5, #1, February 2000)
Multicultural literature is a major source of insight into the cultural dynamics of American society and a primary medium for international audiences to fathom life and thought in the United States.

∙ Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (Statistical Abstract of the Unted States, 2004-05)
Data on the arts, entertainment and recreation from the 2004-05 Statistical Almanac, the official goverment yearbook.

∙ Portrait of America: Distinctively American Arts

∙ Portrait of America: Exporting Popular Culture

Links

Background∙ National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
The National Endowment for the Arts provides national recognition and support to significant projects of artistic excellence, thus preserving and enhancing the nation's diverse cultural heritage.

∙ National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
The NEH is an independent grant-making agency that supports projects in the humanities that enrich American life. Its four funding areas are: (1) preserving and providing access to cultural resources, (2) education, (3) research and (4) public programs. Grant-making programs principally target cultural and academic institutions, and specifically museum professionals, entertainment producers, and state humanities councils.

∙ Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive
An interactive digital archive of data on the arts and cultural policy in the U.S., available for research and statistical analysis, with data on artists, arts and cultural organizations, audiences, and funding for arts and culture.

∙ Americans for the Arts
A nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America

Blues & Jazz

∙ Spotlight: Biography - Jazz and Blues (Smithsonian Institution)

∙ America's Jazz Heritage Exhibitions - Smithsonian Institution

∙ A History of America's Jazz Music (PBS Online)

∙ The Styles of Jazz

∙ Down Beat Magazine

Classical Music

∙ American Classical Music Hall of Fame
A non-profit organization devoted to celebrating the past, present and future of American classical music

∙ Classical Net: Music Schools, Libraries and Academic Links
A network of schools, libraries and other fields of academia dedicated to classical music

∙ The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
A membership association of over 160,000 composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music.

∙ American Song
A cultural and historical chronology

∙ Internet Public Library: Classical Music
Resource list with links to more classical music related web sites

Opera

∙ US Opera

∙ Opera Glass

Popular Music

∙ Billboard.com
An international newsweekly of music, video and home entertainment.

∙ Rolling Stone

∙ Grammy Awards
The recording industry's most prestigious award, the GRAMMY, is presented annually by the Recording Academy. A GRAMMY is awarded to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences.

∙ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated to exploring the past, present and future of the music and the cultural context from which it emerges.

∙ Popular Songs in American History
Database of American folk and traditional music, arranged by time period. Includes lyrics, midi files, tune information and history behind the folksongs and ballads.

Film & Television

∙ American Film Institute

∙ Internet Movie Database
Search for movies by name, cast/crew, director and many other methods

∙ United States Film Festivals (Inside Film Online)

∙ Sundance Institute
Dedicated to the support and development of emerging screenwriters and directors , and to the national and international exhibition of new, independent dramatic and documentary films.

Film Awards

∙ Academy Awards (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)

∙ Emmy Awards (Academy of Television Arts & Sciences)

∙ Golden Globe Awards (Hollywood Foreign Press Association)

Theater

∙ TheatrePedia: ELAC Internet Theatre Library
Searchable database for information on theater for research, current theater and career opportunities

∙ Internet Broadway Database (IBDB)
A comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all title page information about each production. IBDB also offers historical information about theatres and various statistics and fun facts related to Broadway.

∙ American Musical and Dramatic Academy

∙ Broadway.com

∙ Internet Public Library: Theater

∙ Dance Resources

∙ Cyberdance: Ballet on the Web

Museums

∙ Links to American Museums

∙ Visual Arts Directories, Guides and News

∙ Museums in the U.S.A.

∙ Art Museum Network
Some of the world’s largest and most prestigious art museums collaborate on AMN to provide information about their collections and exhibitions.

∙ Worldwide Arts Resources: Online Exhibitions

∙ MuseumLink: U.S. Museums by State

∙ GalleryGuide.org
A guide to gallery and museum exhibitions nationwide

Literature

∙ Electronic Archives for Teaching the American Literatures
Essays, syllabi, bibliographies, and other resources for teaching the multiple literatures of the United States

∙ American Authors on the Web

∙ Links to Literary Criticism

∙ Links to Booksellers and Book Reviews

∙ American Literature Overviews

∙ Links to Booksellers and Book Reviews

∙ The Pulitzer Prizes
One of the best known and most respected of all awards in the fields of literature, journalism, music, and drama.

Teacher Resources

∙ Artsedge - Teaching Materials (Kennedy Center)

∙ Exploring Themes in American Art (National Gallery of Art)

∙ Lesson Plans (Library of Congress)

∙ Smithsonian Education - Lesson Plans

∙ Teacher Source - Arts and Literature (PBS)