If you haven’t attended one of our webinars, this is the perfect time for you to join our professional learning community! We offer free, live streaming, and collaborative Professional Development workshops each month through our ELEVATE professional learning network.  You can earn a PD certificate, as well as Graduate Credit through Lindenwood University for attending our workshops!  

I hope you find this February full of ARTtful adventures and as always, let me know how I can help you curate your next professional learning experience!

Highlights from the MMEA 2026 January Conference at Margaritaville

Dr. Cynthia Williams Phelps

5 Ideas for Effective, Reflective Music Teaching

In this session, participants made professional connections to their own reflective teaching process, examined personal teaching philosophies, and explored community building practices. Topics included 1) Know your narrative, 2) Explore your beliefs about music teaching, 3) View teaching through a reflective lens, 4) Create a system for self-assessment and reflection, and 5) Engage in reflective dialogue with colleagues and professional communities. By becoming reflective music educators, teachers move from asking “Am I doing this right?” to “This is the right thing to do.”

Dr. Melissa Cooper and Dr. Cynthia Williams Phelps

Advocating for the Future: Tools for Building a Better Program

Music educators continuously work to improve the quality of their programs. Navigating how to ask for support and funding can be difficult.  Attendees learned how to formulate their Ask, created a rationale, and utilized local and state advocacy toolkits such as Title resources and music education information.  The workshop included how to contact legislators, sample language, a talking point template for use during the session, and resource links to experts.  

Have you seen the data dashboard for that publishes student fine arts enrollment data for your school? Quadrant Research, sponsor of the National Arts Education Data Project has partnered with MAAE, DESE, and MAC to bring this powerful Missouri-specific-data tool to you! View enrollment data (collected from local school districts as part of their reports to DESE) by arts discipline, by county, district, or school level and examine trends over time.  Identify areas of abundance and opportunities for growth. 

Access this dashboard through the direct link. You can also find access on the MAAE website and on the DESE Fine Arts webpage.

We'd love to hear your stories about how you are using the data. Whether it is for grant proposals, reports, research, or to make the case with your administrators for programming changes, let us know. We are collecting stories and testimonials that will help us ensure that we can maintain the funding required for Missouri's continued participation. Please share those stories at fineartsdata@dese.mo.gov and cc: director@moaae.org.  If you see any errors in the data displayed, we need to know that too! Please reach out at any time.

Missouri Fine Arts Academy (MFAA) is now accepting applications from freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior high school students for 2026. MFAA is tuition-free thanks to the continuous support of the State of Missouri and private donations. A committee of artists and arts educators will evaluate all  materials to select the qualified participants. Roughly 130 students only will be accepted for the 2026 Academy. 

MFAA 2026 gives students a great opportunity to establish themselves as a young artist through many interdisciplinary, discipline-specific, and elective courses. Open-ended exploration motivated by passion and creativity is what art is all about at MFAA. 

Students, get engaged in amazing workshops offered by professional artists. Join us to form a strong bond between you and other young artists who are eager to take meaningful challenges to improve their skills and knowledge in the arts. Take part in creating a universal language to express your ideas and emotions through visual arts, music, theatre, creative writing, and dance. Take full advantage of attending performances in the evenings by acclaimed artists, writers, performers, and musicians to enrich your experience at MFAA. It is no secret that many great artists take cues from their own lives, experiences, and inner thoughts to reach out to a world-wide audience. So, EXPRESS yourself. And always remember: You are the inspiration.

In conjunction with its 150 th Anniversary, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District is excited to provide a venue for students within the Eastern District to express their view of “What do courts mean?” through artistic expression. Entry in the competition is free and open to all students in grades 1-12, including public, private and home-schooled, within the territorial jurisdiction of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District.

Artwork will be judged based on the following criteria: originality, design, technique, content, and appeal to the theme of “What do courts mean?”.

View full details and entry form here.

Entry and Deadline

Each entry must include a completed and signed Student Entry and Release Form, along with the original artwork. NOTE: Teachers may contact us for a bulk-submit option for classes.

Entry must be postmarked or hand-delivered no later than 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 13, 2026, to:

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District
Attn: 150 th Anniversary Art Contest
815 Olive, Suite 304
St. Louis, Missouri 63101

Please read the guidelines completely. All guidelines must be followed or entry will be disqualified.

Guidelines

• All entrants must be students in grades 1-12 within the territorial jurisdiction of the Missouri

Court of Appeals, Eastern District for school year 2025-26, spring semester. To see the geographic boundaries of the Eastern District, visit: https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=151

• No entries will be accepted from employees, employees’ spouses, or relatives of an employee or an employee’s spouse by second-degree consanguinity.

• All artwork must relate to the theme of “What do courts mean?” and must be original.

• Only the following mediums will be accepted: painting (oil, watercolor, etc.), drawing (pencil, ink, pastels, charcoal, etc.), prints (block prints, silkscreen, etc.), mixed media (must use more than two mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, etc.), and/or collage (two-dimensional only).

• Artwork must be no larger than 16” x 20” and no smaller than 8” x 10”and can be any shape so long as maximum dimensions are not exceeded. Layout may be horizontal or vertical. No frame is necessary.

• No three-dimensional entries will be accepted. Entries must be flat and on paper, thin canvas, or similar.

• No photography or computer-generated entries will be accepted.

• Only one entry per student is allowed.

• Student should sign or initial entry in lower right corner.

• Students should enter only original artwork. Plagiarism is not acceptable, including work copied from photograph, painting, graphic, etc., created by someone other than the student. Students should visit the Scholastic website: https://www.artandwriting.org/awards/how-to-enter/copyright-plagiarism/

Student Information and Release

All students must submit a Student Entry and Release Form (p.3-4 of this document). Page 4 contains a legal release and certification that the artwork is original in design and execution. The student, a teacher, and a parent or guardian must sign where appropriate. Entries without signed originality certifications and artwork releases may not be accepted.

Both pages of the Student Entry and Release Form must be securely attached to the back of the artwork to certify the originality of the piece. Please retain a copy for your records.

Awards

The art will be blind judged by judges of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District.

Entries will be divided into groups by grade:

- 1 st and 2 nd grades = Lower Elementary

- 3 rd, 4 th, and 5 th grades = Upper Elementary

- 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th grades = Middle School

- 9 th, 10 th, 11 th, and 12 th grades = High School

Three winners will be selected for each group. Winners will be notified during the week of March 30, 2026.

Each group will receive three awards:
First Place: $75
Second Place: $50
Third Place: $25

All winners will also receive a certificate. The first-place winner in each group will be displayed in the Old Post Office at the location of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District during the ceremony celebrating the 150 th Anniversary and up to one year thereafter. Each winner will be invited to the ceremony and their accomplishments recognized by the Court during the ceremony.

NOTE: All winning and non-winning entries become the property of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District and will not be returned except upon special request.

Direct questions to: Joy Hannel, Court Administrator at 314-539-4300 Joy.Hannel@courts.mo.gov

View full details and entry form here.

Lifting Poetry Off the Page: Creating Community and Connection

Why POL?

Teachers:

• Fun and dynamic way to introduce poetry 

• Benefits all types of students

Students:

• Improve public speaking skills

• Build confidence

• Grow appreciation for poetry

It’s easy!

Free – all materials on POL website (Poetry Out Loud)

• Works with existing curriculum

• Inspires learning

• Analytical skills

• Writing confidence

• Creativity across disciplines

There’s still time!

Key deadlines:

• School competition deadline: Friday, January 30, 2026

• Registration due by Friday, December 19

• Regional competition deadline: Monday, February 23, 2026

• State championship [TBD]: March 3, 2026

• National contest [Washington DC]: April 27-29, 2026

• Interested? Contact Jenni Ryan at Jenni.Ryan@ltgov.mo.gov for more information.

• Register here: 2026 Missouri Poetry Out Loud School Registration Form

Frigid weather brings opportunity to renew an art hobby, yes? Painting, drawing, piano, singing? You may need to remind yourself of the joy you experience when you do that art you love. Be that example to your children and grandchildren. Arts education is more than what’s done in the classroom; it’s our examples in everyday lives. So lay out the old newspapers and paints and allow messes to happen. Pull out an old song you know well. Write a poem about the snowy view out your window. Arts education takes all of us…

Please communicate with your local state representatives. Not just a letter about funding the arts but a conversation. Get to know them; discover their arts background; affirm their endeavors in state work; and find a connection. This will take some work on your part. You will need to find their emails and phone numbers (contact MAAE's Director of Public Policy Melissa Cooper). You will need to go to their local offices and visit with their support staff. But please take the extra effort now, and not just lament about less funding of the arts later. Proactive, positive, and preventative.

Arts education takes all of us.

-Kendra Franks

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is now accepting nominations for Regional Teacher of the Year, the first step for an educator to become next year’s Missouri State Teacher of the Year.

Nominations can be made through the online Teacher of the Year nomination form here.

Visit DESE’s Virtual Art Gallery here, which features creations this month from Troy Buchanan High School and and Hudson Elementary of Webster Groves School District. For more information about how your school can participate in the art exhibit, please contact Dr. Kendra Franks, DESE’s Fine Arts Curriculum Director at Kendra.Franks@dese.mo.gov.

Artwork is on display in the Jefferson Building 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. on Monday-Friday (except for state holidays). Please contact Kendra Franks, Arts Education Director before visiting.

Started in 2004, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has invited public schools throughout Missouri to submit samples of their students' artwork. The art is displayed in the Department's main office in Jefferson City and in the room where the State Board of Education holds its regular monthly meetings. Artwork from each featured school is showcased for a month. The same artwork is now featured here. For privacy reasons, the full names of the student artists will not be published here.

Schools that will be featured in the Virtual Art Gallery are already scheduled for several months in advance. Please do not submit unsolicited artwork. For more information, contact:

Kendra Franks, Ph.D.
Director of Fine Arts Education
573-751-9610
Kendra.Franks@dese.mo.gov

Image Credit: Evie, Troy Buchanan High School

Learn more and register here.

This just in! MAEA Spring Conference 2026 will be in Cape Girardeau, MO for the first time! Mark your calendars for March 26th-28th, 2026. We are currently collecting team

2026 MAEA Conference Request For Presentation Proposals

Vendor workshops proposals will be accepted at any time.

Here are some suggestions from our members:

Pre-K to 2nd grade lessons / Collage & Mixed Media / Cross-Curricular Connections / Paper Mache / Ceramics / TAB / Found Art / Photography / Drawing / Motivation / Mental Health/ Artist Skills / Printmaking / Fiber Arts / Raku / Budget Projects / Book Binding / Artist Talks / Comic Books / Nature Art / Wire Sculpture / Batik Dying / Classroom Organization

Submit here

Save the Date: Fall Conference 2026 at Knob Noster State Park: Oct 2nd-3rd 2026! 

Attn: MAEA Members!

Check out MAEA's upcoming book for book club.

Dates to TBA announced soon. Cassie Stephens is a confirmed keynote speaker at our upcoming Spring Conference 2026. In the meantime, you can purchase your copy today. 

https://cassiestephens.com/products/presale-art-teacherin-101-the-book

The book includes different tips and tricks for your art teacher journey. It includes sections like rules. Routines, consequences, your art teacher journey, art room management, kindergarten, and a day in the life.

268 pages, Paperback Published January 1, 2021

Also sign up for the mailing list to receive all updates on the book club here.

Missouri Historical Society

A variety of open positions including K-12 Programs Coordinator and Museum Educator.