A newly released half-hour documentary tells the story of The Science and Technology High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, where dropout rates are so high and standard test scores so low that the state rates it Level 4.  At Level 5 the state has the right to take over the school and possibly send its 1500 students out into the city’s struggling public school system.

Stephen Colbert announced that he would fund every single request made by South Carolina public school teachers on the website DonorsChoose.org. The total donation clocked in at $800,000 and covered almost 1,000 projects at more than 375 schools.

Poet Laureate of San Antonio Laurie Ann Guerrero has added another title to her name: Literary Arts Director/Writer-in-Residence at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. The Center cultivates, promotes, and preserves traditional and contemporary Chicano, Latino, and Native American arts and culture through multidisciplinary programming, and is one of the largest community-based organizations in the US. 

On Friday, July 31, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced that the city will further develop its three designated arts and entertainment districts—Station North, Highlandtown, and Bromo Seltzer Tower. The city’s plans for supporting the arts areas was outlined in a 37-page report; it stated that the arts areas will “be improved through collaborative marketing and programming, more flexible code and zoning variances for artist workspaces, and other initiatives.”

A coalition of construction company firms in Oakland, Ca. is suing the city over its public art ordinance, which requires construction firms to spend between 0.5% and 1% of any construction project’s budget on public art. Called the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area (BIA), the coalition represents about 300 builders, contractors, suppliers, and others within the Bay Area housing sector.

British theater company Little Earthquake gave 100 primary school children the creative reins for a recent original production, granting them the opportunity to be centrally involved in the play’s development, creation, and promotion. The Young Producers project, in partnership with Black Country Touring, Arts Connect West Midlands, and Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre, placed the children at the center of the creative process in commissioning and creating a brand-new piece of theater for family audiences.

Composer Jimmy López will make his operatic debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago this winter, largely thanks to the decision to upload his vocal music onto YouTube. After an extensive quest for a composer to musically adapt Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto to the operatic stage, Lyric Opera came across Lopez’s samples on YouTube and immediately contacted him.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s first nationwide survey to assess the gender and ethnic diversity of American art museum staffs reveals a significant movement towards gender equality within the art museum world. In partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the survey provides the first statistical baseline against which progress in the museum field can be measured.

Three of the four new shows of the 2015-2016 Broadway season have excelled at the summer box office, dispelling the myth that premiering during the summer is a ticket to dwindling audiences and financial strife. According to research by the Broadway League, the hip-hop musical “Hamilton” and the plays “Penn & Teller on Broadway” and “An Act of God” have had a strapping showing at the box office, grossing over $1 million a week by the end of July.

NV Energy(a 2015 BCA 10 honoree) employees have traveled across Nevada to share the story of their successful arts and business partnerships and celebrate their BCA 10 recognition. NV Energy has been supportive of the arts for nearly 30 years through the NV Energy Foundation, and in the past 10 years alone, the foundation has committed $3.4 million towards arts and culture initiatives in rural and urban Nevada.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) and Business for Culture & the Arts (BCA) announced last week that a few of BCA’s signature programs will be absorbed by RACC while BCA heads towards ceases operations in the next few months.

After the Massachusetts State Legislature approved an increase of $2,374,800—or 18%— to the Massachusetts Cultural Council on July 8, Governor Charlie Baker shocked the arts community by vetoing the funds on July 17.

On July 27, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced the launch of the Space to Create Colorado program. Inspired by Artspace’s recent construction of 30 affordable live and work units for artists and their families in Loveland, Co., Gov. Hickenlooper has decided to replicate the Loveland facility in eight mountain and rural regions throughout Colorado.

A Portland city audit—released July 28—reported that nearly 200,000 city residents have not paid or filed tax exemption paperwork for Portland’s $35 arts tax. Approved by voters in 2012, the income tax is required of all Portland residents, 18 years or older, with an income over $1,000. 

National newspaper Politico featured Salt Lake County’s Zoo, Arts, and Parks Program—more commonly known as ZAP—which is a county-wide sales tax that benefits recreational and cultural organizations.

Words have the power to transform and, in the case of 16-year-old Aidan Kingwell of Oak Park, Illinois, they even have the power to save lives. Struggling with crippling depression, Kingwell read poet Mary Oliver’s “When Death Comes” and came to realize that her life was worth living, even at a time when she doubted it the most.