Letters of support and completed vita forms for individuals nominated for CAEA awards play an important role in determining if a nomination is given an award, and forwarded to the national level. The following information below is provided to help nominees and letter writers in putting together an awards packet for CAEA and NAEA.

• Nominees are reviewed according to demonstrated qualities of teaching, leadership, service/advocacy, exhibitions and/or publications, and presentation of the awards packet.
• Teaching, leadership and service/advocacy are weighted more heavily (x2) than exhibitions and/or publications, and presentation of the awards packet.
• Letters of support cannot be more than one page in length
• Demonstrated leadership reflects involvement in arts, education, and/or arts education organizations and leadership positions (task force chair, editor, treasurer, etc.) in one or more of these organizations. This can be addressed by listing all the organizations and positions held by the candidate on the standardized vita form under “NAEA activities,” and/or “local art education association activities,” and/or “other professional organizations activities” categories.

For example:

-President, Colorado Art Education Association

-Secretary, Denver Education Association

-Awards Chair, Colorado Art Education Association

-Fine Arts Coordinator, Denver Public Schools

-Board Member, Museum of Fine Arts

• Demonstrated service/advocacy reflects involvement in arts, education, and arts education organizations that leads to the enhancement of art education. This could be accomplished by working to align standards and assessment to curriculum, presenting workshops, organizing professional development opportunities for other arts educators or students, hosting back-to-school arts nights, participating in school or district art exhibitions, creating public art projects, etc. This can be addressed by listing these accomplishments on the standardized vita form under “other leadership roles and accomplishments.”

For example:

-Coordinated district art show for six years

-Wrote grant to bring three visiting artists to work with students and parents at Clear Creek High School which resulted in a public mural in the downtown area

-Presented a workshop on paper clay to art educators at CAEA’s Fall Conference

-Presented a workshop on standards and assessment in art at the ArtSource Summer Institute

• Demonstrated teaching is evidenced most clearly in the support letters. Other then listing teaching positions, the vita form does not provide an opportunity for the nominee to present their teaching accomplishments. This must be provided in the support letters. Leadership and service/advocacy can also be addressed, but reviewers will be looking for evidence of innovative and successful teaching in the support letters. Letter writers should address how the nominee creates original and exciting lessons, integrates other disciplines into the art curriculum, initiates instructional collaboration, develops meaningful and appropriate assessments, excites students, and encourages further study in the visual arts.

For example:

Ms. Pollack is an extraordinary art teacher. During the past year she rewrote the art curriculum to align it to the state model content standards in art. Ms. Pollack hosted an “informational evening” to describe the new curriculum to parents and students which featured examples of art projects created using the new curriculum. Ms. Pollack established the AP-Studio Art course at Thompson Valley High School and presently has 15 students working on portfolios for continued study in art. She works tirelessly with students after school and on weekends. Ms. Pollack recently collaborated with the Social Studies Department to do a unit on “activist art” which encouraged student to create artwork that would get the viewer thinking about issues such as homelessness and poverty…

• Demonstrated exhibitions and publications can be addressed by listing these on the standardized vita form under the “publications and/or exhibits” category. These should be shows the nominee exhibited in and/or publications written by the nominee.

For example:

-Abstract Exhibition. National juried exhibition, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, California, July 1 - 29, 2000

-Memento Mor! National juried exhibition, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona, October 17- November 18, 2000

-Fibers ‘99. National Invitational, University Museum, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois, July 27 - August 7, 1999

-”Storytelling: Making Sense of Our Experience in the World.” Collage, Vol. 14, No. 1, Fall, 2000. Colorado Art Education Association.

The submitted awards packet should be complete, typed, and free of errors.