The Central Appalachian Leaders' Summit on the Arts in Education

I just received word in the mail that the Appalachian Education Initiative (AEI), in partnership with the College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University (WVU) will be presenting a regional Summit on the Arts in Education at the WVU Creative Arts Center in Morgantown on May 18-20 of this year.

They're targeting business, cultural and education leaders from the regional (usually defined as Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia).

If you are a business, cultural or education leader, I'd look into it. Besides, the $50 registration fee gets you into Kathy Mattea's Thursday night perfomance and talk (as you are probably aware, Ms. Mattea and I are both honorees by the AEI in their "Art&Soul" book...)

Other speakers (none of whom will be signing, I believe) include:

*Randy Cohen, Vice President of Research and Information at Americans for the Arts
*Dick Deasy, Director of the Arts Education Partnership
*Jim Flanagan of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills
*Nick Rabin, Executive Director of the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College, Chicago
*Eric Booth, educator, actor, author and businessman, who holds a chair on the College Board's Arts Advisory Committee
*Daniel Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" and former speechwriter to Al Gore
and finally
*Sir Ken Robinson, Senior Advisor to the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

Not a bad pool to swim in, eh? I'm particularly imprssed with Pink and Robinson, but they're all big league talent.

Contact the AEI at (304)225-0101 for more info or to register.

Hey, I might even be there, you never know...then you can buy yourself a copy of the "Art&Soul" book and get both Kathy and I to sign it. She's the one with the nicer handwriting. And she's prettier. And she sings better. And she's richer. And she smells nicer.

Hmmm...I better stop before I get depressed.