Michael Yaffe receives national award

National Guild Service Award recognizes exceptional long-term achievement in community arts education

The Yale School of Music is pleased to announce that Associate Dean Michael Yaffe was honored with the National Guild Service Award this past Saturday, November 11. Conferred by the National Guild for Community Arts Education, the award recognizes individuals who have given exceptional service to the Guild and to the community arts education movement.

Yaffe received the award at the Guild’s annual awards luncheon, held last Saturday at the national Conference for Community Arts Education. In his acceptance, Yaffe addressed the Guild’s members and proposed “a rallying cry that I hope we all can gather around and promote.”

“Arts education is the education of the emotions,” said Yaffe, “and we need that more than ever in our splintered and dysfunctional society. Emotional education can channel the anger in today’s politics. It can help us through traumas in our personal lives. It can teach us how to work together – to trust one another. And it could help to convince policy makers of the value of what we do. Over the years, I have become more and more convinced that it could be a unifying principle for all of us, in all levels of arts education."

“Michael Yaffe is one of the nation’s leading proponents of community arts education,” said Dean Robert Blocker of the Yale School of Music. “He is responsible for transforming the lives of countless children and enriching their communities. The National Guild Service Award is a tangible expression of recognition for his unselfish commitment to music and to community arts education.”

Click HERE to read more about Michael Yaffe, the National Guild for Community Arts Education, and the award.