Arts Intranet

Oscar season is upon us and rather than debating who will win Best Picture or Best Actor/Actress, the debate has been how “white” the Oscars are.  #oscarssowhite went viral and African American actors began to boycott. As a result, the Academy (which is 94% white) responded by making the bold move to change their composition to reflect more diversity.

The Oscar issue is reflective of a much larger issue across all sectors of the arts; lack of diversity. I just returned from the annual meeting of American’s for the Arts and all of their advisory councils. This issue was front-and-center over the three-day meeting, as it has become a top priority for AFTA. As I sat and looked around the room I could see why.

With the start of a new year comes the start of a new General Assembly session, at least in my home state of Virginia, and also for three-quarters of our states’ legislatures. And for our state so begins the battle for increased funding for our state arts council—the Virginia Commission for the Arts. This Wednesday, arts leaders and supporters from across our Commonwealth will gather for Arts Advocacy Day when we will meet with our state representatives to plead our case. And just what is that case?

Each December, I have the pleasure to reflect alongside colleagues of the Americans for the Arts’ Arts Education Advisory Council about what happened in arts education in America over the course of the previous year. It is truly one of my favorite activities – a chance to celebrate big accomplishments, learn from incidents that were not-so-good, and identify trends which may crop up in our work in 2016.

Last year, as we looked back over 2014, we discussed STEAM, creative youth development, standards, new reports, resources for specific student populations, mayors and more. Some things continued this year, and some things did not – check out the list below!

2015 is almost over, and what a year of successes and changes we've had as a country. The unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in more than seven years; the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide; a landmark climate change agreement was approved; the U.S. embassy reopened in Cuba after 54 years; and a week ago, the Every Student Succeeds Act passed--a tremendous win for arts education. The arts won a number of other legislative victories too, such as increased federal arts funding and arts-friendly legislation regarding both IRA tax rollovers and visa law along with key successes at the state and local levels.

When a potential supporter for creative youth development approaches me, one of the first things I tell them is to look at the numbers. This model works. Students who participate in rigorous, arts-based after school programs perform better in school and have higher graduation rates than that of their peers who do not participate in the arts. I reference programs such as The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana, Say Si in San Antonio, ARTS in San Diego – the results are impressive. It is at this moment that I have their attention. I have connected my work to something they value: academic success.

2015 was a huge year for the arts! From the monumental new federal K-12 education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, to a funding increase of $2 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, to key federal charitable tax provisions being made permanent, arts and arts education policy have progressed immensely this past year.

With the publication of National Core Arts Standards in 2014, states around the country began to consider how they might inform standards at the state level. While each state process is unique, there is much to be learned from our colleagues at different points in the journey.

The state of Montana is nearing the end of their adoption process (scheduled adoption date is July, 2016). Last week, I had the opportunity to ask Superintendent Denise Juneau, a former teacher who understands well how a well-rounded education that includes the arts leads to college and career preparedness, about the work Montana has undertaken over the last year.

Did I say perfect?

Yes. Yes, I did. And here are just three (of many more*) reasons I believe that's true.

1) The gift of experience doesn’t clutter your kids’ bedrooms.

Okay, this is a big one for me (that’s why I made it Reason #1!)

Families – and individuals – are experiencing increasing physical (and technological) clutter.

In the arts, it seems as though we always have something on our advocacy schedule. We’re advocating for funding. We’re advocating for support. We’re advocating to be included in education and strategic plans. Sometimes we’re even just advocating to exist. And because of our interconnectedness, we’re seldom just advocating for our own cause. We have to advocate for each other, too. We have to advocate for the field as a whole. And we have to advocate at every level of the system. With all of this advocating, sometimes it can be difficult to get our other work done. Some lucky arts organizations have the fortune of a staff member whose sole job is to work on advocacy efforts. But this just isn’t feasible for many, especially in rural states like South Dakota where arts professionals are overworked and underpaid.

It's the season of thanksgiving, and we have so much to be thankful for in a world that may, at times, seem less than hospitable.

This week, we celebrated Giving Tuesday – a reminder that while the Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday retail efforts are all important to the economy, the nonprofit world deserves equal consideration in terms of financial support for the good these organizations do in our communities.

Where would we be as a nation without our arts education nonprofit organizations?  Where would we be without art and music and dance and drama and poetry and theatre?

“The Academy has strongly shaped my present life and my plans. I am retiring next week and I will immediately become a full-time violin major at college.”  BSO Academy Violinist, 65 years old

A senior myself, I am acutely aware of the importance of music in helping me to stay sharp, to be successful in my full-time job as Vice President of Education and Community Engagement at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and to physically handle the demands of work and family.  That is why I am passionate about the BSO Academy, a suite of educational programs enabling older amateur musicians to play side-by-side with the pros. 

It is past time to put the arts into action for every child in this country. If we are serious about equipping our kids with the tools they need to be successful in the future, let’s prove it by systematically and completely addressing the inequities that exist in our schools right now.

I recently participated in the New Community Visions Initiative in Oklahoma City. I came away from that event filled with hope and inspiration after a day of working side by side with many intelligent and empowering people: educators, government officials, private industry leaders, cultural organization heads, and foundation leaders. We looked at how we see the arts and culture playing a strong role in building a healthier, more vibrant, and more equitable community over the next ten to fifteen years.

Arts educators and advocates are a resourceful bunch. Despite enormous odds over many years against making arts education a priority, more school districts and policy makers are working to find ways to sustain investments in arts teachers, supplies, curriculum design, and professional development. We have a long way to go, but we’re certainly seeing progress; arts education is a part of the educational dialogue in new and vibrant ways. When it comes to arts education policy and priorities, however, we must not forget that learning cannot and should not remain solely within the confines of the four walls of the school classroom. One solution is the often overlooked strategy for fostering students’ personal and academic growth: the good old-fashioned field trip.

I first met Jessica Wilt 5 years ago. She and I were both new to Americans for the Arts...I was a new staff member and liaison to the arts education advisory council, and Jessica was a newly minted council member.

Jessica immediately took a leadership role within the council, helping us craft a strategic plan for arts education at Americans for the Arts. Her leadership in arts education in New York City gave her plenty of expertise in arts education planning. Jessica was a tap dancer and teaching artist. She worked in the education departments at Dance Theater of Harlem and Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. She served on the Leadership Committee of the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable and was a school board member for VOICE charter school.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” As we reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I was reminded of this one of many, but not often cited, quotes by Dr. King.

Recently, the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts met for its midwinter meeting in Los Angeles. We spent much of our time discussing equity and the need for access to the arts for all students, pre-K through high school. We took a tour of the Colburn School, an outstanding music conservatory with numerous community engagement programs. The mission of the Colburn School is to admit students who have tremendous artistic promise and provide them with full tuition, including room and board, so that they can focus solely on their musical careers.

As I reflect on my nearly twenty years spent in the arts integration field, I feel blessed to have had a trio of amazing mentors in my life. Without these three women I certainly would not have had the career I have had. As a first year music teacher in Buffalo, NY, without a mentor, I wished that arts organizations could do more to assist schoolteachers in preparing students for field trips, and to help provide deeper experiences for the students. I dabbled in creating an independent study in arts administration to start to understand what the role of arts organizations could be in arts education.

The purpose of these words are not to debate a right or wrong musical pedagogy however to promote the convergence of musicians, music, and students approaching music from different places. For the purpose of this article I will refer to the two different approaches as the Social sphere and Refinement sphere and argue that marrying these two approaches is of best interest to all.

In the summer of 2015, 10 students from one of the most challenging neighborhoods in West Baltimore attended the prestigious, Interlochen Center For the Arts on merit based scholarships. 

Does business have any skin in the arts education game? And if they do, can we rally business support to help ensure that all students have access to arts education? After all, business has been in the forefront of other social change movements, such as LGBT marriage rights.  Besides business, can we also make a stronger justification for the role of the arts in strengthening our workforce to educators, policy makers, and governments? 

How many of us have had the conversation around Arts Integration and Arts for Arts sake? Value in both right? We know from countless examples and research studies that the best benefit to a child is to have a arts specialist, arts integration AND a teaching artist to provide the ‘expert’ outside perspective. This is something I know in my core –something I teach my graduate candidates at CCNY. So I had to laugh when it took me nine years to apply this same structure to the teaching of Advocacy –which I did for the first time this year and the results have been triumphant! 

Every empty seat in a theatre isn't simply lost revenue; it's a lost opportunity to tackle one of the biggest challenges we can expect to face in the arts and culture business today - talent development.

I am not an expert by any means on the process or state of arts funding in America, but I can clearly see the dysfunction in our government at all levels. In today’s education system, there is a significant lack of equity regarding access to a quality arts education, often due to the location of the school. 

All across the country, students are back in school and this month, and Americans for the Arts and KRIS Wine are teaming up again to support arts education.  The arts can positively impact the entire school culture—especially student motivation, attitudes, and attendance— and research further demonstrates the myriad benefits of an education in the arts.  Recognizing these facts, Americans for the Arts and KRIS Wine are proud to announce the launch of the sixth annual “Art of Education” contest. Through this program, KRIS will award 16 winning schools a total of $25,000 in grants to support their arts programs.

The essential question that needs to be asked as Congress moves to complete the first substantive reauthorization of federal education legislation since 2001 is different than the one we may instinctively pose. It always seems that simplest truths are the most powerful and, in this case, the one thing that binds everyone reading this, is this: We believe in the arts as a powerful way to enhance the lives of young people. Young people need the arts.

With that simple seed, our guiding question in looking at federal legislation needs embrace that fundamental idea. When we look at the reauthorization of the ESEA, we need to broaden the question beyond ‘How do we get arts into schools?’ to ‘How do we get the arts to young people?’

It has been 20 years since Americans for the Arts and others worked diligently to ensure that the arts were included as core subjects in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As we celebrate Arts in Education Week in Chicago, I am reminded of how important the arts’ inclusion in ESEA truly is to not only our schools but to our community partners.

For more than 30 years, Chicago’s arts and culture community filled educational gaps, encouraged youth participation in the arts, and worked with CPS to incorporate the arts where it could given budgetary and instructional time constraints. My arts education for example, came largely from a gifted program offered by two community partners; the Art Institute of Chicago and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

I became aware of the recent flurry of activity around the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) almost accidentally; the acronym ESEA was hardly familiar when I first heard it. I was at a California Arts Council meeting, our discussion in full view of the public, and the tape was rolling for posterity. I had been riffing on the entire NCLB experience as it had affected arts education, especially the past nine years (!!) of non-authorized, non-replaced limbo, when a staff member mentioned optimism about the upcoming Senate vote on the new bill, the Every Child Can Achieve Act. Later it passed by an 81-17 margin and now we await a House vote and most likely a bill on President Obama’s desk this fall.

Here in New York City, and around the nation, this is a pivotal moment for arts education.

Fifteen years after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which many credit with a pronounced narrowing of the curriculum in public schools across the country, an earnest effort to reduce the most onerous mandates of the law is underway.

The conversation around school accountability is beginning to shift from a test-based model to a more holistic view of what we expect of our public schools. And advocates are making the case for a more robust role for arts education in the debate over reauthorization of NCLB.

Anyone who has ever watched a play or a musical knows that there are two acts.  This summer, legislation moved forward to transform the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for the first time in over 14 years.  The storyline from the first act has been filled with twists and turns with the arts seemingly being a cautionary tale in its wake.  So, what can we expect in the second?

Setting the Scene

We opened our story in 1965 with the groundbreaking Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  This original law was meant to provide more equity to schools across the country.  In 2002, we saw the revamp known as No Child Left Behind enter the scene with an “era of accountability” at its core. Testing - lots of testing - became the new normal. Schools were required to issue testing in reading and math so that we could get a measurement of their success or failure.  And ever since, the law has received nothing more than patches along the way. 

Just imagine how our lives in the arts would really be impacted if we didn’t have a U.S Department of Education (USDOE). This does not necessarily mean we would not have an ESEA, as the ESEA predates the U.S Department of Education (1965 and 1980 respectively), but they are fundamentally linked. So consider, if the USDOE was dissolved, how would that impact the reauthorization of the ESEA, and the arts in your locale? 

To me, words are quite wonderful. Some are even paintings in the sense that you look at the words and get an immediate visual. So the sadness and unintended consequences conveyed by the words "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) are quite visceral to me. Initiating a movement away from the negative ramifications of NCLB on student achievement, Congress is now transforming this legislation, which had caused an emphasis on testing and an imperative to teach to the test.  This, in turn, lessened time for process-oriented subjects like the arts. Happily, the legislation is well on its way to transforming NCLB into the inspirational "Every Child Achieves" Act, which focuses on a more holistic approach to a comprehensive education for all students.  To me, that holds the promise of meaningful change in our schools and positive academic outcomes for students.

Creative Many is headquartered in TechTown, Detroit’s self-styled “business innovation hub.” Our office in Michigan’s capital city is co-located with The Runway, an incubator helping startup fashion designers produce and market their collections. Both TechTown and The Runway are emblematic of the exploding creative sector in Michigan.

According to the Creative State Michigan 2014: Creative Industries Report, in FY 2011, the creative sector accounted for over $3.6 billion in wages to 74,049 employees in more than 9,700 businesses in the Great Lakes State. This accounts for nearly 3 percent of Michigan’s employment totals, more than 3 percent of total wages and 4.6 percent of total state businesses in leading core industries such as advertising, publishing and printing industry, design, film/media and broadcasting and architecture.