Arts Intranet

Victoria Plettner-Saunders

I’m Victoria Plettner-Saunders, a member of the Art Education Council and arts consultant in San Diego. One of the projects I’ve been working on this spring is the development of four Local Advocacy Networks for K-12 arts education in San Diego County school districts. It is part of a statewide project that the California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE) began last year and has resulted in the development of at least 20 grassroots community-based arts education advocacy networks throughout California.

The model for developing each local advocacy network (LAN) is quite simple and easily replicable. A coordinator is identified in each community to help launch the initiative via an informational breakfast meeting. About 50 community leaders (e.g. politicians, educators, faith-based community members, arts organizations, school board members, etc.) are invited, which usually nets about 30-35 actual attendees. At the breakfast they hear presentations by school district staff about the opportunities and challenges their visual and performing arts programs are experiencing, as well as a brief contextual presentation by CAAE staff about the role and history of arts education in California’s public education system.

photo Michael Hevesy

To me, the arts are really the practice of remembering to imagine. I have a tendency to fall into habitual routines that require little forethought. But when I engage in the arts, I begin with the question, "How do I want this to look?" and then, "What feelings do I want this to evoke in the viewer?"

I remember when my son was 3 years old. We were in the living room and it was play time. He wanted to play with action figures and it wasn't enough that we use those figures in an imaginary setting.

For him, I had to have a unique persona, different from "Dad" that was playing with the action figure "dragon," while he had to be someone other than "son" playing with the action figure "knight." We chose to swap identities. He became "Dad" and I became "son" and together we played "dragon and knight."

Gary Devault

A 2005 Harris Poll shows that 93 percent of Americans feel that the arts are vital to a well-rounded education for all children. The high percentage of Americans valuing arts within education, however, has not led to a prioritizing of the arts within the educational system. 

The Arts Education Council at Americans for the Arts believes that one of the primary focuses of this next decade must be to move from declaring value for arts education to helping decision makers prioritize arts education for all students. Several key groups need to be included for this process to be effective and sustainable: 1.) Local education decision makers; 2.) The business community; and 3.) Parents.  I would like to focus this blog entry on parents. 

Donna Collins

One Tuesday in March I had a fabulous evening when I visited with students and staff at Marietta College…it was Pizza and Politics Night! Now that makes for a terrific combo!  We spent our time talking about advocacy, the role arts and arts education advocates, and how passion has such a central role in delivering our messages. Most interesting to me was the energy in the room and the willingness of every student to get involved.

We shared stories about our experiences ‘making the case’ and concluded that when advocates have a compelling story to share they have a much better chance of gaining a policymaker’s attention and support. Couple that personal story with data and research that compliments the message and you’ve got a winner! We must always remember to speak from where our audience is listening!

Tim Mikulski

As I covered in last week’s Arts Watch blog post (Glee-fully Supporting Arts Education), it certainly seems like the same three or four subject areas are continually battling it out for that last spot into the school building, before the funding door shuts.

Often, it is arts education classes like music, dance, theater, and art that are left out in the cold, but sometimes we’re joined by physical education, foreign languages, library services, and now even formerly-free afterschool sports.

Glee characters Will Schuster and Sue Sylvester battled in out over funding for the glee club or the cheerleading squad, but I’m sure just as often we are seeing Señor Schuster and the media specialist from the library having the same conversation that always starts with, “my subject area/sport deserves to stay funded because…”

While I’m not encouraging dancers, actors, French lovers, and information gatherers to storm the west wing of their school in a battle to the death against language arts, calculus, and physics fiends, I feel that we could be more equitable in the way that all of these subjects are taught in schools today.

Two weeks ago, I joined approximately 40 other arts education leaders in a two-day meeting to discuss plans for National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education, a projected originally taken on by State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE).
 
For the first time in 16 years, arts education experts from national organizations spent time evaluating the possible impact and creating a plan for potential revisions, additions, or replacement for National Arts Education Standards.
 
Over the two days of discussion, I was struck by the passion in the room and energized by what will be coming in the next steps in the process.
 

For three years I was the director of an organization whose mission is to make arts education and arts integration an integral part of the education of every child in an urban public school system. Our goal was to organize on a city-wide level to bring together the arts and cultural organizations and the school system, a la Big Thought in Dallas, our model. At the same time, we were working school by school to create systemic reform using arts integration.

It is very hard work, especially in times of economic uncertainty. We (schools, cultural organizations, teaching artists, parents, advocacy organizations) agree on the common cause, that all students in our city deserve access to quality arts education from specialists in the buildings, through trips to cultural organizations and by bringing artists into the school. But, we have different ideas as to how to achieve that goal, especially given our current existential crises.

A school system is like a giant cruise ship that moves with great difficulty and at an incredibly slow pace. Arts education advocacy feels like being part of a flotilla of little tiny tugboats trying to push the cruise ship back into port. (Sometimes, each tugboat is trying to push the cruise ship into a different port.) And, when you look at other parts of the cruise ship, you’ll find thousands of little tugboats flying different flags (phys ed, foreign language, business, etc.), working with all of their strength to push the ship in the direction of distant ports.

The Common Core for the Arts are a huge triumph for our professional community—for arts teachers, teaching artists, cultural organizations, supporters, advocates, etc. This is for two reasons:

1.    We’re keeping up with the other subjects.
2.    Three dozen people got together agreed on one giant thing.

Let me explain.

1.    We have to keep up with our peers. We have to pony up the same infrastructure, research, and political mobilization that our peers in the other core subjects are offering.  That’s true if we want arts education to be treated equally. And right now, the Common Core for ELA and math define policy advances (even if we disagree with the content or strategy). But there’s more.

Greetings from the rural heartland of Wooster, OH. My name is Gary DeVault, and I am the Fine Arts Consultant for Tri-County Educational Service Center, and serve as a member of the Arts Education Council for Americans for the Arts. Tri-County ESC is a state and locally supported agency which serves the school districts in Ashland, Holmes, and Wayne Counties in Ohio to improve the quality of education for all children.

As Fine Arts Consultant, I supervise nearly 150 music, visual art, and drama/theatre teachers in the seventeen school districts in a three county region. I provide curriculum and instructional support; design professional development opportunities for arts, classroom teachers, and teaching artists; coordinate arts services with community arts organizations and institutions; and provide direct services to students through numerous fine arts events and activities.

This school year has been filled with lots of exciting school music concerts, art exhibitions, plays and musicals. It is so gratifying to see the results of student learning in and through the arts at public performances and art displays. However, much of my time lately has been spent advocating vigorously for adequate funding for arts programs; seeking additional sponsors, donors, and/or grant resources for arts projects; and making the case with school board members and superintendents for keeping arts teachers employed in school districts where failed tax levies and a weak economy is threatening the inclusion of arts education for all children.

In the Americans for the Arts May 2010 Monthly Wire, a Top-10 list of reasons to attend the Half-Century Summit in Baltimore in June included: Reason #4: “Think you don’t have the time? Fake a cough or take a well-deserved vacation day (just kidding!).”

Unfortunately, for many of my colleagues in arts education, this joke hits a little too close to home. Arts teachers in public schools are given very little time to attend professional development opportunities outside of their school or school district. In Arizona, the dance educators hold an annual “pink tutu flu,” where many have to call in sick in order to participate in a statewide professional development day for dance teachers. Even when the day was devoted to our new state standards in dance, many teachers couldn’t take the day as a professional work day – they had to call in sick.

Colleagues working at the state level don’t necessarily fare any better. One of the leaders of my national organization, SEADAE (State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education), is routinely “sick” in order to attend Arts Education Partnership meetings.

Thanks to the kindness of Arts Education Council member Steve Tennen, I had the opportunity to visit a dance class at New York P.S. 241 in Harlem last week during a sojourn to the New York office of Americans for the Arts for other meetings.

Over the past 30 years, Steve's organization, Arts Connection, has provided the students of New York City schools access to art, music, media, visual arts, and dance, and the countless accolades they have received throughout that time demonstrate their undying devotion to the cause that is so near and dear to our hearts.

Following the hour-long session, dance teacher Yvette Martinez did an amazing job of explaining everything that she is able to do with the children thanks in part to a grant from MetLife. Not only is she providing them with quality dance lessons, but she is also working well beyond the topic of dance. She includes lessons in how the muscles of the body work, how the food the children eat impacts their current and future health (many of them are already diagnosed with diabetes and their families have histories of heart complications and cancer), and how to read food labels on the sides of their food.

Donna Collins

I’m a wife, a mom, and a grandmother (affectionately known as Grammy by my grandgirl Cierra).  A typical day starts at 7:00 AM and concludes around 8:00 PM, working Saturdays, and participating in lots of evening events  - a similar schedule to many of my arts advocacy colleagues. Work and family are what I eat, breath, and sleep. Most of the time one is as important as the other and each have their distinct needs and rewards.

On April 26, 2010, my world came crashing down around me when our 31-year-old son TJ died. It isn’t supposed to happen this way. Parents should not bury their children. Through TJ’s death, our grieving, and our memories I now see the world through different lenses. Simple things are more valuable, time is critical, making contacts a necessity since we’re not sure how much time we have, and telling our stories is essential to our future.

I rarely reflect, and until recently didn’t remember, why or how I got into the arts and arts education advocacy business. Thinking back on TJ’s life reminded me that he was the reason.

TJ was our theater and music kid. His brothers Josh (the athlete) and Ryan (the dreamer and reader) offered up other ways to get involved as parents. But theatre and music programs require a special kind of parent volunteer. You have to fight for the music and drama programs in schools. You have to raise money and pay for band camp. You have to work on levy campaigns to protect arts education programs. You have to take long bus rides to get to Disney or a special by-invitation-only parade. You have to pay a special facility fee to keep the theater open late for Friday night’s show and Saturday’s matinee.  You have to drive five kids to the next concert so the show choir can perform at the retirement home. You have to compete for time and resources with the athletic boosters and PTAs.
TJ knew about advocacy!

Joan Weber

I’m having a very interesting 140-character-at-a-time conversation with a colleague I’ve never met about the goals of arts education. @readtoday is a professional artist whose goal is to start a “reading revolution.” The question on the table in our conversation is, “If we understand the goal--Genius? Creativity? We can design the #artsed curriculum.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the question since it was posed this week. It’s not that I haven’t thought of it before; it’s that I’ve never been asked for an answer. What do I think the goal (singular) of arts education should be? I’ve decided that my answer is the same as for language arts and math--literacy.

I’m coming at this answer from the perspective of teaching artist, but also an adjunct community college professor, teaching “Humanities Through the Arts” twice a semester to middle-class, suburban students ranging from 18-80. Each semester I’m confronted with students who have little to no literacy in any art form. Each semester, my goals are the same: 1. Provide students with the language to think about and discuss all art forms. 2. Persuade students to give every work of art a chance. It’s not about taste.

My favorite word in my arts appreciation class is “composition.” It’s a word that the students think that they know because they’ve heard it so many times, but they don’t. Not really. “Composition” is a word that is shared by all of the art forms. Art is composed through the arrangement of the elements of its form. 

Joe Landon

When I joined the California Alliance for Arts Education as its policy director in 2006, they were savoring the hard earned victory that led to California’s historic investment in arts education, including the one time block grant shared with physical education, as well as the ongoing “Arts and Music” categorical funding.

But even then, the Alliance’s concern was shifting toward the question of how to sustain advocacy at the local level, where crucial decisions made by local school boards determine the quality, equity, and access of arts education in that school district.

When last year the state legislature gave local districts the ‘flexibility’ to spend the Arts and Music Block grant on whatever programs they considered most essential, the Alliance had already embarked on a project to build a local advocacy network in communities and districts throughout the state.

In the first year of this pilot program, we selected ten sites throughout the state, reflecting diverse communities, geographical areas, and economic conditions. Our goal was to gather the expertise around what would be required to foster an ongoing coalition of local leaders who share a commitment to build public understanding and support for the critical role of arts education in the development of every student.

Lynn Tuttle

Editor's Note: For the latest on the national arts education standards movement, read this post by Arts Education Council Member Lynne Kingsley published on 9/20/11!

In 1994, the professional associations representing dance, music, theatre, and visual arts teachers, collaborated on the creation of national Voluntary Arts Standards. The arts were the first subjects to create national voluntary standards.

Later this year, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) will release Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts. 48 states have already agreed to adopt these new standards as the basis for their state-level standards in English and Mathematics. The Obama administration is rewarding points for implementation of Common Core Standards in its competitive education grants, including Race to the Top, and has signaled a continued interest in the Common Core Standards movement in their Blueprint for Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In response to the interest around the Common Core State Standards initiative, and to the technological changes the arts and arts education have undergone in the last 15 years (I wasn’t blogging 15 years ago, were you??), the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) convened a meeting of national arts education stakeholders on May 11-12 to determine if the time is right to develop a new set of national standards. The resounding answer was “yes!”

Michael Sikes

My interest in the way that things are connected began when I browsed through a college textbook one day, and my eyes fell on the following passage:

Scientists noticed that on the opposite sides of a farmer’s fence, though separated by only a few inches, two very distinct communities of animals and plants lived. This realization gave rise to the new field of ecology.

I was fascinated by this word and the implications that I guessed. Ecology: the science of the relationships among living things and their environment.

Paul Hawken in his recent book references the concept of “solving for pattern,” the premise that community challenges are interconnected and to solve them we must design approaches that are equally interconnected and systemic. As John Muir noted, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

This is a vital concept for evaluators and managers of evaluation. If we are to assist in the amelioration of these systemic processes, we need to use evaluation systemically, to “evaluate for pattern.” What does this look like in practice? Certainly, it is marked by constant attempts to understand connections: How is a specific program, need, component, etc., connected to others? Which ones? How can the connections be portrayed, measured, observed?

Zack Hayhurst

A year ago, when I told people I was going into arts management, the inevitable response was always, "What is that?", or my favorite, "What will you DO with that?"

At first these questions irked me. Does one studying business or communications or finance get these same questions? Then I realized, maybe this is a common question for the art management field simply because not many people know who arts managers are, or for that matter, what they DO.

Prior to starting grad school, I had opinions and perceptions about what this degree would entail, and the opportunities it would create, so I would often retort with quips like, "Well, I will manage an arts organization, naturally." Now, with one year of the program successfully under my belt, and a handful of "real-world" arts administration experiences, my perceptions and expectations need a little re-shuffling.

John Abodeely

This probably isn’t going to be a popular statement. But let’s throw it out there and see what folks think.

I believe that if arts education professionals provided amazing arts education to students, we wouldn’t have to fight for time in the school day, money in the school budget, or support among our neighbors. From firsthand experience, I know creating art and can be transformational. I believe that if the arts teaching workforce—whether teaching artists, certified arts teachers, or arts integrationists—could regularly and reliably facilitate the best arts education experiences for their students, there would be no question as to the absolute need to provide arts education.

I wouldn’t suggest this is easy. But I think it’s still true. And yes, the implication is that our work—collectively, across the country—isn’t good enough.

To be fair, I can see a couple obstacles to it.
1.    Our governance agents diminish the value of spiritual or personal value when there’s a tax dollar involved.
2.    Scaling up transformational, personally-demanding education would be hard.

Donna Collins

How can school districts sustain and develop high quality arts education programs for students? These are tough times but tough times call for smart choices. Arts education is a solution to closing the achievement gap!

Education in the arts prepares students for careers. Americans for the Arts reported in 2009 that nationally there are 612,095 businesses in the U.S. involved in the creation or distribution of the arts that employ 2.98 million people – 4.3 percent of all businesses and 2.2 percent of all employees.*  The arts mean careers and business!

The arts are recognized as a core subject which places arts education at the same level of importance as language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and foreign languages. The arts are part of the core!

Arts education programs are an instructional opportunity to improve student achievement. The arts help close the achievement gap!

Merryl Goldberg

The following is a keynote I delivered to administrators, teachers, and parents in Encinitas, California as part of an end of the year arts celebration. The celebration highlighted the professional development of elementary teachers who had engaged in learning about integrating the arts and technology throughout their curriculum, and how they applied to it their classrooms.

I was in a challenging position in that the district had just announced plans to cut several programs including arts, GATE, and some professional development. My talk is an attempt to both celebrate the teachers' accomplishments and at the same time make a case for the administration to reconsider their budgetary priorities.

Note: My talk was preceded by a dance performance by 3d through 5th graders, after which I commented:
"What you've just seen is not just cute….you’re seeing kids who are learning to practice, and learning the skill of practicing – kids engaged in developing a sense of discipline and collaboration, and for many of these kids – it is their first and perhaps only introduction to being on a stage.....note the smiles – the kids are engaged – and engaged kids want to attend school – research studies show that there is a direct correlation between school attendance and arts activities."

Rachel Evans

It’s been 10 years, 140 days (and counting) since the Y2K phenomenon and the millennium mile-marker. Our transition from 20th to 21st century has seen its share of growing pains and celebrations as we’ve grappled with redefining humankind as a century older. Acknowledgement that the first decade of the 2000s has already come and gone was minimal, which seems appropriate.  Most 10-year-olds are just discovering the value of reflection. (Just go with me; imagine we were all “reborn” on January 1, 2000.) But by the age of 25, however, we’d better be masters of self-reflection or the years thereafter will undoubtedly be rocky ones.

It’s time for us to start laying the groundwork for a healthy young adulthood, fellow 21st century ARTSbloggers.  Here are 10 discussion starters:

Rachel’s Top 10 Questions to Consider for Arts Education in 2025

1.    What will our students in 2025 know how to do (without us having to teach them) that our 2010 students don’t?

2.    What skills to do we lack that would make us better citizens in the larger context of American education? How can we conquer the fears and prejudice that may be preventing us from engaging more fully in civic responsibilities on behalf of our students and our disciplines?

Although I am still shocked by the way that Glee has been accepted by mainstream America, it is comforting to know that creator Ryan Murphy's depiction of the struggles of outsiders trying to fit into traditional high school stereotypes has become a television and iTunes hit.

There has already been some media coverage of the sudden rise in interest in high school show choirs as a result of Mr. Schu's antics and now last night's episode hit home a bit harder than the Madonna episode, Kurt's coming out story, or the breakup of Rachel and Finn.

In a combination that can only be described as genius, cult TV/film writer/producer Joss Whedon directed last night's episode dealing with what so many music, art, dance, and theater programs across the nation are fighting—budget cuts.

In his recent acceptance speech for the 2009 Liberty Medal in Philadelphia, Steven Spielberg described the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the writings of leaders like Jefferson and Lincoln as not only the eloquent expression of incredible ideas, but great works of art.  With this in mind, Speilberg emphasized the importance of the arts and arts funding in America:

"The commercial success of some of my films have made it possible for me to create foundations, build organizations, to try to have an effect on the world. But I’ve never believed that all art must prove itself in the marketplace; or that the marketplace is a congenial environment for all artists. Poetry, theater, serious fiction, symphony orchestras, dance companies and museums require the material support of the society to which they make a vital contribution, or they won’t exist.

That's the question asked in a 2006 presenation at the TED Conference by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D, an expert in creativity, innovation, and human resources (and a presenter at Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in 2009).  In a recent CNN article, Robinson discusses his earlier presentation and argues why he thinks schools stifle creativity, despite the fact that, as he believes, all humans are born with incredible creativity and talent.  So why and how does he believe schools and teachers discourage students' creative abilities?  From the article:

"In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests.