Arts Intranet

There is a lot of talk these days about advocacy and how it is or isn’t a part of our daily work in arts education. In talking with some arts educators who are veteran teachers this summer they told me that most people in their age bracket (50+) are offended by the idea of advocating for the educational opportunities that their students deserve as part of a complete education. 

One music teacher said, “I’m old school.  You teach what kids need to learn and you should not spend time writing letters to policy makers, pleading your case in front of the school board, or parading your kids down the street at levy time.” 

Yet, I find myself defending the idea of communication and information sharing (advocacy) with policy makers and the public because even the strongest arts education programs face scrutiny during tough budget times, when the curriculum is reviewed and updated, and when policies are changed or implemented at the local, state, and federal levels.

Greetings from Las Vegas, Nevada -- a community that is rich in arts of all types. Our school district, the Clark County School District, is 8,000 square miles—larger than many states—and it places a high value on Arts Education. We employ approximately 1,000 elementary and secondary full-time, licensed Arts Educators.

It was my privilege to supervise the Secondary Fine and Performing Arts Education Programs from 1994 through 2007 and it was during that time that we took up an especially interesting concept to reach out to our district’s burgeoning Hispanic population which had grown to 40%. In 2002, we implemented a standards-based, sequential curriculum in Mariachi and since then, thousands of students have become engaged in Music Education through their involvement in this program. This year’s Secondary Mariachi Program already has an enrollment count of over 3,000.

Why is this even important?

The recent NAEP Arts Assessment reports racial/ethnic/gender gaps in test data for music and visual arts education.

Although few parents would challenge the belief that every student should have an education in the arts, the practical reality is that arts education sometimes becomes less of a priority than other subjects, particularly subjects that are being tested for student academic achievement. 

Recently I was reviewing survey data concerning arts education opportunities in one of my local school districts and was quite dismayed to see written comments from both parents and students indicating that the arts were probably not as important to study in school as reading and math because they are not tested.  It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be this way. 

The study of the arts helps students achieve academically and in life and arts education has many extra-advantages that benefit the learning process for children.  Some of these benefits include helping students with concentration and retention: strengthening their ability to memorize, increase attention span, and to listen more carefully; in the development of motor skills: physical coordination, fine motor skills, movement in space, and development of muscles used for singing, playing, acting, and dancing; and other skills such as sequencing, interpreting, and expressing emotions. 

Greetings from the rural heartland of Wooster, Ohio.  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 nineteen 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. 

In thinking about what is important for parents to know and do for arts education, I began reflecting on the conversations I have had with parents in my 30 years as a music educator and arts supervisor.  Whenever I talk with parents about the important things that they would like for their children to experience in school, they include music and art. 

Last entry I told you how I got started. I set an unreasonable goal for myself (raise $50,000 in a year). I picked a Cause I believe in with my eyes closed - Arts Education for Grade Schools. I told everyone I knew and people I didn't know, what I was up to.

And then..?

Within two weeks I was invited by a High School classmate (who honestly, I think forgot who I was) to a Cause on Facebook that was exactly what I'd committed to. I'd been researching different organizations I could support, and this was just the one. I really couldn't believe it, but more importantly, I couldn't pass it up.

I joined, read everything I could, met people, and in a couple hours I arrived at the place I think most good hearted people end up a couple hours after they join a Cause.

The first thing I did was set a goal I could never reach on my own. Long before I even joined or started a cause. I just knew I had to go big if I were going to achieve anything at all.

Second, I picked something that I knew I was connected to in a big way. Something that I could discuss until the room ran out of air. And I chose something that I didn't think of as controversial. There are people who think my cause is controversial, but to me, its a no brainer. It keeps me from playing small, being self conscious, or overly concerned about what other people will think of me. The cause on Facebook is Keep the Arts in Public Schools.

The third thing I did was make a declaration. I said to myself and everyone I knew for an entire month, "This year I'm raising $50,000 for arts education in grade schools. I don't know how, I just know I will."

We're all back to school…hooray!  I think.  It’s a little hard to be excited as I begin the new semester at my university in California;  I’ve been furloughed at 10% of my pay, the students are paying 30% more than they did last semester, and so many classes have been cut that students are scrambling. What a tough entry into a new year – making learning exciting a pretty big challenge.

Despite the challenges, we all have roles to play – and it is important to play them well!  As I met with my students the first day, I went over the syllabus, as I usually do, and then I played a song from “Into the Woods,” by Stephen Sondheim.  The class I teach is called “Learning Through the Arts.”  The song I played is called “Children will listen.”  It is a wonderful tune with great lyrics (sampled here):

I’m writing this blog post immediately after reading Edward Clapp’s Open Letter to Young Arts Professionals, titled This is Our Emergency.  Edward is the editor and project director for 20UNDER40, “an anthology of critical discourse that aims to collect twenty essays about the future of the arts and arts education – each written by a young arts professional under the age of forty.”

While the 20UNDER40 project has received strong support and praise, there has also been an undercurrent of criticism (as Edward references in his letter).  However, what is more surprising – are the number of letters Edward has received from young arts professionals who have something to say and contribute – but do not feel they have the authority or courage to do so.  Is it possible that so many members of the Gen X and Gen Y generation are afraid to speak out?  What is it that we are worried about – Failure?  Criticism and judgment from our peers?  Losing our jobs?  Engaging in a debate? 

I just saw the movie, "Julie and Julia", and suspected  it would relate to my last blog on the role of persistence as a tool for learning  - and I was right.  Culinary arts are such a great example of practice, persistence, and learning by reading (recipes) and learning by doing (actually cooking).  There are several standout scenes in the movie for me.  One is of Julia  Child in France having just completed her first day or two of cooking class where she failed onion chopping only to return home to chop onion after onion in her kitchen to practice the art of cutting an onion!  Talk about practicing.  Her husband enters to quite an onion stench and promptly leaves.  Julia's persistence and determination drives this onion chopping practice session. And upon returning to class the next day she out chops the entire class (gleefully, may I add).

Another scene involves the second major character, Julie, who after months of blogging and persistently  cooking every one of Julia Child's recipes from her Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook, has become of interest to the New York Times. A reporter interviews Julie, and a major story is printed in the Times about her race to cook all of Julia Child's recipes within a year. 

As I was compiling this week’s edition of Arts Watch, I couldn’t help but notice a strange dichotomy.

On one hand, a developer in a small city, Woodbury, NJ, is planning to renovate a downtown building, turning it into a theater as a means of economic development. Citizens of Bridgeport, CT, have formed a new local arts group to recruit artists and creative businesses to their community.

On the other, some articles say that Detroit Public Schools have all but destroyed music education over the past 30 years and high school bands are becoming too expensive to operate.

While U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan may have meant well by releasing a letter this week encouraging schools to continue funding arts education programs (especially since they are part of the core curriculum under the current No Child Left Behind Act), that might not be enough.

How can the future leaders of cities like Woodbury and Bridgeport improve their communities through the use of the arts as an economic development and business recruitment tool if they were never taught the arts inside the classroom?

Americans for the Arts hosts an impressive collection of policy and advocacy resources for the arts and arts education. The following list isn't comprehensive, but it's tidy, quick, and includes the most likely resources you'll need to make the case for arts education.

The following items include information for arts education professionals. It also includes docs you can print and leave behind with your principal, superintendent, district staff, fellow teachers, mayors, council members, and state leaders to help them understand why they should support the arts for all students.

Federal Priorities for Arts Education

These are one or two page briefs that are meant to be left with decision makers. They include all pertinent information to get up to speed on major topics. You can print out the PDF version to hand out. The arts ed ones are:

1. Arts Ed and NCLB
2. Arts Ed Funding and Research at the USDE
   Read More

Arts teach many things – and one really important lesson of the arts is persistence and perseverance. I was thinking about this notion all week as a new TV show, Ruby and the Rockits premiered on ABC Family. The show is a family sitcom centered on the Gallagher family, two of whom were pop stars of the 80s (Patrick and David Cassidy).  Ruby, the daughter David never knew existed, suddenly comes into their lives at which point all the fun begins to unfold.

My friend Larry Reitzer is a writer on the show, so I've been following the show's development for nearly a year, and  to celebrate the premiere of the show, my daughter hosted a big premiere party.  Later that week, having the inside track, we were lucky enough to attend a live taping of the show in Los Angeles, and were able to meet some of the cast and crew.

Nick Rabkin, former founder and director of the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago, researcher, teaching artist expert, and esteemed colleague, has moved from the Center over to the University of Chicago and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). He's conducting the first-ever, national research project about teaching artists. The number one need? Teaching artists who will fill out the survey.

If you're a TA, click here to be heard. There are geographic restrictions, but if you don't try you'll never been seen.

If you're an arts org, contribute. Send a message to your TA's urging them to participate in the survey. If there's one thing we know, it's that "without numbers, you're just another person with an opinion." This means that if someone asks for money, for say, a national association for teaching artists or for health insurance programs for teaching artists, they'll need numbers and other data to show that it's truly needed. Nick's work could bring huge visibility and benefit to the entire field of teaching artistry.

I was on hiatus briefly to  run a summer institute: DREAM - Developing Reading Education through Arts methods.  DREAM is a research/programmatic project and one of the fifteen Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement Grants for 2008-2009. Our  grant provides training for 3d and 4th grade teachers on how to use visual art and theater to teach reading, and is a cooperative venture between Center ARTES, the San Diego County Office of Education, and multiple school districts in the north part of San Diego County.

We just completed a truly exciting and inspiring week-long institute whereby nearly 50 teachers were trained on methods to teach reading through arts-based methods touching on the intersection of reading and arts standards - of which there are many!  We amassed quite a team for the institute consisting  of several professional teaching artists, a terrific researcher evaluator, Patti Saraniero - who has been mentioned in various blogs on this page - and check out her blog on arts education and ethics as well as guest presenters from my university, and a few celebs including Greg Evans, Luann comic strip writer, Sara Pennypacker, author of the Clementine series, and Marla Frazee, illustrator for the Clementine series.

All in all we had the teachers going from 8:15 in the morning until 3:30 each day in completely hands-on activities.  We used two books as the texts - The Talented Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker, and Diary of  a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney.  The two books feature characters that could be described as underdogs.  Throughout the week the teachers learned techniques that culminated in small groups creating short silent films (with narration) whereby either Clementine or the Wimpy Kid were transformed in superheroes.  In some cases it was one character - in other cases the two actually met.  In order for the teachers to create their "silent" movies, they had to become detectives and search the books for clues as to what their character would be like if she or he was to become a superhero - and of course they had to use their detective skills in order to find clues as to develop a plausible storyline, acting skills, and visual arts skills (for backgrounds, costuming, makeup, etc.).

Arts education is as political an issue as an educational one. One could say that education itself is a political issue. After all, education and arts education decisions are made by thousands of adults each day--adults that do not see the faces of hear the voices of the children about whom these adults are making decisions. This is true of arts education too.

Federal legislators, federal employees such as USDE staff, and the president and his administration, all have specific impact on arts education. This is evident in the passage of No Child Left Behind.

State legislators, state department of education employees, state public university systems, state teacher unions, and statewide nonprofits have dramatic impact on arts education in the classroom. For example, state university systems that require one or two years of arts instruction as an entrance requirement often result in statewide arts education for high school students. Similarly, the state legislature may mandate a one or two year arts education graduation requirement for high schoolers. These policy actions put the arts firmly back in the schools (though not always as intended, I admit).

Program profiles on state and local efforts, as well as more info on arts ed as a political issue after the jump.

Tomorrow my eight-year old daughter will play Gretel in her summer camp production of "Fairy Tale Courtroom." She took an entire backpack of potential costume choices with her on the bus this morning. She figured out, additionally, that the bandana she was taking for her costume could serve double duty to keep her hair out of her face during her photography elective, in which she is—honest to God—using chemicals in a darkroom and developing actual black and white photographs.

Jon Hawkes, the writer, thinker, artist, and agitator from Melbourne, Australia attended the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention as the economic development innovator. Although he protested the categorization, I asked him to come under that mantle based on his great book of a few years ago called The Four Pillars of Sustainability, in which, trying to influence urban planners, he makes the case that cultural development is as important in a healthy community as social, economic and environmental factors.

How are these two paragraphs tied together? As part of Jon's path, he discovered that part of supporting a vibrant culture in any community is ensuring the ability for people to make art. To participate. That participation is not attending a concert or a museum, but making art. After writing the book, he spent ten years at the helm of a group called Community Music Victoria, an outfit dedicated to creating simple structures to bring people together to sing. Jon's leap from the conceptual to creating ways to support people making art was an inspiration.

New York State Senator Jose Serrano (D-28) wrote a compelling op-ed in the Gotham Gazette about the importance of arts education, even in a time of economic distress.

It's stunning and wonderful to read an eloquent and informed piece by such a high-ranking and powerful public leader. What's better than his educated opinions in support of the arts? Reading about the actions he's already taken to help put the arts back in NY's schools.

Here are some choice bits.

Perhaps it would be prudent to teach the arts only when we are confident that our young people can read, write and count proficiently, and when our society is generally more prosperous. In other words, is arts education significant, especially in a time of economic distress?

...

The issue of arts education brings us to the basic question of what type of society we wish to build. Today's eighth graders are the next generation of civic and business leaders. The cultural heritage of the state of New York, be it visual, architectural or musical, will be in their hands. If we want future generations to appreciate and see value in architectural icons like the Brooklyn Bridge, music forms like jazz and salsa, and painters like Edward Hopper, we need to introduce young people to them now. No matter what their ethnic, cultural or class background, a sound arts education strengthens our children's connection to their communities and to broader society.

One dyanmo out of Harvard's grad school in arts education (where so many arts ed dynamo's first appear) has put together an honest-to-goodness book on the future of arts education--but he's just now looking for writers.

This is a fantastic place to envision a better arts education, a better education system through the arts, and--ultimately--a better education for America's students. Here's a short list of what I might write about in my chapter proposal:

1. New media and arts education; teaching students already empowered as creators and cultural arbitors.
2. The new, local Arts Education Politician; advancing arts education at the local level happens when someone steps up to interface with the adults who make the education decisions--and plays the role of a politician or leader for the issue of arts education.
3. Other stuff I wrote about in another post.

What would you write about?

The call for chapters is listed below