ARTSblog

Donna Collins

I am the Executive Director of the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education (OAAE), a statewide arts education service provider that was founded in 1974.  We’re a part of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network – a cadre of statewide organizations supporting arts education.

During the 2009-2010 school year OAAE delivered a program titled Arts Education: HQPD (High Quality Professional Development) to hundreds of arts educators, administrators, teaching artists, and cultural organization education managers. I must add that the program was supported with funding from The John F. Kennedy Center and Ohio Arts Council.

The program’s day-long sessions, or multi-sessions over a few days, included professional learning opportunities on the topics of academic content standards, assessment, and curriculum integration.

We had overwhelming support by school administrators who urged their staffers to attend these opportunities for High Quality Professional Development. We were thrilled and there will be a repeat performance during the 2010-2011 school year with the aim of serving as many educators as possible.

Today, I was surprised by a phone call from an elementary school principal who called to ask if the Curriculum Integration workshop we are providing for her district’s in-service day in October would be like the other workshops we provide as part of HQPD. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

John Abodeely

For arts education programs and advocates to be successful, we must design our strategy and programs to fit within the larger context of public education. If our provision tactics—such as teaching artist residencies—do not fit within the limiting elements of our schools—such as budgets and schedules—then our work must change. If student requirements levied by the federal, state, or local policy narrow the curriculum too harshly to allow our kids to learn in and through the arts, then our work must change.

For example, arts integration has been used as more than as an instructional strategy. It has been an advocacy strategy. Providers have used arts integration to fit within scheduling limitations of schools. This is a response to the existing context of education.

Other programs now work with decision-makers that have more influence over the policy and funding conditions that may narrow the curriculum. Outreach to decision-making adults such as school boards and legislators seems to have become a part of many local programs, though years ago only national and state-level organizations did it. This is an effort to change the context of education. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Allen Bell

In the 2006 Arts Education Partnership Research and Policy Brief, “From Anecdote to Evidence,” authors Sandra Ruppert and Andrew Nelson called for “better and more comprehensive state level information if the arts are to remain an integral component of what constitutes a well-rounded education for all students.”

At the time, the policy brief referenced studies in Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington.

There are a couple of more recent examples of arts education research that continue to point the way in which we might fill the knowledge gap on the state level.

One recent study is the 2009-2010 Statewide Arts Education Assessment conducted by the Western States Arts Federation. Released in May 2010, the report provides an inventory and assessment of arts education available in the public schools for Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. Some of their major findings include:

-          the arts are not treated as a core subject in more than half the districts in three of the four states surveyed
-          student-to-teacher ratios are very high in the arts
-          of the four participating states, only Utah had significant offerings in dance
-          obtaining a visual arts specialist would be a valuable addition to most schools
-          a greater percentage of art teachers attended district workshops for professional development
-          money, priorities, and time are the major obstacles to the advancement of the arts Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Kim Dabbs

This past summer, my husband and I packed up our car and started a cross country road trip that spanned two months and over seven thousand miles. With two toddlers and a teenager in tow, our “Dabbs Trek” as we coined it in our blog, was a journey that travelled from our home in Metro Detroit to Chicago, where we picked up Route 66 and drove clear across the country until we stepped foot on the Santa Monica beaches. We traversed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Seattle and then turned east over the mountains, through the Great Plains, and back home again.  What an adventure it was!

Many people ask us what the highlight of our trip was, where was our favorite city, and questions of that nature and I always come back to this stop we made just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, called the Tinkertown Museum. This roadside attraction was full of wonder and enough to delight my husband and I, our 14-year-old son, AND our 3-year-old and 2-year-old (as we went farther in our journey, we realized that doesn’t happen very often).

Tinkertown was built by Ross Ward, who over the span of 40 years collected, built, and created this space in and around his home. The maze of animated miniature vignettes and glass bottle walls overwhelm the senses while collections of oddities from wedding cake couples to a 35-foot boat that sailed around the world made all of us laugh out loud.
Then, we hit the sign on the wall, hidden between memorabilia that said, “I did all this while you were watching TV.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Mark Slavkin

If you care about arts education, you must be in the advocacy business.

Until such time as the arts are fully embedded in every American school system, we have to be energetic in making the case.  We cannot leave this work to a handful of “advocacy organizations.”

In recent years I have been pleased to see our field become more sophisticated in this regard.  More arts education supporters understand we need both “top-down” and “bottom-up” support. Through federal, state, and school district policy and funding commitments we can influence change at a large-scale or systemic basis.

At the same time, we realize the need to provide hands-on support and resources and the classroom and school site level. As we toggle back and forth between broad policy support and technical assistance in schools, we need to be careful that we frame the right arguments for the right settings.

In thinking about our advocacy strategies, it struck me that our underlying goal is to create an imperative for policymakers and educators to expand their commitment to arts education. How can we create forces that are so compelling that change will happen on a consistent basis, and not be left to individual personal preferences? I see three primary imperatives: the “values” imperative, the “political” imperative, and the “instructional” imperative.  I am concerned we have put too many eggs in the first two baskets, and too few in the third. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Lynn Tuttle

*Editor’s Note: Updated information can be found in this post.

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 arts education standards. The resounding answer was “YES!”

One of the first steps in the process is to find out how you – arts educator, teaching artist, cultural organization, school administrator – use the current version of national arts standards in your teaching, curriculum, and programs.

SEADAE, in collaboration with the National Dance Education Organization, the Educational Theatre Association, the National Association for Art Education and MENC: the National Association for Music Education, is creating an online survey to obtain your input, ideas and suggestions. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Tim Mikulski

The teachers and kids are back in school. Starbucks is selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The air in D.C. has cooled off for the first time since March.

Of course it’s time for another Arts Education Blog Salon.
Now in its third round, Americans for the Arts is proud to host yet another week of blogs dedicated to the topic of arts education.

This time, we have a wide range of participants – from newbies who haven’t blogged before to veterans who have been with us since the first one. Altogether, we have 17 brilliant minds ready to share information and spark debate.

Our Scheduled Blog Roster:

John Abodeely, National  Partnerships Program Manager, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Allen Bell, Arts Education Research & Information Program Director, South Arts
Donna Collins, Executive Director, Ohio Alliance for Arts Education
Sarah Collins, Master’s Degree Candidate, University of Oregon
Kim Dabbs, Executive Director, Michigan Youth Arts
Rachel Evans, Assistant Professor, Kean University
Mimi Flaherty Willis, Senior Director of Education, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
Zack Hayhurst, Master’s Degree Candidate, American University
Tim Mikulski, Arts Education Program Manager, Americans for the Arts
Heather Noonan, Vice President for Advocacy, League of American Orchestras
Jim Palmarini, Director of Educational Policy, Educational Theatre Association
Laura Reeder, Arts Education Instructor/Graduate Assistant, Syracuse University
Victoria Saunders, Arts Education Consultant, Victoria J. Saunders Consulting
Barry Shauck, President, National Art Education Association
Mark Slavkin, Vice President for Education, Music Center (Los Angeles County)
Lynn Tuttle, Director of Arts Education & Comprehensive Curriculum, Arizona Dept. of Education
Joan Weber, Educator/Arts Education Consultant, Creativity & Associates Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6%

Since the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring the week following the second Sunday of September as Arts in Education Week just a short while ago (the end of July), I feel like our sector has been speeding along trying to find quick ways to celebrate the occasion.

Although time was short, I suggested that educators might see this as a way to celebrate this new week for the first time around by starting a project with students that would end later in the fall. For example, a music educator may start writing a new school song to be performed at an assembly in October or November; a visual art educator may start working on a mural project that begins the planning stages next week; or, a dance educator begins a class’ first performance during the week.

No matter what you decide to do to celebrate, it doesn’t have to start and end all during next week.

In fact, some of the brilliant minds that participate in the #ArtsEd chat on Twitter every Thursday night, came up with the idea to have those engaged to pledge to support arts education in their community and vow to testify on behalf of their local programs at a school board meeting during Youth Arts Month in March 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

I’ve been reading and seeing a lot about creativity and innovation lately. Here are five items that I thought are worth sharing. What do you have to add to the list? What great examples are you seeing of how the arts are inspiring creativity in your communities?

1. In an article in Fast Company, Nike CEO Mark Parker talks about the dinners he regularly hosts with artists to kick around ideas.  
2. At our annual convention in Baltimore, Jonathan Spector, President of The Conference Board, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2B0bSBCvJY) spoke about the role of an arts education in instilling the creative thinking which is needed to bring about the productivity and innovation which everyone business leaders is looking for these days.
3. CEOs interviewed in The 2010 IBM Global CEO Study list creativity as the most important leadership competency needed to manage in an increasing complex world. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10%

Alie Wickham

Well, our cycle for the PepsiRefresh grant has come to an end.  We ended at an excellent ranking of 117 – seriously folks; I’m not trying to be sarcastic.  Considering the hundreds of incredible ideas and passionate organizations (and individuals) we were up against, we should be proud.

However, this did get me thinking (and perfect timing considering I needed to get another post up)…

What would you do with a PepsiRefresh Grant???

I mean it! If you were given the opportunity to write a PepsiRefresh Grant ($5,000 to $250,000), what would you write the grant for and how would you design whatever project or mission you were trying to get funded? However, here is the challenge:

In the spirit of looking to the future, and the resourceful Green Paper given to us to work from, how would you use the challenges posted in the paper or via the arts in healthcare listserv (hospital advocacy, funding, certificates and degrees, research, etc.) to develop the “perfect” future of an arts in healthcare project, program or intervention/resolution to one of the challenges listed above?

I challenge you to sincerely think about this – are you up for it???  Let’s hear your voice!!

Popularity: 13%

“Not much,” thought the staff of the Fort Wayne Ballet when Karen Gibbons-Brown, artistic/executive director, first raised the idea of partnering with the Fort Wayne TinCaps baseball team for National Dance Week.

Her idea was to create a series of baseball trading cards featuring the dancers paired with ball players and linesmen from the ballet’s sponsor, Indiana-Michigan Power as a promotion for the ballet company. The point of the cards is to show that everybody dances. 

“Dance has the reputation of being elitist, standoffish or only for special people. Well, everybody’s special. Everybody can dance,” Gibbons-Brown said. “Dancing is a part of my life…but we are ordinary people.”

The baseball players were intrigued to see their moves replicated by the dancers, or maybe it was vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%