ARTSblog

Last month, as hundreds of thousands of New York City sight-seers walked through Times Square, the message of arts education was promoted through an interesting partnership of arts and business. For an entire week in January, MTV aired Americans for the Arts’ The Arts. Ask for More.  public service awareness campaign television ad Raisin Brahms four times per hour on MTV 44 ½, one of the largest high definition screens in Times Square.

As an entertainment industry stronghold that believes in the power of the arts, MTV leads by example—showing other companies that supporting the arts is crucial to creativity, learning, a powerful workforce, and a strong economy. This collaborative effort is a great example of creative partnerships between business and the arts.

Each year at THE BCA TEN: Best Companies Supporting the Arts in America gala, businesses are celebrated for their support of the arts, including partnerships with arts organizations, sponsorships, leadership, grants, and other cross sector collaborative efforts. In November, the Business Committee for the Arts will once again come together to celebrate THE BCA TEN 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7%

This past week I attended a U.S. Department of Education “stakeholders” meeting on the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The meeting was ground-breaking since it was the first time that the national arts education community had been invited to specifically address the reauthorization policy efforts. Since last June, the Department has been holding these meetings on various reform topics, typically broad and encompassing multiple sectors of the education universe. The meeting was led by Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement (OII) Jim Shelton and attended by Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (PEPD) Carmel Martin, OII Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary Scott Pearson, and PEPD Deputy Assistant Secretary Emma Vadehra.

Held in the Department’s auditorium, the meeting began with short introductory remarks by Shelton and Martin and then the arts education advocates in the audience were given time to speak. While a transcript of the meeting is expected, it will be weeks before it is available.  I’ll just simply say that each speaker made a thoughtful and passionate case for strengthening the arts through ESEA reauthorization. In most cases, representatives from each organization cited research or programs their members had run – or the school administrators and arts educators in the audience spoke about their schools and districts and the positive impact that arts education makes locally. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 23%

Today, Americans for the Arts released our new National Arts Index at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  This report represents a major milestone for arts in America. Never before has there been a single and annually produced measure of the health and vitality of the arts in America. 

While new for the arts, we interact with indicators daily. If you want to know about the stock market, you check the Dow-Jones Index.  Are we optimistic about the economy? Track the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index. Indicators are broad measures that compress a lot of data into a single indicator. 

The National Arts Index is an annual measure that uses 76 equal-weighted, national-level indicators of arts activity-making it one of the largest data sets about the arts industries ever assembled.  This new report covers an 11-year period, from 1998 to 2008. 

The 2008 National Arts Index score is 98.4-down 4.2 points from its 2007 score of 102.6 (2003=100). A score of 105.5 would return the Index to its highest point, measured in 1999. While the arts industries in the U.S. have become increasingly creative and the number of working artists and arts organizations is growing, audience demand has failed to keep pace-causing the National Arts Index to drop to its lowest level in the 11 years we’ve tracked. 

The overall Index score is only one of the big stories in this report.  Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 26%

Podcast: Download

Derrick Ashong – or DNA as he is sometimes known – will give the keynote presentation to the Arts Education Preconference on Thursday, June 24. His presentation will discuss the impact of arts education and the value of the arts in creating social change.

Want to learn more about Derrick?  He spoke with Americans for the Arts staff recently about his arts background and the need for increased arts education in our schools. Take a listen. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

Yesterday, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) President & CEO Paula Kerger told a Los Angeles audience that following years of decline, arts and culture will once again have a home on PBS stations throughout the country.

The new endeavors for PBS include an online arts portal (starting in April) and a plan to devote one night of programming each week to the arts (starting in the fall or winter). The network is also looking to serve communities that have lost arts educators, by providing new arts inclusion material on the PBS Teachers website.

“To be candid, over the last years, we haven’t done as good a job (with cultural programming) as we could,” Kerger said. “I think we can do more. We’re looking to increase the investment we’re making in the arts. The budget (for such programs) has been flat or slightly down. I want to ramp it up.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 18%

I was a Jacques Cousteau fanatic starting in my preschool years. I flummoxed my family early on as a precocious three-year old, running around demanding “Jockootoe! Jockootoe!” until someone turned on the TV. When he appeared, I was transfixed.

Since then and until the show went off the air, when The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was on, I was lost in the wonders of the ocean, its mysteries and dangers, and general awesomeness. It was cool—and it stoked an already healthy imagination in a little girl growing up in rural Mountaintop, PA.

I was recently fortunate to have the opportunity to reconnect with my inner science/nature geek by communing with 80 professional artists and scientists, along with arts, university, and nonprofit administrators on a surprisingly snowy weekend in December at the first U.S. convening of the British organization TippingPoint. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 24%

Hope is a pathway.  One such path is made possible through the arts. I feel pretty lucky in that I’ve pretty much seen myself as hopeful in my life.  I’ve also had a life filled with arts, as well as a family for whom arts remains central.  I am often reminded that this is not the experience of many of the students I teach.

The semester just ended and my college students handed in their final projects and write-ups.  I teach a class called “Learning Through the Arts” at California State University San Marcos, in southern California.  The final for this class, rather than a test or research paper,  is a 3D sculpture that the students create to demonstrate an understanding of how they view the role of arts in education.

The students in this class are preparing to become elementary school teachers.  Most students who attend my university commute, many live at home, and the majority work to put themselves through college.  We are located in northern San Diego County where nearly every public school qualifies as having 35% or more students on free or reduced school lunch.  Many of the students who come to the university campus grew up in Spanish speaking or bilingual homes, and as an institution we have the distinction of being named a “Hispanic-Serving” institution.  There are also quite a number of Asian-Pacific students, thus bottom line, a truly wonderful mix of students on campus.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 20%

Since everyone else is talking about Avatar, we may as well continue the conversation in Arts Watch and on ARTSblog.

I saw the movie in IMAX 3-D on New Year’s Day, along with what seemed like the entire Washington, DC metro area. 

We bought our tickets two days ahead of time, and arrived at the theater two hours early to get in line for our seats. When we arrived at the theater, flashing signs indicated that the movie was sold out for the next three days. It’s been a long time since I’ve ever seen this much hype around a movie. The hype, in my opinion, is well-deserved.

I woke up Monday morning to the news that after the weekend, Avatar had already exceeded over $1 billion in box office sales.  Talk about economic impact.

The movie was made using the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, co-developed by Director James Cameron. All of this new filming technology got me wondering:  If we didn’t have art in schools, communities, or non-profit arts organizations, could this movie have been made? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 33%

Each January, statehouses across the country suddenly go from empty hearing rooms and corridors to packed committee sessions and protests on the front steps as new legislative sessions begin.

Having worked as a legislative staffer in a former life, I fondly remember December as a few weeks spent regrouping from the hectic crunch of the end of one session, followed by the preparation of new bills and resolutions for the next one. Which got me thinking…this might be one of the best times of year to reach out to your state legislators to discuss arts and arts education policy.

Through our national state legislature monitoring service at Americans for the Arts, I have already seen a number of new bills prefiled for the next legislative session that could substantially help the arts community.

For example, Florida H-461 would revise the state’s school report card system to allow the rate of student participation in fine arts classes as criteria alongside math and reading test scores. New Hampshire H-1589 would require that a portion of funds from state university system building projects be allocated to the state arts fund. And, Missouri H-1274 would require the state to provide a fine arts education consultant to each of its regional education professional development center.

I know that it sounds cliché to say that it only takes on person to get a new law made, but I saw it happen too many times not to believe it.

As arts advocates, I’m challenging you to think of something (preferably a project or initiative that wouldn’t require funding) that would help improve the arts for you personally, your community, a local theater group, etc.

In between the eggnog and mistletoe, set up a January meeting with your (hopefully arts-friendly) legislator and pitch them. You never know what idea stick and become law.

What ideas do you have that state officials could implement to help the arts in your state in the new year?

Popularity: 39%

Americans for the Arts announces the election of three new members to its Arts Education Council. They include: Ron Jones, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL; Stephanie Riven, Center of Creative Arts, St. Louis, MO; and Victoria J. Saunders, San Diego, CA. Donna Collins of the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education and Steven Tennen of ArtsConnection in New York City were also re-elected to the council.  They are joined by current council members Thomas Cahill, School in a School, New York, NY; Rob Davidson, VH1 Save the Music, New York, NY; Gary DeVault, Tri-County Educational Service Center, Wooster, OH; David Flatley, Center for Community Arts Partnerships, Chicago, IL; Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Laura Reeder, Partners for Arts Education, Syracuse, NY; Lynn Tuttle, Arizona Department of Education, Phoenix, AZ; and Miriam C. Flaherty Willis, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Vienna, VA.

The Arts Education Council represents the Arts Education Network—a segment of the professional members of Americans for the Arts, who work to improve access to and quality of arts education. The 13-member council provides guidance on the development and execution of programs and services that meet the needs of the Arts Education Network.  Learn more about the Arts Education Council and Network at: http://www.artsusa.org/networks/arts_education/default.asp.

“It is critical that America’s children get an opportunity to have a quality arts education. Those who serve on the Arts Education Council are leaders who bring expertise, skills, and passion to ensure that arts education excels in our nation’s schools and communities,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts.

Popularity: 25%