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I recently moderated a panel at the 25th Annual Winter Music Conference in Miami. It’s not the first place you would think that a panel on arts education would exist and indeed our discussion rounded out a week of panels that included conversation on why DJs should dye their hair to better market themselves. I worried that we would not have an audience – especially since the event was held on the last day of the conference. Adding to my concern, it was also a beautiful Saturday afternoon, it was on Ocean Drive and the beach was literally steps from our discussion room. If individuals made it past the beach, the second hurdle was the lobby where the conference had a collection of vinyl records for sale. While waiting for the room to be set up, I perused the record collection. Who knew that Appolonia released a solo record? Then I wondered, “Who knew about our panel?”
We were seven individuals and, according to the panel description, we were ready to discuss “Why are the arts important to child development and how are interdisciplinary approaches beneficial?” Also, “How does funding affect the quality of education in the Arts?” What a cast of characters we were. We could have given Gilligan’s gang a run for their money. After all, we too had a professor (actually, more than one) and arts leaders, radio talent, and composers to boot. The panelists and I joked that if no one came, we were happy to have met each other and we agreed to take an hour to converse over lunch and the inevitable South Beach cocktail. Read the rest of this entry »