Lively hoots and hollers accompanied the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) panel introduction when Lynn Tuttle, Director of Arts Education with the Arizona Department of Education, led 120+ national arts education professionals in a 20-minute overview of everything you ever wanted to know about NCLB and the arts.
She offered “NCLB BINGO” as the framework for sharing the plain-language facts about this legislation and the controversies that surround it. The dubious prizes included tomes on navigating titled programs, and other stimulating education legislation. (more…)
Tagged with: Arts-EducationConventionEvents
June 20th, 2008 at 01:20pm
Laura Reeder
Arts professionals are using survey software to traverse distances and harvest data to validate the work of art in our left-brain society. As a result, we are now able to make a few claims about what the arts provide, what the arts need, and what the arts can do next.
I am looking for answers and connections when I come to a conference, and this year I am heading into the Americans for the Arts Arts Education sessions with some very specific questions based on a bundle of surveys that have been completed this past year about teaching artistry.
A comprehensive table of these surveys will be shared in the next few days, so we will circulate it after the conference. But, a sneak preview of the questions that are bubbling up is offered here. I reference ideas from Judith Tannenbaum in 2007 when she left the Anericans for the Arts conference and wrote “What Have We Got to Lose? Preserving the Important Qualities of the Teaching Artist Profession, While Still Moving Ahead with Its Professionalism.”
How will we preserve vision and cultural democracy as we urge leaders to centralize and institute regular support for our work? The surveys do share a vision for pooling resources and distributing power.
What will we do to prevent social justice from fading into service for the underprivileged? Many artists are being employed to tackle No Child Left Behind mandates instead of addressing causes and issues that generated the justification for NCLB.
Who will champion community arts work that is done in places other than formal institutions? Most of the surveys have a significant participation from organization administration.
What will happen to individual values and style? The surveys that address individuality require long narrative responses, and are more time-consuming to analyze.
How will we preserve the kind of learning that can only happen through trial and error? Most surveys reveal an abundance of methods embracing trial and error, yet a desire to move forward more effectively.
How will we be able to nurture and capture opportunities? Perhaps this conference will be one way.
Who will champion the understanding that teaching artists are artists? If this is a conference of arts-centered vision, we hope to find these answers in the outcomes.
Tagged with: Arts-EducationConventionEvents
June 18th, 2008 at 11:17am
Laura Reeder
It’s hard to believe that in just a week we will be in Philadelphia for the 2008 Americans for the Arts Conference. The arts education track of the conference is jam packed with some great workshops—I’m especially fond of the workshop titled: Arts Education Evolution: Think Globally. Act Locally. Gary DeVault and I will be presenting this session at 2:00 p.m. and then again at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, June 20. Every attendee will recieve copies of the tool kits we will be sharing: the Kennedy Center’s Leadership Kit, Self-Assessment Kit, and Community Audit. I promise you’ll have an engaging time and walk away with new ideas and tools to use back home.
I look forward to seeing everyone in Philadelphia!
Tagged with: Arts-Education
June 13th, 2008 at 09:46am
Donna Collins
Convention is right around the corner and I can taste the anticipation in the air! I am hearing from so many people about how excited they are to see each other, to attend sessions and just be in the same room together. Yes, I oversee two program tracks (Leadership and Career360) and I will be working throughout the three+ days. But my convention experience is more than my job. It reconnects me with why I do the work that I do. Sometimes I attend other national convenings and it takes energy away from me. The people at our convention fill me with energy; they feed my soul. I can’t wait.
We have invited some attendees to blog their convention experience and I’d like to take a moment to introduce them now. (more…)
Tagged with: Arts-EducationBusinessEventsLeadershipVolunteerism
June 11th, 2008 at 09:22am
Rebecca Borden
Engaging the Arts for a Creative Workforce
Graduation season is now upon us and soon the job market will be replete with fresh eyed graduates, eager to apply the skills they learned in school to their first jobs. After listening to speeches that troll the smorgasbord of opportunities available to them after they leave their alma mater, they will depart their schools convinced that they have been adequately prepared for success.
But to what extent is this true? Both the art and business communities have been buzzing with the claim that the workforce in the United States is far from where it needs to be creatively. (more…)
Tagged with: Arts-EducationBusinessLeadershipPolicyResearch
April 28th, 2008 at 09:00am
Tsion Lencho
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