ARTSblog

Stephanie Riven

We, the arts community, agree that arts learning improves academic performance, increases lifelong learning skills and often helps students at risk of failure engage in school.

We can point to the children. We can point to classrooms and to certain districts. We see their success.

In our arsenal of facts and arguments, we have key messages, data, research, policy briefs, examples of districts that have made progress, and a very effective lobbying effort in Washington.

We know the public agrees, too. After all, 91 percent of voters indicate that the arts are essential to building capacities of imagination.

But our message continues to become lost in translation where math, reading, and science are seen as the only subjects worthy of significant support. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%

Scarlett Swerdlow

This week Rod Blagojevich was convicted on 17 counts of corruption, including trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

Here in Illinois, we collectively braced for the bad jokes. We try to laugh it off — the Cubs and Bears may be perennial losers, but at least we’re #1 at something — but there’s no denying the facts. When Blago begins his sentence, he will be the fourth former governor of our state sent to the pokey in the past 35 years.

You might not think Blago’s guilty verdict has anything to do with the arts, but I think there is a connection between ethics in government and the priorities of government.

Last summer, we helped produce an event with U.S. Representative Mike Quigley as part of the Americans for the Arts 50 States 50 Days campaign. Representative Quigley is an interesting guy. Government transparency and accountability are his signature issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Tim Mikulski

Late last week Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, took to the White House website to inform the voting public of the recent President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) report, Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools.

Although the report recently made a splash in the arts education world and it was picked up for publication in some publications across the country, it was comforting to see that Ms. Barnes felt it important to utilize the stature of whitehouse.gov to spread the word, too.

In addition to highlighting the work of PCAH, Barnes also spotlighted the first family’s series of concerts (and poetry reading) held at their home since moving to Pennsylvania Avenue.  Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Narric Rome, Lynne Kingsley,Michael Sikes

The picture on the right was taken at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, VA, – a Kennedy Center Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) partner school following an education policy speech by President Obama on Monday, March 14.

Pictured are Americans for the Arts Senior Director for Federal Affairs & Arts Education Narric Rome, Americans for the Arts’ Arts Education Council Member and Executive Director of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education Lynne Kingsley, and Arts Education Partnership Senior Associate for Research & Policy Michael Sikes.

The President’s speech was the third in a set of education events to celebrate “Education Month at the White House.” He began the month at Miami’s Central High School and later visited the TechBoston Academy.

At the Kenmore visit, the President challenged Congress on the need to “fix No Child Left Behind.” Specifically, he said this:

“According to new estimates, under the system No Child Left Behind put in place, more than 80 percent of our schools may be labeled as failing – 80 percent of our schools. Four out of five schools will be labeled as failing. That’s an astonishing number. And our impulse is to either be outraged that the numbers are so high, or skeptical that they’re even true. And let’s face it, skepticism is somewhat justified. We know that four out of five schools in this country aren’t failing. So what we’re doing to measure success and failure is out of line.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21%

Marete Wester

As I write this, the clock is ticking on the deadline for the March 18 end to the Continuing Resolution passed by the Congress that allows the government to keep on working—despite the fact that the 2011 federal budget is still being debated.

New members of Congress are working hard to fulfill campaign promises to cut the budget deficit—even if it means reneging on commitments to education and other areas where promises have been made.

Not surprisingly, the fate of 33 grants totaling $40 million to model arts education programs across the country through the U.S. Department of Education lie in this shadow, the outcome still uncertain.

And yet, despite an almost daily offering of news pieces, blogs, and op-eds placing creativity and innovation at the top of what a multitude of experts from economists to educators to engineers say will help the country out of our economic crisis, we find ourselves once again having to make the case for why the arts—the proverbial “primordial ooze” of creativity—is worthy of government investment.    Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

Richard Kessler

When the categorical funding line for arts education in the New York City Public Schools was eliminated, essentially to “empower the principals” and to increase the total budget available to each school, a good friend and colleague of mine who works for the local district said: “money is policy.”

Short and sweet – don’t ya think?

And let’s be clear here, we’re not talking about soft money, which tends to be relatively small and short-term.

We’re talking about good old fashioned tax levy money, real-deal school dollars. The kind that is in increasingly short supply

There are many who will take issue with this. The arguments against this statement center on money not necessarily changing anything for the long haul, and in the absence of more thoughtful structures that give context and meaning to the funding, the long-term intentions behind the change brought about by funding tend to be evanescent.    Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16%

Marete Wester

I don’t have a Twitter account. I’m not morally opposed to it, or taking an anti-technology political stance—I’m merely a social media “slow adapter.” Since it’s one of those things I know it will take me a while to learn, it’s not high on my priority “to do’s”—at least for now.

Which is why I’m always amazed when a colleague emailed me that I’ve been quoted on Twitter, as I was recently speaking on a panel at the Face to Face conference hosted by the Arts in Education Roundtable in New York City (Feb 22 & 23).

The Face to Face conference had several hundred attendees, with a significant number of first-timers. While many of the panels were thoughtfully focused on building skills and improving practice in delivering solid learning in the arts, others were targeted towards advocacy and making the case.

The comment that made the tweet was something I said as a member of the Arts Education Advocacy panel moderated by Doug Israel of the Center for Arts Education, featuring NYC Councilman Robert Jackson and NYS State Alliance for Arts Education Executive Director Jeremy Johannesen.

In response to a question about how we would describe the current environment for arts education from our respective vantage points at the local, state, and national level, I apparently said something tweet-able. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%

Tim Mikulski

Although Congress quickly avoided a government shutdown this week, arts education funding somehow managed to get caught up in the two-week continuing resolution Band-Aid that was passed by both the House and Senate yesterday.

While the Continuing Resolution (CR) keeps the government running for another two weeks, it also makes a $4 billion cut in domestic spending, including a number of federal education programs.

Among the programs designated for cuts is the total elimination of funding for the Department of Education’s $40 million Arts in Education program. This program funds a large number of arts education activities across in the country, including the Kennedy Center’s arts education efforts and VSA, the international organization on arts and disability. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 23%

Tim Mikulski

Many of our loyal Arts Watch readers are familiar with Americans for the Arts’ national arts advocacy efforts, but in light of recent state-level budgetary threats, we wanted to make sure that all of our members and non-members were kept up to date on the latest information in your individual states and regions.

The State Arts Action Network (SAAN), a network of over 70 arts advocacy, services, and education organizations, has been active within Americans for the Arts since 2004, when two previously independent national arts organizations (the State Arts Advocacy League of America and the National Community Arts Network) ratified an agreement to become part of our organization. Over the past few years, SAAN has also grown to include the members of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.

However, the SAAN isn’t left to its own devices, as two staff members from the Government and Public Affairs Department, Jay Dick and Justin Knabb, provide professional development, networking, and technical assistance to the organizations. Jay and Justin also monitor news and events in all 50 states, providing advocacy help to the SAAN member organizations when needed.

All of this background leads me to a brand new area of our website. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Tim Mikulski

By a mere 8 votes in the House of Representatives, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) FY2011 budget was cut down to $124.5 million yesterday-the same level of funding as FY2007.

Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-MI) amendment passed 217-209, but it wasn’t a case of party line politics as 23 Republicans voted against the measure and 3 Democrats voted in favor of it.

The good news is that the two amendments to eliminate the NEA altogether were introduced, but never offered up for a vote by the sponsors on Thursday. That is a testament to the advocacy efforts  of the arts community and the strong supporters for the arts in the Congress, including Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who gamely handed our Creative Industries maps out to House members on the floor before the vote. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12%

Tim Mikulski

Two amendments have been introduced regarding the funding bill for Fiscal Year 2011 currently being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives that would further cut/eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

The first amendment offered by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) would zero out funding for the NEA completely.

The second amendment of concern is offered by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI). It would reduce funding for the NEA by an additional $20.5 million, resulting in an allocation of $124.5 million for the Endowment.

The amendments are scheduled to be heard, along with over 400 more, some time over the next few days.

To help prevent these amendments from being included, visit our E-Advocacy Center.

Popularity: 11%

Victoria Plettner-Saunders

I recently sat in a room with Americans for the Arts President & CEO Bob Lynch and more than a dozen San Diego arts advocates. We were talking about how to collaborate better on behalf of arts and arts education funding in San Diego.

By the end of the meeting we had a lot of good ideas to work with in the coming months. But the phrase Bob used that I can’t get out of my head as I work on arts education advocacy is, “Don’t be the dance band on the Titanic.”

What does that mean? Well, if you’ve seen the movie you know that eight British musicians went down with the ship because they insisted on playing music for the mostly doomed passengers trying to get on lifeboats. Our image of the dance band is that they kept playing as if it could fend off the inevitable, even though they were doing nothing to get people to safety. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14%

Last week, I was privileged to join my fellow Marylanders at the state’s arts advocacy day. Every year this day gets bigger and better and this year was no exception. 400 arts advocates from Western Maryland, the Eastern Shore, Baltimore, and everywhere in between joined together to urge elected leaders to support the budget for the Maryland State Arts Council.

This year’s theme of the day was “Many Voices One Song.” We heard from many state legislators about the importance of the arts in Maryland and every one of them was singing the same tune: “We support the arts” or “We understand the economic value of the arts.” We were also joined by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the Senate President, and even the State Comptroller, who all spoke about the value of the arts and their support of them. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Mara Walker

Last week I had the opportunity to see the arts at work in a few interesting ways.

I was invited by Frank Hodsoll to experience The Great Game: Afghanistan (a play that explores the history of the country and it’s culture right up to present day) for an audience filled with military personnel at all levels, and representatives from the Department of Defense and Department of State. I heard from those federal leaders and Martin Davidson, head of the British Council, about how powerful the arts are as a mechanism for causing these key leaders to think about our involvement in Afghanistan in a new way.

On Friday, I heard Anna Deavere Smith talk at The Aspen Institute on “The Artist’s Voice for Social Change” and her commitment to using characters and the arts to get people to engage in their communities. She combines her interviews with thousands of union leaders, political officials, members of the public, and so many others into powerful theater that begs us to think for ourselves and get involved. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8%

Tim Mikulski

It was just yesterday that we reported the National Endowment for the Arts is facing a $12 million budget cut in the 2011 House Appropriations Bill.

Today the news is even worse.

The House has amended the same proposal, slashing the NEA budget by $22.5 million, leaving the endowment with a $145 million budget. This drastic measure would result in the largest cut to the agency in 16 years. Arts advocates have already sent 10,000 messages to Congress, but we need much more.

Next week, the proposal moves to the House floor, where we expect amendments for even more drastic cuts.

By taking two minutes today to send a customizable message via our E-Advocacy Center, we will automatically send letters on your behalf to both of your Senators and your House Representative.

Popularity: 10%