ARTSblog

Although few parents would challenge the belief that every student should have an education in the arts, the practical reality is that arts education sometimes becomes less of a priority than other subjects, particularly subjects that are being tested for student academic achievement. 

Recently I was reviewing survey data concerning arts education opportunities in one of my local school districts and was quite dismayed to see written comments from both parents and students indicating that the arts were probably not as important to study in school as reading and math because they are not tested.  It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be this way. 

The study of the arts helps students achieve academically and in life and arts education has many extra-advantages that benefit the learning process for children.  Some of these benefits include helping students with concentration and retention: strengthening their ability to memorize, increase attention span, and to listen more carefully; in the development of motor skills: physical coordination, fine motor skills, movement in space, and development of muscles used for singing, playing, acting, and dancing; and other skills such as sequencing, interpreting, and expressing emotions.  Read the rest of this entry »

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First, thanks to everyone who is dropping by for the Arts Education Salon blogging event. As arts educators, advocates, parents and participants, we can often become a little isolated; these coming together of minds forums are vital to strengthening our field and ourselves.

My name is Rob Davidson; I am the Program Director for VH1 Save The Music Foundation. We’re a national non-profit organization with the mission of restoring and sustaining instrumental music programs in public elementary and middle schools around the country. My education and career have been centered on music education. I am a certified music teacher by training and worked for major symphony orchestras in education roles before taking my position at VH1 Save The Music.

I thought I’d start the week with a call to action. The time to start advocating for your arts education program is right now; it doesn’t matter who you are or what your role is, there is something you can do to contribute to the strength of the program. All too often the arts department is a school district’s best-kept secret, so the best way to start advocating is to make sure that is not the case. Make a plan to ensure the programs are visible.

So, how do you start? There are resources all over the web to help you brainstorm. Here on Americans for the Arts;  www.supportmusic.com; and on my organization’s site, www.vh1savethemusic.com. On our site, check out the 25 Things You Can Do for a few ideas to get you started. The important thing to remember is that there is no one “correct” answer. Have fun, make it fit your programs and community, but get it out there. Read the rest of this entry »

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Glad to be joining this group of arts and education professionals to write about parents and arts education. As a field we have needed to talk and think more about parents and engaging them as advocates for their kids’ arts education.

Before I jump in, a quick introduction. I have been part of the arts education field for nearly 20 years. My art form is theatre and it seems I have been a practitioner since my legs held me up and I was able to  walk onstage. Today, I teach in the theatre and nonprofit leadership programs at the University of San Diego and in the graduate stage management program at the University of California San Diego. I also have a consulting practice – Moxie Research – through which I work as a program evaluator in arts education. Prior to wearing these many hats, I worked as the education director at the Old Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse.

So thinking about parents and arts education reminded me of an experience I had years ago when I was first starting out in the field. I was in a first-grade classroom observing a teaching artist and the class was great. The teacher and the artist were going like gangbusters and I was moving around the room looking at what kids were working on. I occasionally stopped and asked kids about their artwork. I will never forget one girl  nonchalantly telling me about her drawing but also about how the image continued off the edge of the page. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last entry I told you how I got started. I set an unreasonable goal for myself (raise $50,000 in a year). I picked a Cause I believe in with my eyes closed – Arts Education for Grade Schools. I told everyone I knew and people I didn’t know, what I was up to.

And then..?

Within two weeks I was invited by a High School classmate (who honestly, I think forgot who I was) to a Cause on Facebook that was exactly what I’d committed to. I’d been researching different organizations I could support, and this was just the one. I really couldn’t believe it, but more importantly, I couldn’t pass it up.

I joined, read everything I could, met people, and in a couple hours I arrived at the place I think most good hearted people end up a couple hours after they join a Cause. Read the rest of this entry »

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I have been working in the arts and education since 1968 – first as a classroom teacher in Brooklyn and then, starting in 1973, managing arts programs at Henry Street Settlement, the Jamaica Arts Center and currently at ArtsConnection, a city-wide, dedicated arts-in-education organization, where I have been Executive Director since 1985.

Obviously, I look at this work from the context of cultural provider. I strongly believe that the arts community has a great deal of energy and expertise that can be of real value to schools and students – and I have seen tremendous changes in how we approach this work – about how the field operates, over that time.

For one, this is, now, a field. In 1973 sending artists into classrooms was still a new phenomenon both here in New York City and nationally; there were few arts in education programs within arts organizations and even fewer dedicated arts in education organizations. A principal I knew once described the schools of that era as kind of castles with deep moats around them to keep strangers out. I am proud of the fact that the arts community was in the forefront of breaching those moats, bringing needed skills and authenticity into schools and creating opportunities for children to participate in the arts during a period of severe budget cuts and layoffs of arts specialists. Read the rest of this entry »

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There is a lot of talk these days about advocacy and how it is or isn’t a part of our daily work in arts education. In talking with some arts educators who are veteran teachers this summer they told me that most people in their age bracket (50+) are offended by the idea of advocating for the educational opportunities that their students deserve as part of a complete education. 

One music teacher said, “I’m old school.  You teach what kids need to learn and you should not spend time writing letters to policy makers, pleading your case in front of the school board, or parading your kids down the street at levy time.” 

Yet, I find myself defending the idea of communication and information sharing (advocacy) with policy makers and the public because even the strongest arts education programs face scrutiny during tough budget times, when the curriculum is reviewed and updated, and when policies are changed or implemented at the local, state, and federal levels. Read the rest of this entry »

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In 1985 I graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, got an agent, designed images for publications, and discovered that I was lonely and bored to tears.

Arts Education saved my life. Years later as an artist with a teaching degree, I was anything but bored. I have been a certified arts educator, museum educator, teaching artist, and college instructor from Boston to Buffalo. I founded  PAE in 2000 and have provided services for educators, artists, and cultural partners from all 62 counties in New York State. I am honored to be one of the National Arts Education Council members with Americans for the Arts.

My years as the Newsbreak Editor for Teaching Artist Journal (Columbia College Chicago) continue to be especially not-boring…and I am proud to say that I am once again on the Syracuse University campus as an instructor and student in a brand-new era of arts education. Read the rest of this entry »

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The European Union, ushering in “a new era of light”, is banning the sale and production of incandescent light bulbs.  Europeans are hoarding these bulbs, not because they are more efficient, (they don’t last as long as the newer light bulbs, they produce unwanted heat, and they waste energy) but rather, because they are what we imagine when we imagine illumination. It is hard for us to think of something we have grown up with in a new light – even when we are thinking about new light.

When it comes to our thinking about arts education in our schools, we should remember that many of us grew up with arts education programs we took for granted. The public elementary school I attended had excellent visual art teachers, dedicated instrumental and vocal music teachers, inspired and inspiring theater teachers (I became a professional theater director), and even some dance instruction. All classrooms had pianos, and all my teachers knew how to play them.

But now, when we advocate for arts education for our children in our schools, we have a double challenge: 1) much of the arts education many of us grew up with and took for granted is GONE from our schools, and 2) in a digital age, we must advocate for arts education that has elements we never experienced: video production, podcasts, web design, digital music composition. We must move from nostalgia for the incandescent to advocacy for the florescent and the halogen and the Light Emitting Diode. Read the rest of this entry »

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Greetings from Las Vegas, Nevada — a community that is rich in arts of all types. Our school district, the Clark County School District, is 8,000 square miles—larger than many states—and it places a high value on Arts Education. We employ approximately 1,000 elementary and secondary full-time, licensed Arts Educators.

It was my privilege to supervise the Secondary Fine and Performing Arts Education Programs from 1994 through 2007 and it was during that time that we took up an especially interesting concept to reach out to our district’s burgeoning Hispanic population which had grown to 40%. In 2002, we implemented a standards-based, sequential curriculum in Mariachi and since then, thousands of students have become engaged in Music Education through their involvement in this program. This year’s Secondary Mariachi Program already has an enrollment count of over 3,000.

Why is this even important?

The recent NAEP Arts Assessment reports racial/ethnic/gender gaps in test data for music and visual arts education. Read the rest of this entry »

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I know that most of us who are reading this blog have a strong belief that the arts are vital to education.  But as I am often asked about why I believe so strongly in the arts and about what an arts education can really do, I sometimes question my purpose.  I know that I and my like minded colleagues believe there should be more of the arts in schools – but what do the students think?

I recently surveyed 27 Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD public high school students outside of the art room.  Most – but not all – students were currently or had previously taken a variety of arts classes, including visual arts, chorus, band, orchestra, and theatre.  I asked a series of questions pertaining to their perceptions of the arts program in their high school.  The questioning included whether students felt that art should be a requirement in high school, what subject the students viewed as “most important”, and what skills the students have learned through the arts and how those skills will help them in school, in their lives and in the future.

The good news: nearly 80% of the students surveyed believe there should be an art requirement in high school.  The students had various insightful reasons about why it is important to have art in their schools.  Many students thought the arts were a valuable tool for self-expression, stress relief and an outlet for working through personal issues. Read the rest of this entry »

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Greetings from the rural heartland of Wooster, Ohio.  My name is Gary DeVault, and I am the Fine Arts Consultant for Tri-County Educational Service Center and serve as a member of the Arts Education Council for Americans for the Arts.  Tri-County ESC is a state and locally supported agency which serves the school districts in Ashland, Holmes and Wayne Counties in Ohio to improve the quality of education for all children. 

As Fine Arts Consultant, I supervise nearly 150 music, visual art, and drama/theatre teachers in the nineteen school districts in a three county region.  I provide curriculum and instructional support; design professional development opportunities for arts, classroom teachers and teaching artists; coordinate arts services with community arts organizations and institutions; and provide direct services to students through numerous fine arts events and activities. 

In thinking about what is important for parents to know and do for arts education, I began reflecting on the conversations I have had with parents in my 30 years as a music educator and arts supervisor.  Whenever I talk with parents about the important things that they would like for their children to experience in school, they include music and art. 

Read the rest of this entry »

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From September 21 to 25, two dozen arts education experts from around the country will blog daily on Americans for the Arts’ new arts education blog and webpage:  www.AmericansForTheArts.org/ArtsEducation.

Each September, thousands visit our site, taking the start of the school year as an opportunity to ask questions about their children’s arts education. So the topic of this blog event will serve not only arts professionals but also citizens and concerned parents. Our esteemed bloggers will be talking about steps each person can take to ensure the children of their community have access to a great arts education.

Our bloggers will include members of the Arts Education Council of Americans for the Arts; Lucia Brawley, activist, actress, and writer for the Huffington Post; emerging leaders Jenna Lee and Kim Willey, both of Washington, DC; Mike Blakeslee from MENC; state advocacy leaders; state department of education staff; teaching artists; local program experts; and, other folks from all over the country. Read the rest of this entry »

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