The Shock of the New

On the ATA listserv, I read with excitement a posting about something called an Emerging Leaders Salon at ARTSBlog:

"Join the Arts Education and Emerging Leaders Council of Americans for the Arts and the 20UNDER40 anthology for the Emerging Leaders Salon on ARTSblog http://blog.artsusa.org/category/emerging-leaders/ the week of October 19-23. Fifteen diverse arts professionals from across the country will discuss the question of generational leadership in the arts and it is through your comments and questions that this dialogue can grow."

Gosh, it all starts today.

Also: Good Morning - Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor.

Reading Rainbow

I know you are a busy person, but have you noticed that, all this week, Americans for the Arts has been launching its new arts education blog with a blogging marathon? About 30 "bloggers" have set out to deliver posts on a wide range of sometimes surprising topics, such as increasing access to the arts for special needs students (no surprise here) and jail(?!).

Among the many excellent, Laura Reeder of Partners for Arts Education posts on the Qualities of Quality, and Arnold Aprill of Chicago Arts Partnership in Education introduces readers to Building Curriculum, Community and Leadership through the Arts (BCCLA) as a project model for innovative and rewarding ways to support local arts teachers.

I read about it on Twitter. Which, at 140 characters, is basically the future in a nutshell.

Next week: It's All Happening at the Zoo.

Lead the Way

Over at ArtsBlog, John Abodeely of Americans for the Arts writes about the importance of systemic change if we are going to effectively provide arts education in our schools. This, among other things, is the topic of the upcoming 2009 Convention.

Systemic efforts to sustain arts education provision include a sense of ownership by civic and education leaders; a single strategy to leverage otherwise disparate funding streams for arts education; and support for school districts to choose arts partners and teaching artist programs with discretion and purpose. In essence, these efforts organize the arts education community in order to help the education community to provide arts education.

Also: James Baldwin, 1963

The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then to learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish.

Plus: Dionne Warwick - Alfie

Shout it Out

Today is Arts Advocacy Day!

Who knew?

Apparently, Americans for the Arts and friends have organized a madcap day of advocacy in the nation's capitol. More than 500 arts advocates from across the nation are now, even now, descending on Capitol Hill to call on our representatives to support arts-friendly legislation and policies.

The blurb on the Americans for the Arts website promises that "a highlight of the day" will be a Congressional hearing entitled “The Arts = Jobs” hosted by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior. A panel of celebrity witnesses including Josh Groban, Wynton Marsalis and Linda Ronstadt will testify.

You can watch a live Webcast of this event at 10:30 a.m. (Windows Media)

You may also want to take this moment to give a shout out to your member of Congress.

Perhaps you could demand more money for art.

Hoopla!

One of my Senators voted for the Coburn Amendment, which is basically like telling me to drop dead. Luckily, Americans for the Arts has provided me with an easy way to craft a customized message so I can respond, which I did, vehemently.

If your Senator voted for this funding prohibition, you can send them a note expressing your extreme disappointment and ask them to work to delete this language in the final conference bill with the House. You can also give their office a call.

Find out how your Senator voted and send them a customized message courtesy of Americans for the Arts.

The Greatest of these is Love

I've been meaning to tell you that Anne Rhodes over at the Empire State Partnerships blog outpost ESPrit de Corps has posted the executive summary of Project Zero's recent report Qualities of Quality: Excellence in arts education and how to achieve it.

I'm not an executive, but I've downloaded it anyway and I think it's terrific.

Americans for the Arts offers an "on-demand webinar" where Steve Seidel outlines all of the research findings in detail. I can demand the webinar for $85, or I could demand a week's worth of groceries.

Music: Here Comes the Sun (Here Comes the Sun @ youtube.)

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

$50 million in federal funds for the arts hangs in the balance.

Take the next two minutes to do something about it.

Americans for the Arts has made it easy:

Jump!

Hypertextual:
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger...

Read It and Weep

The field is littered with the husks of old reports about the vital importance of the arts in education and public life. They always seem to end with something about "how this conversation must continue" and "plans for possible next steps."

I have no idea what happens after that, but I do know that nobody ever asks me to do much except contact my elected officials--which I do, with abandon and shamelessly, like Callas.

Arts, Artists and Teaching (PDF) is an excellent report that was prepared by a gathering of leaders at Bennington College, in collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Trust, in the year 2002.

It says cool things like this:

Ironically, the business community clamors for creative people, seen as the competitive key to innovating in a globalized economy; but the educational system continues to put greater importance on mathematics, science, and other "hardcore" disciplines, which are seen as more "useful." The arts help to promote both the creative abilities and cultural literacy that are critical to developing fully engaged citizens in the global society.

I'm sure the report was used to bolster proposals and appeals to legislators, but I doubt it changed closed minds and I'm rather certain that no one who disagreed with the conclusions was invited to participate in the initial conversations. The people who make the actual decisions are not in the choir and it is clear that not enough of them have been convinced by this report or any of its relatives, ancestors or descendants.

I have read it though and I am grateful to have access to mounting evidence of what I already know: We are vitally important and the full measure of our usefulness has not been made. I guess I could call one or two of the members of the Imperial Senate who are jonesing to cut the measly $50 million allocated to the NEA out of the stimulus package and tell them just how I feel.

Or, I could just sit here and cry about it.

Meta-musica: Chavela V.

Bite the Hand

Americans for the Arts announces that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is set to get $50 million through the Economic Recovery Bill and NEA Chairperson Dana Gioia wants you not to worry, he's got your back.

In a statement released on January 22nd, 2009 we are assured that arts organizations are going to get what's coming to them:

"Arts organizations have been hit enormously hard by the current recession. They've seen their support drop from corporations, foundations, and municipalities. This infusion of funds will help sustain them, their staffs, and the artists they employ."

Further down in the NEA press release we get this:

"A review of NEA grants for FY 2008 revealed that for every $10,000 of grant money, 162 artists benefited. This number does not include the arts administrators involved in these projects..."

Wait.

I am not a mathematician, but I do own a calculator and it tells me that $10,000 divided by 162 artists = $61.72 per artist.

So for every $10,000 in grant money 162 artists benefit to the tune of $62 each.

Fine. It is the depression and I will take your $62, but I have two more questions:

1. How much are the arts administrators getting?*

2. Whose hand do I bite?

*According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, arts administrators in performing arts companies earned an average yearly salary of $89,370 in 2007. Those working for museums and similar institutions averaged $87,520.

All That We Need

Over at Community Arts Network the excellent Arlene Goldbard has turned out a skillful sequel to her earlier illustrated primer on the New New Deal.

The essay "The New New Deal Part Deux" is, as we have come to expect, a tour de force. You should read it and share it with comrades.

Here's what I could glean:

1. The New New Deal is coming and we TAs are going to be lucky if we get a dime.

2. Our fearless leaders begged for art-specific language to be included in the first round of legislation and were roundly ignored. HOPE is eternal, but as usual, there is no consensus among the arts community about our priorities or our message. If we don't start pleading in one unified voice, we'll get nothing. So, join Americans for the Arts why don't you?

3. In the plan put forth, the NEA is set to get $50 million to "preserve jobs" in the non-profit arts sector that are threatened by the current economic apocalypse. Most of this money is to be regranted to state arts agencies and Ms. Goldbard points out that $50 million is less than it takes to wage two weeks of war without end.

Rolling toward the finale, our muse muses in great detail about possible models for public service jobs to round out the age of Aquarius, but that's just utopia talking. Besides, I'm too old to sleep in a dorm with the other cultural workers while eating ramen.

I think our new slogan should be:

TEACHING ARTISTS OF THE WORLD DEMAND A LIVING WAGE!

HEALTHCARE!

AND A PENSION PLAN!

I know, HOPE was definitely much tastier and easier to put on a button.

Sadly, I've already eaten mine.

I was so hungry for it.

Also: Eric B. & Rakim Paid In Full (youtube)

The Answers, My Friend

What are the qualities of quality?

What are the markers of excellence?

How do a programs' decisions impact the pursuit and achievement of quality?

On December 17th, Steve Seidel of Project Zero will present the results of a Wallace Foundation study that promises to clear this up once and for all. 

December 17, 2008
The Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts Education and How to Achieve It
Presenter: Steve Seidel, Director, Harvard Project Zero, and Director, Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

If you want the answers, it's $85.00 for Americans for the Arts Members and $125.00 for Non-members. 

I told you to join.