Michigan Merit Curriculum Visual, Performing, and Applied Arts High School Blog

US Asst. Secretary of Education Peter Cunninghan on Education, Creativity, and the Arts

2010-11-15T08:03:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiWg3edBawg

US Department of Education Arts Magnet Blue Ribbon School in Baton Rouge, LA

2010-11-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/usedgov#p/search/0/EONzNXrNZVU

NEA Webcast on Creative Placemaking Now Available Online

2010-09-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

This panel discussion on the role of the arts and the creative community in creating livable, sustainable communities is now available at:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/9570386

Panel participants include Richard Florida, author The Rise of the Creative Class and The Great Reset; Tim Jones, president & CEO of Toronto Artscape; Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas; Ann Markusen, director of the Project on Regional and Industrial Economics at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute; and moderator Carol Coletta, CEO of CEOs for Cities.

Following are some of what I heard from the panel this afternoon:

Creative Places/Spaces engender:
- Optimism
- Inspiration
- Curiosity
- Learning

Rick Lowe, Founder, Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas

Creativity is a major factor in growth and change in the world.

Places that are truly creative have creativity that permeates all areas and levels. Arts and culture are strategic catalysts that can help inspire more people.

People care about arts and culture. When you look at what gives people a good deal of happiness….the aesthetic sense of a place, creative places are multi-dimensional.

It’s time to move beyond putting creativity and the arts on display. The real challenge of our time is to put creativity to work.

We have to enhance the creative capacities of kids not destroy them.

Watch and listen. Let us know what you hear by going starting a discussion at:

http://mivpaa.blogspot.com/

The Michigan Film Office and Education

2010-03-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

The Michigan Film Office provides information on film, television, and digital media related programs in Michigan including state universities, community colleges, and trade schools.

In order to teach a trade, occupation or vocation for a fee or consideration of any kind you must be licensed to operate a proprietary school by the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (Reference: MCL 395.101). We will not be posting training opportunities except from licensed providers. For more information please go to www.michiganps.net

Announcement

One of the goals of the Michigan Film Office has been to create and put in place educational competencies for all entities planning to offer training to develop new Michigan crew for the growing film industry.
Michigan Film Industry Job Competencies have been adopted by Michigan Film Office Advisory Council. These competencies are a standard that schools may voluntarily adopt as their measure to insure we have a skilled, trained, and quality educated film production workforce. Students may also refer to them as a guide to insure they are receiving the necessary education to be an effective candidate for a film production job in Michigan.

Link: Michigan Film Industry Competencies (pdf)
When considering a school students may want to ask the following questions as a guide to insuring they receive a quality education that properly prepares them for employment in the film production industry.

Is the school accredited and/ or licensed?
Does the school voluntarily agree to adopt the ‘Michigan Film Industry Job Competencies”?
Does the school have any job placement assistance, how many former students are working in the business, and what type of jobs do they have ?
Does the school have any relationships with the film unions , prospective employers, production houses , or producers?
Are there former students available you can speak with?
What length and costs are the programs they offer?
Are the instructors professionals in the field they are teaching and do they have credits to their name on productions?
Are there any complaints against the school? Were they resolved in a timely and effective manner?
What type of equipment and facility does the school utilize?
Does the school offer specific classes in the field you are planning on entering?

The answer to these questions will help the prospective student make an informed decision as to the best school for their specific needs.
If you have any questions please contact:
Richard Jewell
Workforce Development Manager
(517) 241-8589
jewellr@michigan.org

http://www.michiganfilmoffice.org/Jobs-and-Training/Education/Default.aspx

Let's Save Michigan

2010-03-17T08:14:00.001-07:00

http://letssavemichigan.com/blog/

Michigan can emerge from the current downturn stronger, more livable, and more likely to withstand future economic crises—but only if we convince our elected officials to put the right policies in place. To save Michigan, we must come together and fight for smart redevelopment and a rededication to our cities. Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, and other struggling cities shouldn’t be abandoned to sprawl and blight. They should be transformed into centers for culture and innovation to attract a talented workforce and tomorrow’s growth industries.
“The point of cities is multiplicity of choice,” Jane Jacobs once wrote. We completely agree. Downtowns should be dynamic hubs where jobs, stores, restaurants, and other amenities are all within walking distance. Through sustainable urban planning and careful tax-incentive programs, we can carve out vibrant neighborhoods in Michigan’s city centers, attracting a diverse mix of businesses and residents. Urge your state and local officials to support mixed-use buildings, people-centric zoning policies, and tax incentives for investing in cities.
We want to foster more livable cities through the development of alternative modes of transportation. As we work to resurrect our cities and streets, we must keep pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Urban neighborhoods are best experienced from the sidewalk, among the people, at ground level. Demand that your elected officials endorse public-transportation solutions, bicycle-friendly roads, and pedestrian-friendly open areas.
The state must dedicate itself to improving and maintaining quality of life for all residents. Funding for parks, public services, and the arts isn’t a luxury—it’s critical to the health of our cities and our state, and every Michigan resident’s future. We must be mindful of fiscal realities, but we must not allow our cities to be stripped of their unique character. Insist that your legislators embrace policies that support museums, restaurants, bars, libraries, and performance spaces—the lifeblood of vibrant cities

By changing its approach to its cities, Michigan can attract and keep a dynamic workforce that will carry the state through the end of the 21st century—and beyond.
Won’t you join our fight?

Student Voice and Film in Exploring Identity

2010-03-10T11:51:00.001-08:00

Researcher Erica Halversion discusses the role of film-making in identity construction for adolescents.

Detroit Diary: Detroiter is a Finalist in Poetry Out Loud

2010-03-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

Detroit Diary: Detroiter is a Finalist in Poetry Out Loud

Creativity in the Classroom by Dave Gray, founder and CEO of XPLANE, the visual thinking company.

2010-02-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

Futurist Alvin Toffler once said that mass education has both an overt and a covert curriculum. The overt curriculum was “reading, writing and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects.”1 But beneath it, he said, lay an invisible or “covert curriculum” which consisted of three courses: one in punctuality, one in obedience and one in rote, repetitive work.

This makes sense when you look at the history of U.S. education. The public school system was introduced during the industrial revolution, which spanned from about 1840-1920. In 1840, most of the population (about 90 percent) lived in rural communities, and by 1920, the urban/rural split was about 50/50, as workers migrated to cities to work in factories.

The industrial revolution radically changed the way we turned raw materials into products. It changed the way goods were collected, processed, exchanged, distributed and ultimately controlled. This changed not only how we organized our work but how we organized society.

The factory teaching model that Toffler describes was successful throughout most of the 20th century. It is so deeply embedded in our educational system that it’s sometimes hard to see. We don’t notice it because it’s how we learned when we were in school – it’s how we were trained to be the people we are today.
But today’s world brings new challenges, for which many of us find ourselves unprepared. New technologies with massive processing power are connecting more people to more information than was previously conceivable. The amount of new information in the world doubles every two years. It’s predicted that by 2015 it will double every week.

Like the industrial revolution, this new information revolution is shifting the way we collect, process, exchange, distribute and control a key asset – information. This new economy requires a new kind of worker, with different skills, methods and approaches.

It also requires a rethinking of our educational system. What should a new, revised curriculum look like? For clues, let’s examine the fundamental differences between industrial work and knowledge work.
How do we prepare students for a world that’s undergoing such radical change, a world where none of us have ever been and many of us still don’t understand? We need a system that looks at teaching differently; that rewards breadth of vision and creativity and recognizes a diversity of viewpoints.

To continue reading, go to: Creativity in the Classroom

Michigan Teaching School Tries Something New - NPR

2010-01-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Larry Abramson/NPR

America's teachers' colleges are facing some pressure to reinvent themselves.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been leading the assault, with a series of speeches calling for better teacher training. Duncan says it's crucial that education schools revamp their curricula so they can help replace a wave of baby boomers who will soon retire from teaching.

One university is trying to rebuild its teacher-training program from the ground up.
At the University of Michigan School of Education, Dean Deborah Ball and her faculty have taken apart their training program and reassembled it, trying to figure out what skills teachers really need.

Katie Westin, a senior at the University of Michigan and a student teacher, says that when she compares notes with teachers-in-training at other schools, it's clear that her program is more hands-on.

"We expect people to be reliably able to carry out that work. We don't seem to have that same level of expectation or requirement around teaching," Ball says.

Teacher Education Initiative
The program overhaul — an ongoing process that began five years ago — is called the Teacher Education Initiative. It will cut the number of classes students must take, and it will turn time in the classroom into an experience that is tightly focused on problem solving.

"Image the difference between learning about child development, which is unquestionably helpful, and learning how to have a sensible interaction with a child, which permits you to know exactly what's going wrong right now with that child's reading, or why is this error occurring over and over again in math. That's actually being able to do something with that knowledge," Ball says.

The program stresses what teachers have to do, not simply what they have to know.

Professor Robert Bain says that when the effort is finished, the education program will no longer be a series of courses students have to take, "but rather a program that's building on these experiences, much like most professional schools, like a good med school or law school."

The university has also picked up an idea from medical school: rounds.

You can see the idea in action at North Middle School in Belleville, Mich. Teacher Steve Hudock is talking to four University of Michigan student teachers before seventh and eighth graders arrive for a class on comparative religion.

Read The Series

Lesson Plans: What Makes A Great Teacher?

This is one of several schools these budding teachers will visit as they learn to analyze various teaching problems in different settings. Here, it's how to deal with students in small groups.
Bain says that before class, he demonstrated how the teachers-in-training might approach this challenge.
"What their job is, is to practice the experience with actual students, but then also look to see how Mr. Hudock, a skilled teacher, does the exact same sorts of things," Bain says.
Student teacher Katie Westin says that when she compares notes with teaching students in other programs, she notices a big difference.
"We take on more of an interactive role, I think, than some of the other programs do, because we actually lead lessons, and we get to work with the students in group activities."

Hands-On Training
Once the religion class is over, the group sits down with Hudock and talks about what worked and what didn't.

Hudock says this is a lot different than the student-teaching experience he had 15 years ago.

The College Board Launches "Arts at the Core" Website with Recommendations for Advancing the State of Arts Education in the 21st Century

2009-10-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Comprised of more than 50 leading educators and artists, the National Task Force on the Arts in Education (NTFAE) was created in 2008 to address the opportunities and challenges facing arts education in the United States. The NTFAE advises the College Board by recommending strategies for placing the arts at the core of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. These strategies include:

Researching underserved student populations.

Promoting student creativity.

Understanding the arts in a global perspective.
Integrating the arts into a greater number of College Board programs.
Engaging a greater number of professional artists in arts education.
Building partnerships and affecting policy at the national, state, and local levels.

The NTFAE's report, "Arts at the Core: Recommendations for advancing the state of arts education in the 21st Century" confronts challenges to the state of the arts in education, identifies the many benefits of arts learning, and details eight key recommendations for advancing the place of the arts in American education. It outlines recommendations for making the arts a core component of American education.

For more information, read the brochure and final report, Arts at the Core, available at the link below. This brochure introduces you to the voices and ideas that make up the NTFAE. Learn more about the importance of the arts in education through these essays from leading thinkers and policy makers in arts education.

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/policy-advocacy/access/national-arts-task-force

Another point of view on "Art Expert: The Problem with School Art Programs are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"

2009-10-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Art Expert: The Problem With School Art Programs Are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"
David C. Levy

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/david-levy-the-problem-with-sc.html#

http://mivpaa.blogspot.com/2009/10/problem-with-school-art-programs-are.html

I am in my ninth year as a high school art teacher. After a twenty-year career in illustration, I went to back to school to receive my teacher certification and a master’s degree in art education. I have to say that the vast majority of art ed students I attended classes with (undergraduate and graduate students alike) had very limited ability in terms of traditional art skills such as realistic drawing and painting. Additionally, I have to say that I have been largely pretty unimpressed with most of the teacher artwork that has been on display at the art education conferences I have attended. In my opinion, David C. Levy’s assertion that “many art teachers can barely draw” is correct.

Mr. Levy cites a number of reasons as to why this is. To him, the main reason is that K-12 visual art instruction focuses on “the nurturing of ‘creativity and self-expression’ at the expense of competence.” This is in large part true, as far as I can tell. The question is, why is this so?

It is my assertion that the reason lies within the realm of art philosophy and art criticism over the last hundred years or more. The modern era brought with it a myriad of changes in not only art, but in Western culture as a whole. World War I spawned DADA, with its outright rejection of tradition; Marcel Duchamp and others created a anti-art/non-art aesthetic/non-aesthetic. The Surrealists, influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, also turned from tradition, exploring the world of dreams and the subconscious mind. In mid-century, the influential New York art critic Clement Greenberg determined that for art to be ART, it had to always be new and different. Painting was no longer about “making pictures”, it became simply about paint on a flat surface. Initially supported by Greenberg, Willem de Kooning, after painting pure abstraction in the late 1940s, returned to figurative painting with his “Woman” series, and he was essentially rejected by Greenberg as being “old-fashioned”. Never mind that most people today would likely consider de Kooning’s Woman paintings as exceedingly modern, if not downright ugly.

Having passed from Abstract Expressionism through Pop Art and Minimalism, we are now in what many consider to be the Postmodern era in art (and Western culture in general). Art has now gotten to the point where, to many people in the upper echelon of the fine art world, we have moved beyond the “art object” itself, and are into the realm of pure concept. For many in the art world, SKILL IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE. In fact, there is now a whole body of literature on the notion of “deskilling” in art.

One might also look back to the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, where “do your own thing” was the order of the day. Certainly, many art teachers and post-secondary art educators over the last few decades came from that era, and one could argue that many of them have continued to pass along this mentality to art teachers of more recent years.

Indeed, to many art teachers, art is about “creativity and self-expression”, and it is oftentimes also much about helping students explore and express ideas in the political/social arena—one need only look at an issue of Art Education journal to see that this is the case. Never mind that the sociopolitical themes are heavily leaning in one direction. This is, of course, also true in post-secondary art programs, and in the contemporary art world in general.

Art is about many things nowadays, but in the art world and in K-12 visual art education, it does not seem to be much about skill. K-12 visual art standards and benchmarks are for the most part non-specific and open to interpretation; for example: “Intentionally use art materials and tools effectively to communicate ideas.” How about something like “Demonstrate the ability to draw a properly proportioned human figure”? Not a chance. As Mr. Levy implies, a lot of K-12 art teachers would have difficulty doing this.

Is there a solution? In large part, probably not, given the state of art in general in the postmodern era. For my part, I run a program that places a good amount of emphasis on traditional skills. As I like to say, if you can’t write a decent sentence, how are you going to write a whole story?

One final word: art teachers, if your drawing skills are really weak, try taking a few life drawing classes.

Richard Jacobi
Arts Academy in the Woods
Fraser, Michigan
http://rjart.blogspot.com/

Response to David C. Levy article "But many Art Teachers Can Barely Draw!

2009-10-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

The following was submitted in response to David C. Levy's article posted earlier on this blog. Bolded sections refer to statements in Levy's article.

To my associates, the Visual Art Teachers,
10/20/2009

I will address point by point what I view as flaws in David C. Levy's article discussing "But many art teachers can barely draw!".

38 credits of studio instruction

Studio classes consist of 9 hours of studio time for every three hours of credit. While he said that you could take 38 hours in little more than a year (15, 15, 8), it would not be productive nor would any student attempt it, it would mean 135 hours of studio time per week!

Most college majors consist of 30 hours of credit. At Eastern Michigan University, the B.F.A. program consists of 60 hours of Art. The Art Education is an additional 20 hours.

... this precious learning time is generally fractured into a smorgasbord of classes in unrelated media and disciplines

Art students do take a variety of classes but select an area to specialize in. Some are ceramics majors, other are printmakers, others are painters, but no one has a smorgasbord of classes.

Dr. Levy continues to compare Visual Art Education to Music Education and states that this selection of unrelated classes is unacceptable and that
“We would think such an approach absurd.” I believe that your whole approach to the Visual Arts is a bit absurd!

Of course Visual Art teachers can draw, sculpt, create and educate!

As they become adolescents, much of the ingenuousness that underlay their earlier creative spontaneity will automatically disappear; but good art-making skills will stay with them for life and, for some, the creativity will resurface. At this point it should be enhanced by the existence of the technical skills to actualize its full potential.

Yes this is true and it is what every elementary Visual Art educator is attempting it achieve and to a large extent, doing so with a great deal of success.

Consider that we don’t teach elementary school children creative writing;

I really question this, and in fact, encourage creative writing in my Visual Arts classroom, or as I call it, the Art studio. I am sure if you talked to the regular classroom teachers, they would question your assertion.

Most students entering college art departments or even professional art schools bring little more than their elementary and high school art classes as background preparation. And, as we have seen, skill development is often sadly lacking in these settings. (How could it be otherwise, when the majority of their teachers have so few skills of their own to teach?)

Again, another slap in the face of the Visual Arts teachers... shame on you Dr. Levy. Many of the Visual Art departments in colleges and universities require a portfolio of the students work and interviews to be accepted. High school teachers spend considerable time preparing students for application and provide portfolio production classes or after school assistance.

Visual Art students need to know how to draw to get in the door! It is like saying a music student went to college to study music because he/she liked the sound of the french horn! This is absurdity!

By contrast, the serious music student has probably had ten or more years of private study with a competent professional as well as participation in advanced school music programs, community orchestras and the like,

Ten or more years of private study? Well of course this student does have an advantage, but what about the other music students? What are their options and future in Music education?

even in the most selective of art schools the freshman year (or as it is often called, the “Foundation Year”) is essentially remedial. It does exactly what its name implies – lays down a visual arts foundation that should have been built years before.

Again, a true lack of respect for the Visual Arts teachers. As stated previously, Visual Art students need to present a quality portfolio to be accepted.

One might hope that even if the elementary schools are not doing their job, an interested and/or talented student would have an opportunity to develop visual skills at the high school level.

The elementary schools are doing their job in teaching Visual Art and encourage students to continue in middle school (a level that Dr. Levy seems to forget) and hopefully in high school.

most laymen are incapable of telling good drawing from bad, have little sense of composition or design and, in fact, don’t much care.

It appears that according to Dr. Levy, only a select few are capable of discerning the true effectiveness of quality visual art. As I used to tell my friends who questioned Art in school, “What would your sports car look like if it wasn’t designed by an artist?” Of course the layperson is capable of identifying and selecting quality Art, and they do care!

Regrettably, I have no answers. This is a gloomy picture and is likely to remain so. The miracle is that even without the enlightened interest and support of the educational community or the mainstream American public we continue to produce talented, skilled and creative visual artists.

Regrettably I had to listen to you trash the abilities of qualified people in the Visual Arts while still supporting the Music education. We are the Arts, both music and the visual field. True you have a greater resume than me and are able to identify various studies (without being specific to their source. But IF you are so qualified, why don’t you have the answers?

I do believe that yes we can draw and sculpt and paint and photograph and create digital art and effectively demonstrate for our students, and encourage and inspire and develop our future artists... and not accept your opinion especially without any clear direction to eliminate the so called “gloomy picture”.

As I said earlier, your resume is quite impressive although I couldn’t find it on the internet, but my question is, can you draw or play music? I assume you to be quite proficient given your ability to draw opinions on the talents of others.

We all need to work together to help our students, negative attitudes do nothing to solve the problems we all face given the economy of today. All Art is important to the future but questioning the abilities of the teachers displays a lack of respect, which is always present in my Art Studio.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Schulz
Elementary Art Teacher
Haisley Elementary School
Ann Arbor Public Schools

The Problem With School Art Programs Are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"

2009-10-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/david-levy-the-problem-with-sc.html#

Hand wringing among the enlightened has been a fairly standard response to the widespread practice of cutting the arts first – especially the visual arts -- when school budgets start crunching.

The arts community usually counters this ritual by references to data that show the positive effect of arts instruction on learning in “core” academic subjects. Though intellectually sound, this tactic has been sadly ineffective. It is also unfortunate that in order to make their case, arts advocates have found it necessary to piggyback on English or math rather than come right out with the plain fact that the arts are critically important to a civilized society.

Many believe that the repeated bloodletting of arts curricula in our schools is a reflection of community values in which the arts rank very poorly; perhaps a legacy from our iconoclastic 17th century forebears as well as the outcome of general disbelief in the arts’ relevance to intellectual and academic growth.
I would argue, however, that there is another reason why the arts, and visual arts in particular, are an endangered species in American K – 12 education.
It has been my observation that primary and secondary school art teachers rank very low on the continuum of professional respect among their peers.
And I would posit as a significant cause that they have generally not achieved a sufficient level of skill in their discipline to deserve that respect. For example, while English teachers may not be able to write The Great American Novel, the chances are pretty good that they can compose a competent essay. But many art teachers can barely draw!

This, however, is really not their fault.
A survey of undergraduate art education curricula leading to teacher certification in the U.S. will show that few exceed 38 credits of studio instruction. In other words, the aggregated exposure to art-making by students in these programs adds up to just a tad more than one year.
What is worse, rather then comprising a progressively developing, skill- and concept-building sequence, this precious learning time is generally fractured into a smorgasbord of classes in unrelated media and disciplines -- presumably so teachers can respond to diverse areas of student interest.
The result is a curriculum shaped by a pastiche of courses; e.g., one in ceramics, another in printmaking, a course or two in drawing, painting or sculpture, digital arts, etc. So the majority of K-12 art teachers graduate without rigorous training in the fundamental skills that underpin competence in their discipline.
They haven’t been taught to draw, they barely understand the nuances of spatial organization, color or design, and their ability to produce a professional or even semi-professional art product is de minimis.

Compare this to music education. Would we take a program seriously that proposed to transform 18-year-olds, with only a rudimentary exposure to music, into music teachers after a year and a half of instruction in which each class was devoted to a different instrument?

The answer, of course, is a resounding “no!” We would think such an approach absurd.
But since this is, in fact, the way we prepare our art teachers, why should the educational community value their contribution, when it has so little potential to bring excellence to the table (notwithstanding that, amazingly and as the studies show, the exposure itself appears to have salutary consequences for the academic curriculum)?

How has this come about? How has a profession that was valued and whose skills were rigorously taught by western cultures and their educational systems for centuries fallen to such low regard?

I believe that much of the answer lies in the fact that since the early 20th century K -12 visual arts education in the U.S. and to some degree globally, has been based on fundamentally misguided principles.

The most saliently destructive of these is the belief that art classes for pre-pubescent children should emphasize the nurturing of “creativity and self expression” at the expense of competence. This is reinforced by the erroneous notion that skill development, especially in pre-adolescent kids, is at best irrelevant and at worst, an inhibitor to children’s creative self-expression.
Nothing could be further from the truth.

Young kids before the age of puberty and its accompanying onset of adolescent self-consciousness are instinctively, often irrepressibly, creative.
What they need in their art classes is a foundation of skill building to make the fullest expression of those creative instincts possible.

As they become adolescents, much of the ingenuousness that underlay their earlier creative spontaneity will automatically disappear; but good art-making skills will stay with them for life and, for some, the creativity will resurface. At this point it should be enhanced by the existence of the technical skills to actualize its full potential.

Consider that we don’t teach elementary school children creative writing; we teach them reading, spelling and basic syntax. The visual arts have equivalent fundamentals but we are not bringing them into the classroom.

Again, look at music. Kids start playing an instrument early in life and steadily develop their physical, technical and perceptual musical strengths as they grow into adulthood. In the visual arts the physical requirements are somewhat different, but in general they are more similar then not, and the perceptual issues of eye training and visual judgment are corollaries for hearing, understanding structure and interpreting music.

Therefore, it is just as absurd to suggest that a competent art teacher can be produced through only a year-and-a-half of hands-on study in a peripatetic curriculum as it is to assert that music teachers can be produced in a program that sets out to teach them five or six instruments in that same period of time. [Author] Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule may not fully apply here, but it is certainly food for thought.

The argument might be made that like young musicians, serious art students enter college after many years of skill building. Unfortunately, this is not true!
Most students entering college art departments or even professional art schools bring little more than their elementary and high school art classes as background preparation. And, as we have seen, skill development is often sadly lacking in these settings. (How could it be otherwise, when the majority of their teachers have so few skills of their own to teach?)

By contrast, the serious music student has probably had ten or more years of private study with a competent professional as well as participation in advanced school music programs, community orchestras and the like, where technical skills, musical sophistication and competition are the sine qua non. Think about the criteria for participation in All State bands or the demanding meritocracy that determines admission to the elite musical ensembles in a large suburban high school. These have no visual arts equivalents.

A revealing comparison is that students entering good music conservatories quickly embark on the development of a professional repertoire, music theory and advanced technique. By contrast, even in the most selective of art schools the freshman year (or as it is often called, the “Foundation Year”) is essentially remedial. It does exactly what its name implies – lays down a visual arts foundation that should have been built years before.

One might hope that even if the elementary schools are not doing their job, an interested and/or talented student would have an opportunity to develop visual skills at the high school level.

To a limited degree this is true, especially in well-off suburban communities or urban magnet schools and there are other exceptions.

But by and large, even in schools where the art departments have not been slashed and burned by successive budget cuts, the teachers themselves simply do not have sufficient training to understand and foster the skills their students need.
Again a music analogy: Most people can tell in a heartbeat whether or not a kid can play an instrument at a basic level of competence. Since the days of Jack Benny the sound of a scratchy violin or caterwauling saxophone practiced in the bedroom has been the stuff of a thousand sit-coms.

By contrast, most laymen are incapable of telling good drawing from bad, have little sense of composition or design and, in fact, don’t much care. Extrapolated to teachers whose actual exposure to studio arts has consisted of 38 or fewer credits spread across multiple and unrelated art disciplines, it is simply unreasonable to expect them to be able to recognize technical deficiencies or needs, much less correct them. If you can’t see it, you can fix it. And worse, if you can see it but don’t know how to do it, you can’t guide a student effectively towards solving visual problems.

It is hard to say just where to go from here. Certainly there is no quick fix. Given the entrenchment of college and university art education faculties with a vested interest in the status quo, coupled with the myopic licensing requirements for art teachers in most states, the possibility of reform at the college level is remote.
Yet this is the sine qua non for the solution. And even if reform were miraculously to occur overnight, the education of a new breed of art teachers and their gradual infiltration into schools that are already resistant to the arts, particularly the visual arts would be a painfully slow process.

Regrettably, I have no answers. This is a gloomy picture and is likely to remain so. The miracle is that even without the enlightened interest and support of the educational community or the mainstream American public we continue to produce talented, skilled and creative visual artists.

Their success in this challenging cultural environment is a ray of bright light -- a tribute to their force of will and indomitable spirit. It is an achievement well worth celebration and support.

But just as literature is meaningless in a society of illiterates, artists can only expect a capricious and non-critical audience in a culture whose educational system places no value on the teaching of their craft.

David C. Levy is president of the Cambridge Information Group’s Education division. He is the former president and director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington’s largest private cultural institution) and its College of Art and Design. As chancellor of New School University, he founded the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He was also director of Parsons School of Design, founder of the Delaware College of Art and Design in Wilmington, and is now a principal in Bach to Rock music schools.

Wharton Center Renovation Includes New Education Spaces

2009-10-12T11:02:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsdbkCGnMEw

ASCD and Edutopia on Innovative teaching method that uses arts, and looping to improve student achievement

2009-09-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

Innovative teaching method uses arts, looping to improve achievement

A California educator is praising a teaching method that integrates the arts into lessons and allows students to learn at their own pace. The practice, known as the Waldorf methods, lets students connect poems and songs to numbers and letters, and teachers alternate monthly between teaching about numbers and teaching about letters -- a practice designed to boost students' long-term memory. Teachers also move with their students as they advance through grades, a practice called looping.

http://www.edutopia.org/waldorf-public-school-morse

Video: Day in the Life | Interlochen Center for the Arts

2009-08-05T18:27:00.001-07:00

Feed their passions and they will thrive! Watch this short video which follows an Interlochen Camp student through a typical day filled with singing, choral music, and organ.

Video: Day in the Life | Interlochen Center for the Arts

Shared via AddThis

August 18-20 Creativity in the Classroom - Register today at: www.gomiem.org

2009-08-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

Pocket Universes - Video landscapes for contemplation

2009-07-07T11:42:00.001-07:00

David W. Gray of Xplane posted a series of Pocket Universes, self-contained video clips that can be looped continuously. Like landscapes, they are tiny reflections of the world and objects for contemplation.

Imagine the possibilities....

To see some of Gray's, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davegray/3698738372/

Arts NAEP June 2009 Press Conference

2009-06-25T06:38:00.001-07:00

Announcement of the Nation's Report Card Arts 2008 Visual Arts and music.
Eileen Weiser, former State Board of Education member, participated in this video release.

Dana Foundation: Educators schooled by ‘guerilla artist,’ DreamWorks executive

2009-06-10T06:25:00.001-07:00

“I was one the system failed,” self-styled “guerilla artist” and high-school dropout Keri Smith warned a crowd of teachers assembled May 5 at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum. “I was the rebel, the one who stayed in the back and snuck out for cigarettes.”

In high school, she explained, her classes, filled with teachers who focused on technical
skills and accurate landscapes, were stifling. So she couldn't wait to get home, where she could actually “create something.”

To read more about the Dana Foundation's “Arts, Creativity and Other Outrageous Ideas” go to:
http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21760

The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity

2009-06-07T08:05:00.001-07:00

Exhibit focusses on art by Islamic women in the U.S.

Huffington Post: Part II Why arts education is a matter of social justice and why it will save the world

2009-06-04T11:29:00.001-07:00

Lucia Brawley continues to build her case saying, "we must improve our education overall, including in the fields of
science, technology and engineering. But we must also remain ever
cognizant of our national genius -- characterized by independent
thinking and improvisation. There is no better training ground for
creativity, spontaneity, effective communication, and an understanding
of difference -- in other words, all the skills necessary for us to
perform in a global future -- than in the humanities and all of the
arts."

To read Part 2 of this 2-part series, click here.

Huffington Post: Part I - Why Arts Education is a matter of social justice and why it will save the world

2009-06-04T11:20:00.001-07:00

Lucia Brawley, actress, writer and political organizer, examines what we must do to convince powers that be that arts education is not a luxury reserved for fat times, but a necessity that will ultimately help us thrive as a culture, as a community, as a competitor in the global marketplace and as a leading collaborator in the stewardship of our world. AKA art saves lives.

To read Part I of her 2-part series go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lucia-brawley/mordecais-metamorphosis-w_b_185903.html

visual note-taking www.austinkleon.com

2009-06-03T19:11:00.001-07:00

Bill Strickland on redemption through arts, music, and unlikely partnerships at TED

2009-06-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Potentially one of the Rust Belt's Casualties, Bill Strickland tells a tale of redemption through arts, music, and unlikely partnerships at TED

As a Pittsburgh youth besieged by racism in the crumbling remains of the steel economy, Bill Strickland should have been one of the Rust Belt's casualties. Instead, he discovered the potter's wheel, and the transforming power of fountains, irrepressible dreams, and the slide show.

Why you should listen to him:

Bill Strickland's journey from at-risk youth to 1996 MacArthur "Genius" grant recipient would be remarkable in itself, if it were not overshadowed by the staggering breadth of his vision. While moonlighting as an airline pilot, Strickland founded Manchester Bidwell, a world-class institute in his native Pittsburgh devoted to vocational instruction in partnership with big business -- and, almost incidentally, home to a Grammy-winning record label and a world-class jazz performance series. Yet its emphasis on the arts is no accident, as it embodies Strickland's conviction that an atmosphere of high culture and respect will energize even the most troubled students.

With job placement rates that rival most universities, Manchester Bidwell's success has attracted the attention of everyone from George Bush, Sr. (who appointed Strickland to a six-year term on the board of the NEA) to Fred Rogers (who invited Strickland to demonstrate pot throwing on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood). And though cumbersome slide trays have been replaced by PowerPoint, the inspirational power of his speeches and slide shows are the stuff of lecture circuit legend.

"With his potter's hands, Bill Strickland is reshaping the business of social change. His Pittsburgh-based program offers a national model for education, training and hope."

Fast Company

To hear Bill Strickland’s story, click here.

Daniel Pink on Pecha 20 slides 20 second Pecha Kucha

2009-06-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

To view Daniel Pink's 20 slide 20 second Pecha Kucha on Pecha Kuchas, click here.

Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art.

The duo — Dytham is British, Klein Italian — invented pecha-kucha four years ago to help revive a struggling performance space they owned. The first presentations were such a hit that they began hosting monthly pecha-kucha events, boozy affairs at which Tokyo architects and designers showcased their streamlined offerings to crowds of hundreds. Now there are pecha-nights in 80 cities, from Amsterdam and Atlanta to San Francisco and Shanghai. Why? Dytham believes that the rules have a liberating effect. "Suddenly," he says, "there's no preciousness in people's presentations." Just poetry.

By Dan Pink | Wired Magazine Issue 15.09

Arne Duncan on the arts - a critical component of a complete education

2009-03-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

"I am greatly honored that the Department is hosting the National PTA's student art exhibit. The students in this show, like many, many others around the country and the world, represent the talent and thoughtful, artistic work that can result from the support of their schools, teachers, and families. The arts are a critical component of a complete education, providing an opportunity to see and think in new ways and to innovate, as this exhibit proves. The theme of this year's exhibit--'I Can Make a Difference by ...', is an inspiration to all of us to engage, as these students have done, in the kind of thinking and efforts that President Obama has asked us to do as citizens of this great nation."

-- Arne Duncan, on occasion of the opening of the National PTA's "Reflections" art exhibit at the Department of Education, Feb. 10, 2009.

Creativity Food and Science - Ferran Adria

2009-03-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

He's been called the Salvador Dali of the kitchen and graced the covers of The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine and Time. He was brought in by Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences yet considers himself an artist. Read this case study on his creative process published by the ESADE School of Business:

http://www.elbulli.com/esade/Caso_Ferran_Adria_and_elBulli-ESADE_en.pdf

A MIssing Piece in the Economic Stimulus: Hobbling the Arts Hobbles Innovation

2009-02-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

By Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein on February 11, 2009 in Imagine That!

As the economy stumbles, the first things to get cut at the national, state, and local levels are the arts. The first thing that goes in our school curricula are the arts. Arts, common wisdom tells us, are luxuries we can do without in times of crisis. Or can we?

Let's see what happens when we start throwing out all the science and technology that the arts have made possible.

You may be shocked to find that you'll have to do without your cell phone or PDA. In the first place, it uses a form of encryption called frequency hopping to ensure your messages can't easily be intercepted. Frequency hopping was invented by American composer George Antheil in collaboration with the actress Hedy Lamarr. Yeah, really.

Next, the electronic screen that displays your messages (and those on your computer and TV) employ a combination of red, green, and blue dots from which all the different colors can be generated. That innovation was the collaboration of a series of painter-scientists (including American physicist Ogden Rood and Nobel laureate Wilhelm Ostwald) and post-impressionist artists like Seurat - you know, the guy who painted his pictures out of dots of color, just like the ones in your electronic devices. The programming inside owes its existence to J. M. Jacquard, a weaver, who invented programmable looms using punch cards. Exactly the same technique was borrowed to program the first computers and is incorporated into modern programming languages.

Then there are all those computer chips running our critical devices. They're made using a combination of three classic artistic inventions: etching, silk screen printing, and photolithography. Add to that the fact that data from NASA and NSA satellites is enhanced using artistic techniques such as chiaroscuro (a Renaissance invention) and false coloring (invented by Fauvist painters) to increase contrast so it's easier to perceive important information.(Parenthetically, artists also figured out how to hide information. Camouflage was invented by the American painter Abbot Thayer and during WWI the Vorticists in England and the Cubists in France were co-opted by their governments to design prints to protect troops, equipment, and planes.) Hey, the arts look pretty useful, huh?

That's only the beginning. In medicine, the stitches that permit a surgeon to correct an aneurysm or carry out a transplant were invented by American Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel, who took his knowledge of lace making into the operating room. Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin while gathering beautifully colored microbes for his (rather unusual) hobby of "painting" with microorganisms. Pacemakers are simple modifications of musical metronomes. If you have a neurological deficit, your neurologist may employ dance notation to analyze your problem. Physicians at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and other major medical centers are trained by actors to interact humanely with you as a patient. These same physicians may learn to observe your symptoms more closely by being taught to draw, paint or photograph, or through art appreciation courses. Many hospitals employ music to relieve stress in operating rooms and post-operatively. Painting, drawing and sculpting are also used to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. Indeed, our own institution, Michigan State University, originated music therapy as a way to treat soldiers suffering from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Oh, and that bridge you may drive over on the way to work? Princeton engineering professor David Billington and Smithsonian historian of technology Brooke Hindle have demonstrated that most innovations in bridge design originated with artistically trained engineers such as John Roebling and Robert Maillart. They're part of a long tradition of American artist-inventors. You may not know that Samuel Morse (to whom we owe the telegraph) and Robert Fulton (to whom we owe the steam ship) were two of the most prominent 19th century American artists before they turned to inventing -- visit the Smithsonian American Art Galleries some time and see for yourself. Alexander Graham Bell was a pianist whose invention of the telephone began with a simple musical game. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes don't just provide us with unusual architectures, they also inform our understanding of cell and virus structure and permit new biomedical insights. Kenneth Snelson's tensegrity sculptures (stroll past his "Needle Tower" outside the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden on the Washington Mall) aren't just fascinating constructions in and of themselves, they've also created a whole new form of engineering. Google it!

The fact is that the arts foster innovation. We've just published a study that shows that almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer. Many connect their art to their scientific ability with some riff on Nobel prizewinning physicist Max Planck words: "The creative scientist needs anartistic imagination."

Bottom line: Successful scientists and inventors are artistic people. Hobble the arts and you hobble innovation. It's a lesson our legislators need to learn. So feel free to cut and paste this column into a letter to your senators and congressmen, as well as your school representatives, or simply send them a link to this column. One way or another, if we as a society wish to cultivate creativity, the arts MUST be part of the equation!

Middle School Creative Imaging Lego Mission Impossible Animation

2009-01-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

CNNMoney.Com on Stimulus Package Funding for Education Technology

2009-01-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

Obama's school patchwork project

President-elect wants to repair and modernize schools for the 21st century. But experts worry the plan is too small and short-sighted.

By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer

January 15, 2009: 12:48 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President-elect Barack Obama has proposed an ambitious plan to rebuild the nation's crumbling schools as a part of his economic stimulus package, aiming to help budget-constrained school districts make much needed repairs.

The current stimulus bill facing a House vote includes as much as $120 billion for public school systems, $14 billion of which would go to fix leaky roofs and boilers, install new windows and bring buildings up to a level of acceptable repair. A billion dollars would also go to modernize classrooms, providing students access to 21st century technology,like broadband Internet, computers and state-of-the-art lab facilities.

The aim: provide a positive educational environment for students and teachers and create new jobs. But it likely won't be enough to achieve either goal.

The state of the country's 97,000 public school buildings is dire. They are overcrowded, use outdated technology and are in great disrepair, especially in the nation's poorest communities. Somewhere between $100 billion and $360 billion is needed to repair and modernize schools, according to various estimates.

"There is a huge backlog of public school repair projects," said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute. "The need is gigantic and almost everywhere - few school districts don't have a maintenance backlog."

Over the past few years, and especially in the more current challenging economic times, budgets have been strained and school districts have had to make cuts. As schools trim non-essential expenses, they have slashed their maintenance budgets from about 12% to 9% of their total expenses. The cutbacks were exacerbated, some say, by class-size reductions mandated in the No Child Left Behind laws.

"Class-size reduction had the biggest impact, because you need to fund the hiring of new teachers," said Mary Filardo, Executive Director of 21st Century School Fund. "Directed stimulus is really needed; otherwise school districts would continue to spend on in-house salaries, not on construction."

Too much with too little: A diluted impact

But experts worry that the plan tries to do too much with too little money, and will have only a small impact in the short-term. Obama wants to both fix schools and rapidly create jobs with stimulus, but most of the projects that can be started immediately are small repairs, not the larger modernization jobs that would have a more long-lasting impact on schools.

"Is the intent of this program to deal with schools' issues or economic stimulus?" asked David Shreve, education policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "By focusing on two purposes, they run the risk of diluting each one."

Furthermore, some analysts are concerned about how the money will distributed. Despite several attempts to pinpoint which schools need the most funds for repairs, Filardo said no good assessment exists.

To address that issue, the House has divided up the allocations: $13 billion to Title I, the proxy the government uses to determine the school districts with the highest need for academic improvement; $13 billion to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; $14 billion to a new school modernization and repair program, $1 billion to an education technology program, and as much as $79 billion to state legislatures. Still, some say the government should simply focus on the poorest communities - which are in most need of school repair and jobs.

Though the need for school funding is greater than the$120 billion that the stimulus has pledged, some say as little as $10 billion would still get the ball rolling. Once the economy gets back in shape, experts say states and school districts will be able to continue the funding efforts that the federal government began.

"It will certainly serve its purpose: a stimulus to to get things going," said Bob Canavan, chairman of Rebuild America's Schools Coalition.

Building 21st century schools

Economists say as many as 150,000 jobs could be created from the proposed school building plan, since about 10,000 jobs could be created for every billion dollars spent on schools. Half of those jobs would probably be in construction. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a leading advocate of school and education stimulus, has said job-creation figures may be triple that level.

Obama said eliminating the backlog of infrastructure projects will do more than just create jobs; it will help the next generation of Americans succeed in the future.

"To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that's never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries," Obama said last week in a speech about stimulus.

The nation's teachers began lobbying hard for school repair and modernization since Obama made his announcement last week, arguing that crumbling schools have had difficulty attracting and keeping teachers.

"Teachers can't teach in overcrowded classrooms in which you have to wear a coat to stay warm," said Janet Bass, spokeswoman for the American Federation of Teachers. "We have to make schools conducive to teaching and learning, and we absolutely think that part of the economic stimulus package should go to building and modernizing schools."

Tim Magner, director of the U.S. Department of Education's technology division, said providing students with new, advanced technology will allow schools to use more up-to-date and innovative teaching methods that will narrow America's education gap with the rest of the world.

"By using efficient information-delivering technology at schools, students can learn problem-solving and collaboration - the kinds of skills that are difficult to export and are in high demand today," he said.

Analysts, policy makers and politicians agree that if the government gets it right, stimulus could help transform learning environments, giving American students a leg up in the years to come.

"We'll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers," Obama said, "so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future."

The question remains, if they build an improved education technology infrastructure, will arts educators use it?

New book presents scientific evidence on the importance of play and playful learning to achievement

2009-01-21T12:28:00.001-08:00

New book provides scientific evidence on the importance of play and playful learning to achievement

A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence [Oxford University Press, 2009 ---

Available now: http://www.mandateforplayfullearning.com/buynow.html

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/Developmental/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTM4MjcxNg

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware

Laura E. Berk, Illinois State University

Dorothy G. Singer, Yale University

With foreword by Dr. Edward F. Zigler

Executive Summary

Play has become a 4-letter word. In an effort to give children a head start on academic skills like reading and mathematics, play is discouraged and didactic learning is stressed. This book presents the scientific evidence in support of three points: 1) Children need both unstructured free play and playful learning under the gentle guidance of adults to best prepare them for entrance into formal school; 2) academic and social development are so inextricably intertwined that the former must not trump attention to the latter; and 3) learning and play are not incompatible; learning takes place best when children are engaged and enjoying themselves.

The argument is organized into three chapters. The first describes the current crisis in preschool education and suggests that the lack of attention to play and playful learning lies at its core. We propose that there exists a false and counterproductive dichotomy between play on the one hand and learning on the other. This dichotomy is echoed in society at large as parents are influenced by the media and the marketplace to buy "educational" toys and restrict free play. While supporting the need for accountability and assessment, we suggest that the current emphasis on assessment in higher grades has lead to narrowly defined curricula objectives in the preschool. Curriculum development has been more responsive to the practical constraints of assessment than to the findings of evidence-based pedagogy.

The second chapter presents the evidence that play and playful learning enhance academic, social, and emotional outcomes in preschool. Playful learning, and not drill-and-practice, engages and motivates children in ways that enhance developmental outcomes and life-long learning. After defining play and playful learning, we examine assumptions about how children learn and suggest that preschools are no longer teaching the "whole" child. The weight of the evidence, from random assignment to correlational to intervention studies, suggests that both free play and playful learning create optimal environments for achievement. Additionally, children in developmentally appropriate classrooms often show less anxiety and stronger social skills.

The epilogue moves from data to application, presenting seven principles that are derived from the science that inform preschool pedagogy. These principles reflect consensus across the learning sciences for how children learn best. If followed, these principles can contribute to the creation of preschools that will be equipped to educate the work force and citizenry for this new century.

Finally, the book ends with a set of recommendations for policy-makers. These recommendations are designed to translate the findings from the research into building excellent preschool programs that encourage family and community participation.

If we hope to prepare intelligent, socially skilled, creative thinkers for the global workplace of tomorrow, we must return play and playful learning to their rightful position in children's lives.

---------------------------------

Available now: http://www.mandateforplayfullearning.com/buynow.html or http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Psychology/Developmental/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTM4MjcxNg==

---------------------------------

ISBN13: 9780195382716ISBN10: 0195382714 paper, 144 pages Sep 2008, In Stock - Price: $19.95 (05)

March 16-20 2009 Michigan Virtual Arts & Cultural Advocacy Conference

2009-01-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

Register Now for the 2009 Virtual Arts & Cultural Advocacy Conference

Register now to participate in the first ever Virtual Arts & Cultural Advocacy Conference held entirely on your computer!

Attendees will have access to the following:

Legislative meetings scheduled by ArtServe and held in your area

Live and pre-recorded keynote address

More than TEN live or pre-recorded breakout sessions consisting of arts education and arts & cultural advocacy.

2009 Public Policy Toolkit and the 2009 Arts Education Public Policy Toolkit

Access to all material for 3 weeks

Visit www.artservemichigan.org/artserve to learn more about the conference

What: 2009 Virtual Arts & Cultural Advocacy Conference

When: Legislative Meetings - March 16^th and 20^th -- Conference Center Open March 17^th-19^th

Note: All live material is recorded and archived meaning that you don't have to make yourself available for all 3 days of the conference.

Where: Your computer! No software to download.

Cost: $30 per person. Discounted group rates will be available for groups of three or more and can be obtained by contacting Mike Latvis at mike@artservemichigan.org or 248-379-5897.

To Register:

Click button below or visit www.miartsadvocacy.org

Once page loads click "Skip Intro" at the top left of the page.

Click on "Register Now" at the bottom right

Include required information and pay via Google Checkout

Confirmation will follow via email

Former bankers turn to a creative plan B

2009-01-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

NYTimes article on the move from finances to creative endeavors. "The bright spot that Mr. Bowles sees is for the free agent. 'There’s a good chance,' he said, 'that there will be more work for independent contractors and freelancers.'

WHILE most bankers and lawyers who pursue careers in comedy, writing and filmmaking say they are somewhat anomalous, the situation could change quickly."

Brevity

2008-12-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

What are the implications of 21st Century Learning Skills for arts learning?

2008-12-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

21st Century Learning Skills

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Curriculum Education arts learning 21st century skills

A Michigan Online Conversation about Arts Education in These Changing Times

2008-12-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

If you've been following national arts education conversations, you'll notice that there is a good deal of talk about "community arts" as leaders try to align their rhetoric with President-elect Obama's new directions.

With NCLB up for reauthorization, arts educators need to pay close attention to two conversations- those going on in the arts, and those in education.

Michigan arts educators also need to pay attention to what happens with the auto industry - the lifeblood of our region.

If arts education in schools is not strengthened through the NCLB re-authorization process, will the arts education of students be outsourced from our schools?

If it is true that the skills the arts teach are vital to our global economy (e.g. design, visualization, information graphics, imaginative learning, multimodal communications...) how can we by-pass the education system and turn something this critical over solely to community partners?

If you'd like to participate in our own Michigan conversation around arts education in these changing times, carefully read the ArtsJournal Debate on Arts Education and post your own thoughts to this blog by commenting to this post.

The Arts Journal Debate on Arts Education

2008-12-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

This Conversation

By Douglas McLennan

For decades, as teaching of the arts has been cut back in our public schools, alarms have been raised about the dire consequences for American culture. Artists and arts organizations stepped in to try to... take up some of the slack. Foundations funded programs to take art into the schools. But producers of art aren't primarily in the education business. Schools increasingly focused on meeting basic skills benchmarks have less and less time to make room for study of the arts. And technology has spawned a vast, crowded, and alluring marketplace of creativity competing for attention. New research Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy by RAND and sponsored by The Wallace Foundation suggests that a generation of Americans has not developed the knowledge or skills to engage with our cultural heritage. Without that engagement, the arts as we know them are unsustainable over the long run. Can anything be done?

This Arts Journal blog brought in some key thinkers in the arts to debate about arts education.

http://www.artsjournal.com/artsed/2008/11/this-blog.html

Media Arts Education in Germany

2008-12-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

A blog on interdisciplinary approaches in media, arts & education at school & university level by Daniela Reimann in Germany.

http://daniela-reimann.de/wordpress/?p=1

Arts Transition Recommendations from National Arts Organizations

2008-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

Arts Policy in the New Administration
November 21, 2008

Recommendations to the Office of Presidential Transition
on behalf of
American Association of Museums
Americans for the Arts
Association of Art Museum Directors
Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Chamber Music America
Chorus America
Dance/USA
League of American Orchestras
Literary Network
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
National Council for Traditional Arts
National Performance Network
National Network for Folk Arts in Education
OPERA America
Theatre Communications Group

The arts and cultural community welcomes the opportunity to communicate with President-Elect Obama and his staff in re-imagining how the federal government can inspire and support creativity in communities nationwide through robust policies that advance participation in the arts for all Americans.

The following policy recommendations have been developed by the national associations listed above, whose memberships comprise thousands of American cultural institutions and artists as well as state and local government arts agencies. We speak as a collective voice for our members, who make enormous artistic, educational, and economic contributions to the well-being of the nation and its communities.

President-Elect Obama’s platform in support of the arts acknowledges the importance of American creativity and addresses a range of key federal policy areas that can be strengthened in the new Administration. We whole-heartedly affirm his goals of boosting support for arts education, improving cultural exchange and the U.S. visa process for foreign guest artists, mobilizing an ArtistCorps, increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), providing health care for artists, and advancing fair tax policies for the arts. As you are aware, Federal policies affect the arts across a broad swath of issue areas involving many agencies, including the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services, as well as the Departments of State, Interior, Treasury, Education, Transportation, Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

For many years, however, federal policy towards the arts has been fragmented and uncoordinated, lacking coherence and occasionally at cross-purposes with itself. To complement President-Elect Obama’s current arts platform, the following recommendations in several key areas address, in varying degrees of detail, ways in which federal leadership can amplify the capacity of the arts to help our nation meet its goals of increased prosperity, international diplomacy, and community vitality. We ask above all that the new Administration approach arts policy holistically. To that end, one of our recommendations is that it appoint a senior-level official in the White House itself. We also urge a more coherent presence for the arts within the various agencies and the opportunity for the arts to be included in forthcoming economic stimulus programs.

We hope that the Office of Presidential Transition will find these recommendations useful as it assembles the new team, and we would be glad to discuss any of them in further detail.

National Endowment for the Arts
Cultural Exchange
Arts Education in School, Work, and Life
National Service and the Arts
Appoint Senior-Level Administration Official to Coordinate Arts and Cultural Policy
The Role of the Arts in the Not-for-Profit Community

National Endowment for the Arts

Background
It is the mission of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to foster the excellence, diversity, and vitality of the arts in the United States and to broaden public access to the arts. The NEA must provide support for building the capacity of American arts organizations and artists to create and share their work, by initiating national programs, partnering effectively with state and local arts agencies, and helping to ensure lifelong learning in the arts for every American. We urge the Administration to empower the National Endowment for the Arts with the authority and resources to broaden and deepen participation in the arts throughout the United States.

Policy Recommendations
Support a National Endowment for the Arts with the resources to provide national leadership.
• Create a capacity-building initiative to support artistic excellence, improve organizational financial structures, develop a national cultural arts infrastructure, and broaden participation by all Americans.
• Support arts education by engaging educators, artists, and arts organizations in extending the experience in arts education through lifelong learning, and collaborating with the U.S. Department of Education to advance the federal role in K-12 arts education.
• Make flexible grants that increase the capacity of American arts organizations and artists to create and present meaningful arts experiences for Americans, recognizing the value of establishing fellowships to individual artists, providing grants for multi-year support, and permitting arts service organizations the opportunity to regrant funds.
• Increase the NEA budget to $319.2 million, the FY 1992 peak budget level of $176 million adjusted for inflation and population as a step toward providing a more appropriate level of artistic benefits to the American people.
Support a National Endowment for the Arts with the capacity to provide national leadership.
• Expand the research capacity of the NEA and the federal commitment to initiating research issues in the arts and cultural policy.
• Involve close consultation with artists, arts organizations, and the communities they serve in developing and advancing new programs and initiatives at the NEA as well as enhancing existing programs.
• Enhance support and technical assistance to the field through such means as instituting site visits and technical assistance grant support, and serving as a convener for policy panels.
• Nurture collaboration around goals shared by not-for-profit arts organizations and the commercial arts sector.
• Strengthen the National Council on the Arts through appointments broadly representative of artistic disciplines and concerns, geographically diverse, and characterizing the multiple and collective cultural interests of all Americans, and create a stronger forum for expanding the presence of and access to the arts in this country.

Cultural Exchange
Background
International cultural exchange in the performing, visual, literary, and folk arts is a valuable tool for addressing U.S. diplomatic goals, strengthening our country’s international relations, and enriching the skills of our artists. The shared experience, which transcends any language gap, can bring together people of different backgrounds, allowing cultural exchange to serve as a tool for diplomatic efforts. By reinforcing the commonalities among cultures and illuminating our unique differences, cultural exchanges foster understanding and, at a time when the U.S. image abroad is in dire need of improvement, investing in cultural exchange is essential.
Artists make powerful and effective ambassadors, and their skills have the profound ability to inspire both at home and abroad. Just as it is important to send American artists abroad, there is tremendous value in helping foreign artists share their talents with American audiences. Cultural exchange results in a more vibrant U.S. cultural scene and as artists experience and share their creative products, a broadening of their creative skills takes place. Additionally, cultural exchange serves to expand the development of international trade relations.

Policy Recommendations
• Strengthen support for cultural policy among senior leadership at the Department of State and increase federal funding for cultural exchange programs. Leadership should provide greater staffing and funding resources to facilitate cultural exchange opportunities and raise the public visibility of federal support. Likewise, create a dedicated position within the Domestic Policy Council to focus on international cultural policy, which would allow cultural exchange to have a broader focus beyond the availability of program funding. By the joint effort of these leadership positions, cultural exchange could enter and enhance national and international policy discussions.
• Encourage increased public/private partnerships to maximize resources used for the promotion of cultural exchange. Opening avenues to funding from multiple sources creates new opportunities to participate in cultural exchange and subsidized touring. Furthermore, public/private partnerships may enable participation in multi-year, sustainable exchange programs.
• Expand Americans’ access to the cultures of the world through an increase in support for translations (fiction, poetry, drama, and books about the performing and visual arts).
• Improve the U.S. visa and tax procedures for foreign guest artists, which are burdensome and prohibitive. Welcoming foreign artists to perform in the United States provides Americans the opportunity to experience a diversity of artistic talent and encourages a supportive climate for U.S. artists abroad.

Arts Education in School, Work, and Life
Background
In order to respond to the changing climate of global competitiveness, demographic shifts, and economic disparity, major changes to the delivery of education to our nation’s children are inevitable. As our nation contemplates these changes, and prepares students to be global citizens, the federal commitment to arts education must be strengthened so that the arts are implemented as a part of the core curriculum of our schools and are integral to every child’s development. The recommendations below are consistent with President-Elect Obama’s public statements and proposals in support of a comprehensive arts education for every student.
When needed most, the arts are being cut from our schools.
• The arts are uniquely able to boost learning and achievement for young children, students from economically disadvantaged circumstances, and students needing remedial instruction.
• A 2007 study from the Center on Education Policy has found that, since the enactment of NCLB, 30% of districts with at least one school identified as needing improvement have decreased instruction time for arts and music. These are the districts whose students are most responsive to the benefits of the arts, as demonstrated through numerous research studies.
The public, business leaders, and economic experts agree that the arts are essential to a complete education and preparing a 21st century workforce.
• According to the Conference Board, there is overwhelming consensus from superintendents (98%) and corporate leaders (96%) that “creativity is of increasing importance to the U.S. workforce.” Of those corporate respondents looking for creative people, 85% said they were having difficulty finding qualified applicants with the creative characteristics they desired.
• The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, in its report Tough Choices or Tough Times (2006) states, “It is a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life…”
• A Lake Research poll of 1,000 likely voters revealed that, “83% of voters believe that a greater focus on the arts – alongside science, technology, and math – would better prepare students to address the demands of the 21st century.”

Policy Recommendations
Prevent economic status and geographic location from denying students a comprehensive arts education.
• Ensure equitable access to the full benefits of arts education when reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act so that all, not just some, students can learn to their full potential.
• Exercise leadership to encourage arts-based and other creative learning environments for academically at-risk students participating in Title I-funded programs.
• Retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects of learning and reauthorize the Arts in Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education.
• Fund after-school arts learning opportunities and support arts education partnerships between schools and community arts and cultural organizations.
* Move federal policy beyond simply declaring the arts as a core academic subject to actually implementing arts education as an essential subject of learning.• Require states to issue annual public reports on the local status and condition of arts education and other core academic subjects.
• Improve national data collection and research in arts education.
• Invest in professional development opportunities for teachers in the arts.
Deploy arts education as an economic development strategy.
• Authorize and encourage inclusion of arts learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) initiatives in order to foster imagination and innovation. Without the arts, STEM falls short of its potential to advance education and workforce development.
• Fully preparing students with the creative skills they will need to advance our nation’s position in the 21st century global economy requires implementing the arts as a core subject of learning and ensuring that all students attain cultural literacy.
• Ensure that the full range of federal initiatives that advance workforce development, such as Department of Labor programs, provide training in the skills of creativity and imagination.

National Service and the Arts
Background
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNS) works to fill various unmet needs, from education and housing to healthcare and community development. The arts bring individuals of all ages together, increase communication across cultural and ethnic boundaries, strengthen public education, and bring joy and entertainment to millions of Americans. Together, National Service and the arts create a powerful force, demonstrating the ability for Americans to take initiative, tap into their creative forces, and work together to address a broad array of unmet needs in our country.

The arts have a successful record of partnering with the Corporation for National and Community Service. AmeriCorps members have helped to build and administer summer arts camps in rural communities, designed and painted murals in low-income city districts, and strengthened programming at local arts councils. Learn and Serve America has partnered with arts organizations to strengthen arts education and community service education in the public schools in Florida and RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) members, under the SeniorCorps Program, have toured Delaware teaching art and music to children in after-school activities.

Additionally, a study issued by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006, “The Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life,” found that individuals who participate in the arts are more likely to volunteer in their communities and engage in positive civic activities.
A stronger, more clearly defined relationship between the arts and national service will enable our country to more effectively meet community needs in education, community understanding, and economic development while allowing millions of people to enjoy and participate in the arts.

Policy Recommendations
The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees three large programs: AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and SeniorCorps. Arts organizations and art-related projects have a proven record of filling unmet community needs through AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and SeniorCorps.

• To strengthen the relationship between the three CNS core programs, arts organizations, and individual artists, it is recommended that CNS give specific reference to community arts projects and not-for-profit cultural organizations in the list of eligible national service programs as detailed in the National and Community Service Trust Act.
• Further, CNS should create, within the Special Initiatives Program, a recognition program for a successful community arts project with a noticeable impact on unmet needs.
Expand and strengthen national service initiatives at senior administration levels, above and beyond the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• Establish a “Volunteer Generation Fund” to help not-for-profit organizations recruit and manage more CNS volunteers.
• Establish a Commission to study and improve how the federal government, not-for-profits, and the private sector can work together to meet national challenges effectively.
• Establish a network of “Community Solution Funds,” venture capital funds for the not-for-profit sector to support innovation in the sector.
*CNS should seek to develop a fourth program branch to be known as the ArtistCorps, to connect artists, not-for-profit arts organizations, volunteers, and CNS resources with communities across the country to fulfill unmet needs in education, community development, economic activity, and culturally diverse communities. To assist with this recommendation, it is suggested that CNS:
• Include the word, “cultural,” as a primary need in the National and Community Service Act.
• Partner with private initiatives in the visual, performing, literary, and folk and traditional arts, such as the Music National Service Initiative (www.musicnationalservice.org), which brings the skills of professional musicians to supplement music education in the public schools and provide lifelong learning opportunities for all ages.

Appoint Senior-Level Administration Official to Coordinate
Arts and Cultural Policy
Background
Policy issues relating to the arts and culture have reached a level of diversity and complexity where the National Endowment for the Arts’ grant-making and leadership role alone cannot sufficiently address our nation’s cultural policies. The enormous potential to integrate the creative economy, technology issues, changing demographics, and workforce development into policy through the federal government will require leadership directly from the White House.
There are various federal agencies that maintain programs relating to the arts: service at Corporation for National Service, international exchange at the State Department, and arts education at the U.S. Department of Education to name a few. Beyond these examples, there is greater opportunity to bundle together a portfolio that would provide leadership in economic development opportunities at the U.S. Department of Commerce, intellectual property issues, and other arts-related areas.

Current policy advisory groups similar to our recommendations exist, providing helpful guidance in how to construct the best fit:
• The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is an advisory committee traditionally led by the First Lady that makes recommendations for awards and participates in diplomatic activities relating to international cultural events; however, this committee is outside the direct policy work developed by the President’s staff.
• The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in the Executive Office of the President provides a good example of policy work within the White House, led by a director with an Assistant to the President rank.

Policy Recommendations
• The President should name a senior-level administration official in the Executive Office to coordinate arts and cultural policy, guiding initiatives from federal agencies responsible for tourism, education, economic development, cultural exchange, intellectual property policy, broadband access, and other arts-related areas.
• This new Administration official or office would help to supply critical information for those exercising the “bully pulpit” of the White House, such as the President, the First Lady, and other top leadership figures. The bully pulpit could be used to encourage philanthropy and promote support of the arts and artists. It could further the search for model approaches that allow the arts to contribute to the economy and ensure that the American people’s access to artistic work is not limited by systemic choke points. Finally, it could urge all Americans to learn and engage personally in the arts.

The Role of the Arts in the Not-for-Profit Community
Background
Unique in the world in its size and scope, America’s not-for-profit sector provides a multitude of services that in most other nations are delivered by government agencies. From health care to social services to arts and culture, American not-for-profit organizations enrich lives in communities large and small nationwide. Acknowledged to be more efficient and flexible than the government and more service-focused than the corporate sector, not-for-profit organizations rely on contributions and volunteers, with individual citizens choosing where and when to donate their funds and services.

A large percentage of the cultural institutions in this country are not-for-profit, charitable organizations with a mission of service. This service comes in many forms, nourishing the imagination, providing emotional solace in times of need; educating children, teachers, and lifelong learners; and strengthening communities. As one leader has said, our institutions “reflect creativity, history, culture, ideas, innovation, exploration, discovery, diversity, freedom of expression, and the ideals of democracy.” They also include millions of people in a host of capacities, including artists, scholars, administrators, technicians, carpenters, accountants, and many more.

Not-for-profit arts organizations protect and add to America’s cultural heritage, making it accessible to all through exhibitions, performances, and online programming. These organizations give Americans access to the best of the past and present, providing inspiration, education, and entertainment. In presenting cultural heritage, they are governed by a commitment to their mission: excellence, integrity, and transparency. Historically, these institutions have relied on the generosity of donors and volunteers, with a very small percentage of funding coming from governmental or corporate sponsors. Ticket sales and admission fees alone do not come close to subsidizing the artistic presentations, educational offerings, and community-based programming of not-for-profit arts organizations. A significant percentage of direct financial support for non-for-profit arts organizations is derived from charitable giving, and without this support, the ability of these organizations to serve the public would be significantly diminished. Diverse types of charitable giving provide support for arts organizations of all sizes: individual contributions; planned giving; family, business, and corporate foundation grants; in-kind contributions; and gifts of property. There are no profits or shareholders, therefore income is put back into service to the community.

Policy Recommendations
Ensure that the fundamental characteristics of federal support for the not-for-profit community, which have built an unrivalled cultural sector that is the envy of the world, not only remain in place but are strengthened for the future.
• Any mission-related income is exempt from federal tax, as is any endowment income.
• Real property is exempt from property tax.
• Charitable contributions should be fully tax-deductible.
• Governance is by a board of volunteers.
• Contributions of their own work by artists and writers should be tax deductible, as provided by the Artist-Museum Partnership Act (cosponsored by Senator Obama on February 25, 2008). The new Administration could include this as a provision in their budget proposal next year.

2008-11-30T10:40:00.000-08:00

Amar Bhidé on Creativity and Innovation in the Economy and Education

Columbia University professor and author of “The Venturesome Economy” (Princeton University Press), on the role of "all the various forms of knowledge generated by the massively multiplayer innovations game that sustains economic growth” and what impact this awareness should have on education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30ping.html?_r=1&ref=business

What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?

2008-11-17T05:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/business/16digi.html?em#

There is a widening gap between males and females in the computer science field. After advances 25 years ago, girls are no longer enrolling in computer science at previous rates. The authors point to the rise in action gaming along with the 'nerdy' perception of the field as two factors driving girls away from computer science.

Music and Film Combine for the Story of West Michigan Manufacturing

2008-11-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

November 13, 2008

American music, new film of West Michigan manufacturing combine for unusual evening at the symphony

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

To say that the West Shore Symphony Orchestra plans to put an unusual twist on the story of West Michigan manufacturing is an understatement.

Next March, the WSSO will combine contemporary film, photography, music by American composers and a live orchestra in an innovative multimedia performance celebrating the region’s manufacturing prowess.

“We’re adapting the program American Made: The Art of Manufacturing, a program that highlights manufacturing in America and in Springfield, Ohio,” says Carla Hill, WSSO spokesperson. “It started with the Springfield Symphony and was very successful. I heard about this and thought this is something West Michigan needs to celebrate its manufacturing heritage.”

Seattle-based The Now Device, creators of the Springfield project, sent a film crew to West Michigan last week to film the 10 manufacturers and three schools sponsoring the $100,000 program. Those filmed include L-3 Combat Propulsion Systems, Muskegon; Alcoa Howmet, Whitehall; Padnos Iron & Metal Co., Grand Rapids; Johnston Boiler, Ferrysburg; Muskegon Community College and Muskegon Career Tech Center.

The upcoming performances feature the WSSO performing works by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, Mark O’Connor and other American composers live, a unique background to the film, photography, and live footage of the orchestra which will be projected on three overhead screens. Live narrative will highlight the history of manufacturing in the region, and underscore what the audience is seeing and hearing.

“I look at this as a catalyst to look at and speak about manufacturing, its history and its future,” Hill says. “There is a lot of manufacturing going on and it’s changing. This is a great way for manufacturing communities to celebrate their work, where manufacturing has been, and where it’s going.”

Performances are 8 p.m., March 27 and 28 at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts.

Source: Carla Hill, West Shore Symphony Orchestra; Mary Ann Sabo, Sabo Public Relations

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

As published on http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com

Mash-ups and DJ Earworm... new trend in music and technology

2008-10-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

According to Jordan "DJ Earworm" Roseman, author of a primer on the topic:

"At its most basic, a mashup is simply the vocals of one song singing or
rapping over the instrumental of another song, assembled on a computer. Each component is edited to make sure the parts flow together seamlessly."

DJ EARWORM
MASHUP MUSIC PRODUCER

You might think that a 5-minute mix of fragments from last year’s 25 most popular songs would result in an overwhelming barrage of unrelated experiences, a disposable novelty. Instead, DJ Earworm’s song “United State of Pop” went viral and turned into a national radio hit, being the first underground mashup to break into Mediabase’s Top 100 charts in the Urban and Pop radio formats.

Mashups have emerged as one of the most exciting and talked-about new musical trends of this century, with DJ Earworm re-imagining and re-defining the genre. The first wave of mashups simply featured the vocals of one song combined with the instrumental of another. Through his artistic and technological innovations, Earworm ushers in a second wave, further breaking our musical landscape into myriad fragments and re-weaving them into new compositions of unexpected coherence and beauty.

Equipped with degrees in computer science and music, Earworm blends the arts of songwriting, music production and arrangement, remixing, database programming, and quantitative analysis. He writes custom software for live DJing and mashup production, and wrote the book on mashups (literally! –“Audio Mashup Construction Kit”, published by Wiley), sharing his secrets with a growing culture of DIY remixers. He’s created music for a diverse list of clients including MTV, Universal Records, Cartier, Google and the SF Museum of Modern Art. His DJ performances are in demand, giving events a range of moods all the way from quiet sophistication to rowdy revelry. Listen to his creations at djearworm.com.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, fulfillment and flow

2008-10-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Positive psychologist

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has contributed pioneering work to our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfillment and the notion of "flow" -- a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work.

This TED Talk focuses on Creativity, fulfillment, and flow.

Why you should listen to him:

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: "When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." He is the architect of the notion of "flow" -- the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.

Csikszentmihalyi teaches psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University, focusing on human strengths such as optimism, motivation and responsibility. He's the director the the Quality of Life Research Center there. He has written numerous books and papers about the search for joy and fulfillment.

"A man obsessed by happiness."

Richard Flaste, New York Times

Creative Cities Summit 2.0 MLK Marching Band

2008-10-20T17:02:00.001-07:00

DSCN0460
Originally uploaded by Ana Luisa Cardona

Detroit's Martin Luther King HS Marching Band opened the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 with great energy.

To view photos and visual notes from this international gathering that took place in Detroit, MI Oct. 11-15, 2008, go to:

http://flickr.com/photos/31598310@N06/sets/72157608219087495/

Artist Ray Ceaser trades in paints and brushes for Maya 3D Software

2008-09-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

"For me the computer is a perfect tool to work intuitively," says Caesar who originally got his start in film animation and builds each piece as a complete 3D environment. "Nothing is concrete and set in stone and I can change things as I need to, even if I have almost completed the image. A brush or pencil is the extension of a hand and eye, a motion of the arm and a judgment of space and negative space; the computer does this as well as any tool and in some ways I can get inside my tool."

The knock on most digital art is that it's often built from pre-existing imagery, but Maya forces Caesar to use many of the same skills needed for most traditional artwork. "The work he does, and how he builds it, you can't create that without being able to paint or draw it in the first place," says Levine. "It's an incredibly technical and time-consuming process. He's pioneered a new way of making art. His work is informed by traditional methods and styles but executed with new tools."

For the complete article, go to:

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=131059

Technology makes art education a bigger draw

2008-09-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

In art, as in life at large, technology has changed everything – or, more precisely, almost everything.

In art classes at schools and universities today, new and emerging software is rendering art appreciation and even actual artistic production accessible to a far greater number of interested students and aspiring artists than ever before.

In the classic approach, talented apprentices toil under the tutelage of a highly skilled master to perfect their skills and learn the fundamentals of their art. That approach works well for the talented few but not so well for those who lack dogged desire or raw native talent. It also imposes strict limits on the number of individuals permitted to benefit from the wisdom, skill, and experience of the master.

To a remarkable degree, technology in the service of art and art education is changing all that.

To read the complete article that appeared in ESchool News, click here.

Studio 360: Jeff Lieberman, Musician, Photographer, Robotics Engineer

2008-09-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

Jeff Lieberman is a musician, a photographer, and is getting his PhD in Robotics. He's also the host of "Time Warp" on the Discovery Channel. But years ago, when Lieberman was a teenager, he was unsure whether to choose a creative or scientific path. Then he encountered an amazing sculpture by the artist Arthur Ganson.

This Studio 360 segment was produced by Lindsay Patterson.

A New Look and New Feature

2008-09-08T16:28:00.001-07:00

At the request of some of the readers of this blog, I've adopted a new template which is easier on the eyes.

I'll also try keeping my posts to short descriptions with links for those who want to read further.

I'm still looking for some brave souls who not only read but are willing to interact with this blog.

Who might those be?

The Olympian by David Remnick, The New Yorker, Aug. 4, 2008

2008-08-03T17:45:00.001-07:00

PROFILE of Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Few citizens of China benefitted more from this summer’s Beijing Olympics than classical pianist Lang Lang. Lang Lang was a ubiquitous Olympic presence. Bookstores featured his new autobiography, “Journey of a Thousand Miles,” along with his best-selling album, “Dragon Songs.” Theatres will later screen “Lang Lang’s Song for 2008,” an adoring documentary. In the realm of high culture, he is China’s first crossover star.

To read the complete article, click:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/04/080804fa_fact_remnick

NPR Story: Backyard Art Thrives in Michigan

2008-07-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

July 30, 2008 · From anywhere in Michigan, you're only a day trip away from a Styrofoam, 13-foot scale model of Stonehenge. There's also a menagerie of farm and circus animals constructed from car parts. We visit some of these artists and innovators.

To listen to this NPR story, click here: Backyard Art

For more on backyard art and other Michigan unique expressions of creativity, read Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

2008-07-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Pausch was many things, he built bridges between the sciences and the arts, confronted walls that he or others put in front of him, had the unrelenting curiousity of a child and insisted on having fun through it all.

He reached star status when his “Last Lecture” at Carnegie Mellon became a YouTube sensation.

The lecture was followed by a book of the same name, written with Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, who worked on the book from his home in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

He passed away July 25th, 2008 at too early an age from pancreatic cancer.

One of his last projects was Alice, a free and innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.

Become a kid again and try it out alone or with a young one you know:

http://www.alice.org/

And, take some time to listen to “The Last Lecture” on YouTube.

ABC is doing a 1-hour feature on his life, July 29th at 10 pm EST.

To all who confront walls, build bridges, and have
fun each step of the way!

Where are folks coming from?

2008-07-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Two resources related to understanding why we keep preaching to the choir and why our communities do not grow.

Check out:

- The Metropolitan Group on Building Will

- One on Ones

Music, patterns, algorithms and visualization

2008-04-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

Listening History
Lee Byron
http://megamu.com/work/listeninghistory/leebyron

Algorithmically generated posters based on statistical information provided by Last.fm software. Every song listened to by a particular user over an eighteen month period of time is recorded and used to create the visualization. Each colored band represents a musical artist, progressing left to right through the eighteen month span growing wider when listening was more frequent, and skinnier when it was not. The hue of the artist represents the time of the first listen for the particular user: cooler colors represent artists who have been listened to for a long period of time while warmer colors represent artists who are more recent in the user's listening habits.The resulting poster is printed at 11" tall by up to 75", each month is represented by 3.75". While these are visually interesting, they tend to have a much stronger effect on a personal level since the user draws connections between unique patterns in the poster and correlating events in their life.

Design Communication for the 22nd Century

2008-04-07T10:56:00.000-07:00

Paola Antonelli, senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Architecture and Design talks about her approach to putting together her latest show, Design and the Elastic Mind as well as her opinions on the state of design and its role as communication.

By: Nick Parish Published: Apr 1, 2008 in Creativity Online

Paola Antonelli

What do you hope viewers take from the exhibition? I just want them to have this soaring feeling of possibilities. Every single show I do is to explain to as wide an audience as possible how sublime design is. I really consider design one of the very highest forms of human creativity. I consider it very complex and very tough because it's not only about having a great idea it's about going through all the steps and reality checks that design entails and still having the great idea at the end. I just want to communicate that. Also, every show that I curate always has different levels. I am at the MoMA, I'm very lucky to be here, because I have a big audience, but they're not necessarily here to see design. Hardly ever. They come here to see Matisse and Picasso, God bless them, and then they stumble upon my show and I keep them there. To this audience I need to be able to speak. To an audience like this you speak through beauty, through the sense of surprise and delight. So you enter the show and you immediately feel that it's a special space. You see the objects and see that the objects are gorgeous. Then you start reading and you can go deep into things. Then, of course, I talk to the audience, my community, the design community. I want them to feel proud of themselves. I want them to be inspired by what they didn't know yet so I try to make an effort to show things that they might not have seen in other shows. It's a special moment for design, for the history of the world, from a technological and ethical moment. I want them to feel that, feel their important role and that somebody's talking about this important role and feel their responsibility to their potential. And then, I'm talking to my other audience in another community, which is the audience of people that are slightly more advanced in art and culture. I want them to understand the important position of design.

Oded Ezer's 'Typosperma'
How did you go about starting to collect this vast group of items? What conditions or tenets did you keep in mind? When I started out, there were hardly any conditions. Whenever I start an exhibition of this scope, one of the first steps is to bug everyone I know. I sent out this message, saying I'm doing this show. In the beginning it was not called "Design and the Elastic Mind," it was called "The State of Design," very wide. I said Have you seen anything? Is there anything I should look into? Any school I should visit? And with Patricia [Juncosa Vecchierini, curatorial assistant] we collected, we look at blogs, we look at magazines, we travel, we go to schools, shows. And then, we gathered, I think it was

Mathieu Lehnneur's 'Elements'
about 1,700 ideas. The first filter is that, well, they all happen at the same time. The ideas shape together with the submissions; it's a give and take. But definitely one of the very first priorities is that they are gorgeous, not beautiful in a platonic sense, they just have to be really, almost unimpeachable from a design standpoint. You look at them and say, That's a really great design process, which means it's about seeing the idea at the very end. Of course, as you know, there are also science projects in the exhibition. There are many people who don't' call themselves designers who have two PhD's in neurophysics and nanotechnology, so one second thing they all have in common is the attempt to really reach the real world. Because even in the scientists' works that you see in the exhibition you'll notice there's always a way to try and communicate with a wide audience, by any means possible. Sometimes its comfort, sometimes it's prettiness, like the SMIT solar cells, the idea that instead of covering your house with solar panels that are really ugly you can have this ivy growing on your house, or by means of humor, Paul Rottemund does the DNA Origami in the form of smilies or by means of clarity, so you have Thomas Mason doing the lithoparticle alphabet soup. So they all try to reach out. They have that in common. Then what they have in common is this attempt to be propositive, to propose something for the real future. I don't really like science fiction, but I like to think of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. So everything that you see in the show is based on hypotheses that are plausible. There's no teleportation. Even though that's my dream. But there's already the idea that nanophysics can really help designers and architects grow things. So that's plausible. Even when I show the blind date agency where people base their pairings not on sight or other profiles but on smell, the funny thing is that I found an article in The Economist two months ago that says there really is such an agency in Boston. You think it's hypothetic and then it works. So they have in common this propositive nature. Once you've filtered that, hopefully your ideas start to crystallize, then you start having very precise themes. The next skimming is according to the themes. The final skimming really starts being the imagination of the show. We're still also visual designers in a way, you try to compose things together in a way that's beautiful and makes sense, so that's a whole different way, it's really a mise en scene. The exhibition takes shape in a totally non-linear way, but in the end, if you have a strong idea from the beginning it all comes together, sort of like nanophysics.

Marie-Virginie Berbet's 'Analeptic'
Something that I wanted to bring up, is that this idea of design and science coming together was developed slowly over a year and a half with a collaboration with Seed magazine. That was a very, very important collaboration because really that taught me so much and built up the enthusiasm of the dialog. One of the things that I realized early on is that both design and science want to change their position in people's culture. Scientists wanted to stop being considered lofty and abstract; and wanted to show how engaged they were in the real world. And designers wanted to stop being considered decorators. This dialog also helped them establish a certain ground in people's culture so as not to be ignored any more, to be boxed in certain dogmatic clichés. The exhibition notes refer to a major change in human behavior that's reflected in designers' work and the objects in this collection. What sort of change in curatorial behavior is going to have to reflect that? It's a big change. And actually one of your colleagues helped me figure it out during an interview. Instead of making a statement and establishing a canon and saying, This is the way things are, it's about establishing a trajectory. I only work in a collaborative way, and in the way I like to keep things open, to present a nice comfortable environment in which designers can thrive, my catalog designer, my website designer, Yugo Nakamura, all of the designers in the show. Also I wanted to really put my foot down and say, This is what design is doing now, but then it's open. I hope that this trajectory is what I'll be remembered for, not for rules and recommendations.

Hoberman Associates' 'Emergent Surfaces'
How does that apply to digital things? I think one of the big challenges now for curators is how they're going to present digital work, work on the web. The challenge is only practical, it's not conceptual. It's a huge practical problem, and there's an example that has to do with our collection and not with the exhibition. I want to acquire the first graphic interface, Xerox Parc's Star in 1981. The computer is so obsolete, it's lovely to see, but what do I do? Do I make it run on the original computer and then go nuts because every day you have to go crazy [with maintenance], do I simulate it interactively on a computer of today, do I show a video of a period piece maybe with David Liddell or somebody else using it, so I show it in pictures? What do I do? There are many ways to do it; it's really complicated, but to me, it's only pragmatic, the problem, it has to do with migration. When something is in the present, it's much easier.

Martin Watetnberg's 'Thinking Machine 4'
To give you an example, I'm trying to develop this idea, I don't want to call them virtual acquisitions, but they're acquisitions based in the public domain. One of the biggest changes in human behavior is that more and more we don't want to own objects, but rather we want to use them and they remain in the public domain. There's not any need anymore to acquire objects, like Zipcars, even cell phones in the United States, they cost so little. I've been wanting to acquire a 747 for the collection. My idea is not to have it, there's no room and there's no need. Not everybody can afford to take it, but everybody can afford a ride to the airport to see it, everybody's seen it, there's a feeling about what a 747 is like. I almost don't need to own a specific model. It's the 747, this beautiful, gorgeous clumsy dromedary of the sky that changed the way people traveled that I feel that needs to be celebrated as a masterpiece of design. So I developed this whole idea, I went pretty deep into figuring it out. MoMA would license its name to an airline so three aircraft going through New York would be the MoMA aircraft. Maybe inside the upholstery fabric is different, the cutlery is better, the onboard library, instead of having only golf magazines has architecture and design magazines, maybe the little cart sells MoMA design store items, It's just MoMA saying, Oh, we love this plane, without needing to own it. When you develop this model, you can really not be stopped by scale anymore, which is really is one of the most important tenets of contemporary society, not to be stopped by scale.

Thomas G. Mason's 'LithoParticle Dispersions'
You touched on not including teleporting and things like that. With the speculative nature of some of these projects, does placing the museum's stamp on them worry you? When you're dealing with these future technologies you're dealing with things that might not have the applications you think they would. You take risks. I would rather be remembered for saying something would work and it didn't work than saying that something is not going to work and then it works. I even started my essay in the book showing all of the wrong predictions. I would rather take risks and say, Oh, this will work, and give confidence, rather than do the opposite. We've had quite beautiful discussions here amongst curators in the museum and with the director about taking risks, saying, Let's take risks. And let's fall on our butts, if necessary. I think it's better that way. So no, I'm not scared. Whatever it takes to make people think and have opinions I'm happy about. If there's any far out things in the exhibition, maybe in Design for Debate, the concepts of nanotechnology and how it can transform our bodies. But, you shouldn't take that; it's not about objects that will happen, it's about building scenarios that make us think about how we should deal with nanotechnology.

Janne Kyttanen's 'V Bag'
Also, you mentioned this earlier, there are lots of disciplines represented where the people who come from those disciplines would not consider what they do design, (such as) coders and software engineers. How do the objects coming from those fields straddle the line between being functional as a great website or Google Maps mashup and also a design? Design is about communication; it's about this extra step to reach people. That's why I felt the right to include things that were not born as design in this particular exhibition. And it's very funny because the scientists and artists were happy. I thought of instances in the past where I did design shows and wanted to include artists, I tell you, there's one artist that did not want to be included because he said, Oh, it's a design show, it's not art. He regretted it terribly. There's still this nuttiness, artists think that they're higher than designers, but it's changing. The umbrella of design has become a desirable umbrella for artists, scientists, engineers, to the point that there's a book called Sensorium, (and in it) there's an essay by Peter Galison who is a science historian and much more at Harvard, and it's a beautiful essay about nanotechnology and it's a beautiful essay because it talks about the concept of nanofacture, and it says how scientists, because of nanophysics and the possibility of

James King's Dressing The Meat Of Tomorrow
building things atom by atom, are just becoming designers, so it really is interesting that design is the one that unites so many different forces today. Just the idea of making. Another beautiful neologism is thinkering, that's John Seely Brown, this idea of experimenting with a goal that is also communicative, not just theoretical. Notice I'm not saying aesthetic, I'm saying communicative, because I think that what makes design design, is communication once again, not beauty. There's also beauty, and beauty can be a way to communicate, but it's communication.At what point in putting together this show did you say to yourself, Wow, we've got a really great representation of the state of design here?Whenever you start thinking of a show you don't think of a show ever as a landmark or a blockbuster, anything like that, you think of a show that gets your juices going, it really gets you excited. The concept forms itself as you go, it's a work in progress, and you have no clue as to how it's going to be received. To be totally honest with you I realized this was going to be a special show a day and a half before the opening, because I started to see it coming together and I realized it was really good. This is like "Mutant Materials," it's another little leap. And it continues "Mutant Materials" in a way, because that was a portrait of the state of design at that time. What was happening was designers were starting to design materials themselves, and not only objects. Today, they're starting to design the inner laws that create behaviors and objects; it's going even further into the deeper scale of design. So this show probably couldn't have happened before, because there are cycles in history; when you're in my position all you do is observe and something happens at some point and if you're lucky enough and have your antennas up at that time you catch it.

Boym Brother's 'Babel Blocks'
It seems like this is a pretty wide-ranging show, it encompasses a lot. From my limited view, I don't think I've seen anything that's deigned to tackle this wide a group of things. It's not for me to say; I haven't seen it either. The way I see museums and design exhibitions, it's really like an amazing network, we all have our functions and we all do things differently. Like the Victorian Albert is great at doing the sweeping historical shows, design and Surrealism, Modernism, now they're doing the Cold War, they do that best. The Design Museum, right now it's changing but there was this interdisciplinarity under [former director] Alice Rawsthorn so they were doing Phillip Treacy hats and the Eames exhibition so they had great graphic design shows, Peter Saville, they were really looking at design this multifaceted way, and now Deyan [Sudjic, director] is trying to, he's done Zaha Hadid, so they do that. And then you go to the Denver Museum, they're the ones that do postmodernism, which we don't do. Then you go to the Cooper-Hewitt, they have a more historical mandate, so we all do different things Centre Pompidou does different things. This is what I do best. I'm good at making this kind of, I really consider myself a reporter in a way, no reporting is ever objective, but what reporters are good at doing, if they have that talent, is synthesis. They're able to catch this broad view and put it together that marks this moment in time. That's what I do best. So, very humbly, we all do our thing. No, I haven't seen another show like this. I'm glad to be put in my own little tassel in this big puzzle.

Rudolf Bannasch andLeif Kniese's 'Aqua Ray'
cruise to the exhibition's website.

Placement of Special Education Students in Arts Classes

2008-03-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

First, whenever a teacher receives a special education requiring accommodations, the teacher should be given a copy of the IEP and specific accommodations that are to be provided. If the teacher has questions about procedures for providing those accommodations, the resource room teacher or other special education contact should be available.

If the student has behaviors of concern, again, look at the IEP for a behavior plan that addresses the behaviors. A behavior plan should list behavior control techniques that are now being used with the student.

If the student has been assigned an aide, the IEP should specify if the aide is to accompany the student to general education classes. The aide should also have training regarding implementation of the behavior plan. If the student is displaying behaviors that may be dangerous in the art classroom, document those behaviors and meet with the special education contact to discuss if the behaviors can be addressed, and if the student should continue in your class.

Last, try and determine if the student is benefiting from the class. If the student is participating in his/her own way, you may find it easier to deal with behaviors.

Address any follow up questions you have at our toll-free number 888-320-8384.

Tom Freeman
Office of Special Education/
Early Intervention Services

High School Theatre, Historical Re-enactments, and Economic Community Development

2008-03-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Historical re-enactments bring Clio's past to life while focusing on its future

Read about it in the Flint Journal article.

Using this blog to continue conversations around the VPAA credit

2008-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

I'd like to consider using this site more broadly, i.e. beyond the design team, to continue dialogue across the state concerning various aspects of implementation, alignment, assessment, online course offering development, etc.

The possibilities are endless and we would benefit I think from a place where those interested can find a community for discussion of these issues.

What do you all think?

Where can I find a copy of the alignment tools?

2007-03-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

I could not find an updated version of the alignment tools posted to this blog spot. If I have missed it please direct me where to find it on this site.

Visual Arts Specific VPAA Thread

2007-03-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

This is a thread for posting questions, recommendations, strategies for addressing the VPAA guidelines specific to the visual arts.

Making VPAA "Sticky"

2007-02-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

VPAA Design Team: How to make Visual, Performing and Applied Arts Courses "Sticky"

This post relates to an article John Kratus, Professor of Music Education at Michigan State University, has written a paper in which he attributes the decline in music education to its need to:

"become sticky, that is it must become potent and irresistible. It must also connect to the culture in meaningful ways to enable the epidemic to spread. There must be mavens to initiate the change, connectors to transmit the change to a broader population, and salesmen (and women) to translate the change into each school's own context."

I think many would agree that the same is true of the other visual, performing, and applied arts areas.

How do we help schools and teachers throughout the state make visual, performing, and applied arts credits "sticky?"

Reaching beyond the VPAA Design Team

2007-02-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

At the December 15th meeting, each regional table was asked to brainstorm on additional folks who should be part of our outreach effort as we build capacity statewide to meet the VPAA Credit Guidelines.

Please continue to generate names, titles, and as complete contact information as you have, including email addresses.

VPAA questions from teachers and administrators

2007-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

I have been discussing the VPAA with teachers in Macomb County and in other parts of the state. It seems like the response from districts has been a mixed bag. Some districts are taking the arts credit seriously and are looking for help in designing appropriate instruction. Most, however, are so concerned with assigning Merit Core values to their ELA, math, and science classes that they have not had time to think beyond the "traditional " curriculum. I think it is important for arts teachers to become schooled in the arts credit guidelines and help keep the issue in front of administrators. I'm sure many on our VPAA team would be more than happy to speak to teachers or administrators in their geographic area.

The purpose of this site

2007-02-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

This is intended to be a site for members of the growing VPAA Design Team to work in private on draft documents and to pilot the usefulness of a site like this in the future for the broader community of Visual, Performing, and Applied arts teachers, partners, administrators and possibly students.

If you view the videoclip under Creativity Resources on this page from TedTalks by Charles Leadbeater, you'll hear him talk to the fact that these new technology tools allow us to work collaboratively and thereby build and create new knowledge exponentially - a la other Creative Resouces, the "Did you know" video.

So, let's play on this site for a bit and see how this can work for us.

I'm also reviewing another tool, "Zoho Notebook" and will probably invite a few of you to try that out as well.

I like the ease of use of Blogspot and working between it, Google Documents, and Zoho Show, I've been able to put this site together pretty easily. So, at this point it may do what we need. But, let's keep exploring.

Ana