Americans for the Arts

Anyone who has ever watched a play or a musical knows that there are two acts.  This summer, legislation moved forward to transform the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for the first time in over 14 years.  The storyline from the first act has been filled with twists and turns with the arts seemingly being a cautionary tale in its wake.  So, what can we expect in the second?

Setting the Scene

We opened our story in 1965 with the groundbreaking Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  This original law was meant to provide more equity to schools across the country.  In 2002, we saw the revamp known as No Child Left Behind enter the scene with an “era of accountability” at its core. Testing - lots of testing - became the new normal. Schools were required to issue testing in reading and math so that we could get a measurement of their success or failure.  And ever since, the law has received nothing more than patches along the way. 

It’s been a few months since I joined the Americans for the Arts team and I've had the opportunity to learn a lot about the interesting and diverse work that you're doing and how our tools, resources, and member network are helping you get it done.

We often share your stories in our member e-newsletter Monthly Wire, but I wanted to dig a little deeper into some of your projects and programs and really get to know your work. I'll be jumping in periodically to share what I'm learning about member activity so that you can get to know each other a little better and to find some new, creative ways to use your membership!

Mary Elizabeth Meier

In many of her lectures, Maxine Greene spoke about the processes of inquiry and imagination we experience when we are learning in and through the arts.

We are concerned with possibility, with opening windows on alternative realities, with moving through doorways into spaces some of us have never seen before. We are interested in releasing diverse persons from confinement to the actual, particularly confinement to the world of techniques and skill training, to fixed categories and measurable competencies. We are interested in breakthroughs and new beginnings, in the kind of wide-awakeness that allows for wonder and unease and questioning and the pursuit of what is not yet (Greene, 2001, p. 44).

How can we, art educators, find ways to support students in the possibilities inherent in artistic learning processes that are active, responsive to imagination, and open to collaboration in what Greene calls, “the pursuit of what is not yet”? Teachers are planning learning experiences in the age of accountability when standards, assessment, and teacher evaluation are central points of focus in the 2013 educational climate. Many arts educators are left wondering how to be accountable to these issues without relinquishing what is artful, imaginative, creative, and emergent about arts education.

Adam Natale

If School of Rock taught us anything, it’s that art can have a major impact on students’ lives, and that even a slacker musician can inspire the next generation.  What it also showed us was that maybe the world of teaching artists is too ad hoc and doesn’t really have any form or professionalization to it – someone can just walk in to a classroom, hook up an amp, and start jamming (ahem, teaching).

Well, that film debuted over 10 years ago.  In the last decade, we’ve surely seen a surge not only in the professionalization of teaching artists, but also in the field as a whole.   With organizations such as the Association of Teaching Artists (of which I am a board member) providing resources and research to the field, and certificate programs popping up through university continuing ed programs, teaching artists have far more resources available to them than they had even five years ago.  Even within many arts organizations, programs led by education directors are focusing on the training of teaching artists as opposed to the simple execution of lesson plans. 

Milly Hough

Why do some artists decide to teach? For many, the attraction is a desire to connect students to a creative process and to the larger arts community. For others, teaching fuels their work as artists. The South Carolina Arts Commission’s Roster of Approved Artists includes more than 900 artists who have been approved to conduct residencies and performances in schools. Many have been teaching for as long as they’ve been artists. We wanted to know more, so we asked four Roster artists about their experiences.

The artists, the number of years they’ve been teaching, plus a brief description of their work with students: