Americans for the Arts

It's the first day of the 2007 Americans for the Arts Convention! It's hot in Las Vegas and although the Flamingo Hotel can be a little confusing, we've all managed to navigate our ways through the casinos, crowds, and mirrored hallways (they all look the same and seem to take you back to where you started!) to our respective sessions. Speaking of navigating through challenges and obstacles, I'll be checking-in frequently to report back on my musings and reflections from Leadership Track sessions over the course of convention weekend. I'd like to share some thoughts on today's Cultural Leadership session...

This peice comes by way of Julia McBride’s “Coach Julia” e-newsletter. It is too good not to share.  Julia is one of the coaches in the Personal Evolution advanced workshop of our Annual Convention.

A North Carolina teacher named Julia Scatliff O'Grady has created the Leap Day Challenge, urging readers of her blog "to take a leap during the year of the leap." A leap can be anything you choose to pay attention to in 2008 that will make you and the world stronger as a result. O’Grady has designated Friday, February 29 as the day on which all of us who accept the challenge will set aside some time to act on our leap and to celebrate.

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Lively hoots and hollers accompanied the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) panel introduction when Lynn Tuttle, Director of Arts Education with the Arizona Department of Education, led 120+ national arts education professionals in a 20-minute overview of everything you ever wanted to know about NCLB and the arts.

She offered “NCLB BINGO” as the framework for sharing the plain-language facts about this legislation and the controversies that surround it. The dubious prizes included tomes on navigating titled programs, and other stimulating education legislation.