COVID-19 has heightened the stress levels in lower-income families and put people in extreme survival mode. If you’re not on the top of the socioeconomic ladder, this is a very scary time with lots of uncertainties. Removing vital systems of support like school and community programs throws people into a fear-filled tailspin. We started doing a lot of arts integration work back in 2007 with a couple of different school districts, and we found that because of the shift in budgets teachers began teaching P.E. To support them, we build a hip-hop dance-inspired, web-based learning platform called PassToClass.com. Because of COVID-19, we offered free access to PassToClass.com to all our school partners as a fitness and creative expression resource for distance learning. We need to expand access as much as possible right now. Partnering with creative nonprofits that have tight community ties and boots on the ground means our under-resourced communities get the information and resources they need to stay safe.

Like most of you, Americans for the Arts has been watching the breaking news about Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and we are seeing inquiries coming in from the field and through our national service organization colleagues. While gathering and sharing pertinent information, we are also working to understand the long-term effect on arts and culture activities from performance to festivals, touring artists, and school field trips. We are monitoring responses and preparations and will share more information as it becomes available. You can help us and the nonprofit arts field by sharing with us how you are responding in the immediate and in the long-term. There is still much to learn about the outbreak, and we hope the following information assists you in preparation for both you and your loved ones, your organization, and your community. 

Last month, Education Commission of the States President Jeremy Anderson shared six trending education policy topics we will likely see in 2020. Arts education stakeholders and advocates may not be surprised to see that the arts were not listed among the top education issues—but don’t worry! The arts interact with these topics in meaningful ways and can be a critical part of the dialogue around the top six trending education policy priorities. Want to continue this conversation? The Arts Education Partnership is pleased to collaborate with Americans for the Arts to host the Arts Education Policy Briefing on Sunday, March 29 in Washington, D.C. We invite you to join us to discuss two of these priorities—workforce development and school climate—together with education and arts stakeholders. 

There is no “one size fits all” model when it comes to arts organizations. From performing arts, to museums, and arts education, our structures and operations vary widely; yet we often are melded into one pool of “arts organizations” when it comes to checking boxes for funding and other nonprofit classifications. As the Executive Director of COCA – Center of Creative Arts, a multifaceted, hybrid organization, I know first-hand how difficult and unhelpful it can be to benchmark our organization against others with different approaches and measures of success. One such benchmark is the ratio of earned to contributed revenue. Our operating budget is approximately 42% earned to 58% contributed revenue. Is our earned revenue too high? Too low? What should it be? The verdict is still out. Even when you encounter information on financial health of arts organizations, it tends to be more diagnostic than prescriptive. Despite the lack of definitive benchmarking data, I think most of us would agree that a diversified revenue portfolio is a positive step toward sustainability.

Recently I’ve been reflecting on my long career in education and am grateful for the many and varied opportunities. I’ve always been intrigued by collaboration in education, and if I had to select something that has the greatest influence on my work, intertwined with every job, it has been collaboration. About 10 years ago, I realized how much focus is put on collaboration and how little intentional action/planning/understanding is put into it. We expect adults and students to collaborate, but we don’t unpack that as a group or individually to make a greater impact on the success of the work. One guide for preparing students for the world is most often directed today by “the 4C’s” which includes critical thinking & problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication, and collaboration. I think it’s time to put some effort into unpacking collaboration before jumping into a partnership or expecting students to work in a group.

Yesterday, an Education Commission of the States staff member with the memorable name of Claus von Zastrow published a blog reporting the findings of an art education question included in the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Math. It’s a substantial discovery—akin to when new stars are detected in a constellation, or a new species of insect is identified. His blog post and the accompanying data tables are a must-read. Longtime Department of Education watchers know that since 1995, there have been just two kinds of arts education research by the federal government, and not one of these tests over 25 years has ever captured arts education data on a state-by-state basis. So when eagle-eyed Claus spotted in the Math NAEP released in October 2019, among the 40 multi-part questions asked of the eighth grade test takers, that Question #21 was about art education—he must have been floored. As I am. This question, put to the 147,000 students that were a part of the 2019 Math NAEP sample, must be the single largest arts education data point in the history of federal education research.

I attended the 2019 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was amazing to be in a place with thousands of other arts supporters and enthusiasts. I was among artists, researchers, educators, community organizations, politicians, board members, and so many others. All of us came together to learn, share, network, and champion the cause of elevating the arts in our communities. There was power in the sheer number of people who traveled from all over the country to be in attendance. All of us traveled individually—one by one, to come to one place for one reason: the arts. We came together to advocate, connect, and support the power of the arts in America. I believe the African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” In those simple words, the proverb teaches us the blueprint for monumental progress. 

Arts education certainly doesn’t have to (and really shouldn’t) end after high school. At least that’s our belief at COCAbiz, the arts-based business training division of COCA-Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis. COCAbiz provides immersive arts-based training, programming, and consulting for business professionals. We are constantly exploring how to unlock creative energy and build skills to meet today’s business challenges by providing leaders with new tools, techniques, and perspectives from the arts. COCA’s Executive Director, Kelly Pollock, wrote about COCAbiz for Americans for the Arts back in 2011, suggesting “businesses might be more innovative and achieve greater success when they give their employees all of the tools that the arts and the creative process have to offer.” She’s right. As we round out our first decade of COCAbiz, we have learned that arts learning is powerful and needed with business professionals. In a world where automation and technological dependence are becoming the norm, human creativity still reigns as the ultimate competitive advantage.

“You mean an artist made this for us?” A student with a visual impairment is seeing a work of art for the first time at an art museum. The student had just been told that a visual artist recreated Native American on Horseback by Ronald Lockett for their group especially. The group is part of a program called STARS (Social, Therapeutic, Academic and Recreational Services) at the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta, Georgia. This year-long program is for students with visual impairments and helps them “gain the self-confidence and skills necessary to thrive.” The Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI) is in Midtown Atlanta, less than two miles from the High Museum of Art. CVI and the High officially began a partnership in 2016 through a Museum Access for Kids contract from the Kennedy Center VSA. Through this partnership and others, High Museum staff have received training on working with visitors with various abilities.

Summer is coming to an end and schools across the country once again are opening their doors and welcoming learners of all ages. The education systems of 2019 are shifting to meet the needs of these learners, and this is an ongoing and huge challenge for school leaders. Some students aren’t returning to a traditional school, while others never stopped their learning when the last school year was “officially” over. Fortunately, we have excellent educators across the country leading with innovative ideas to tackle aspects of these differences. As a veteran arts educator of 43 years, this blog is a reflection of what is circling around in my head.

In early May 2019, I had the honor of being one of 75 participants of the Spring 2019 American Express Leadership Academy (AELA). I gathered with others from across the country to explore our own personal strengths and weaknesses as leaders, and to collaborate on strategies to take that information and be better. Towards the end of the week, we each met for 90 minutes with an executive coach who’d reviewed all of our assessments, self-reflection, and organization information. We also began to reflect on how we could practically use our epiphanies and discoveries. The experience was incredible. Never before have I been afforded the luxury of three and a half days to focus on myself, not just myself in the context of the work I do. The information I received allowed me to ruminate on what I was learning and how it specifically impacts leadership in the field of arts education—and what I can pass on to my colleagues in the field.