National Performing Arts Convention Rehash: Issue #2

If you haven’t checked out my first post about the National Performing Arts Convention, you can view it here.

Quick intro:  Throughout the week, convention attendees convened in small groups (”caucuses”) to discuss topics/issues effecting the field at large.  At the conclusion of the convention, everyone who remained met in a large group to decide how to approach these issues going forward.  Although making the final decisions via group-thought was difficult and annoying as a result of technological glitches and, in my opinion, of an underinformed group, the convening still produced some interesting feedback from the performing arts field.

Here is Issue #2….

Issue #2: The potential of arts education and lifelong learning in the arts is under realized.  What strategies are most important in order to advance our vision?

Here is what the audience voted for:

On a NATIONAL level… “Devise an advocacy campaign to promote the inclusion of performing arts in core curricula.”

My thought on this… Hasn’t this been done already?  Did it work?  The strategy I was hoping the crowd embraced was: “Lobby for education reform, including rescinding No Child Left Behind.”  Look, we’re not going to get anywhere on the arts education front if we can’t first reform the American educational system in general.  I was lucky enough to go to a great public school with a great arts program.  But even 10 years later, I know that the same school is no longer at the forefront of the arts or good education.  They probably have more metal detectors than instruments!  We need to drastically overhaul this system.  And, with that, although many of us think it’s logical that improvements to arts education will be included in that overhaul, we need to actively lobby for it, using every tool we have at our disposal.  We need to talk about correlative data that shows arts education improving learning in other areas, we need to talk about businesses hiring creative people with MFAs rather than MBAs, and we need to talk about how we actively sustain a positive creative culture within our communities — starting with our youngest citizens.

On the LOCAL level, the audience voted for: “Mobilize and collaborate with K-12 and higher education institutions to strengthen arts education and arts participation as core curriculum.”

Although I agree with this, I also liked the notion of:  “Integrate arts teaching in educators’ professional development and integrate teaching programs in artist organizations.”  I think we need to work hand-in-hand with the teachers on a local level.  They are the ones that can withhold the arts from America’s children if they really want to.  If they fully embrace arts education — and we can help them do so! — then they will pass their experience onto their students.

On an INDIVIDUAL/ORGANIZATIONAL level, the audience favored: “Lead lifelong education programs that actively involve people in multi-generational groups.  ‘Make the arts part of a lifelong wellness plan.’”

I’m highly skeptical about this one… It’s too touchy-feely for me.  I’m sure it could work, but I’m also sure a lot of people will be turned off by it (ie, people that don’t like to be coddled).  Instead, I preferred:  “Run candidates for school boards and local government.”  Again, as in my previous blog post, I think that if artists ran the world (or, at least the community), then we would have a stronger impact when it comes to decisions such as funding arts education programs in schools.

So, what are your thoughts on these ideas?

Check back in coming days for a report on Issue #3 (re: diversity).