Tuesday, March 2nd, 4:00-4:45pm. With local school districts across the state making difficult funding decisions and teachers' jobs on the line, the California Alliance for Arts Education will host an online event to empower teachers, parents, and community members to act quickly to protect arts education funding in their school district. The 45-minute webinar, Standing Up for Arts Ed will help local communities develop an action plan, focusing on three key elements: building a coalition, getting the facts, and finding the right leverage points for effective advocacy. Click here to register
Friday, February 26, 2010
Get Trained, Start Lobbying to Save Your Local Art Ed Programs
Standing Up for Arts Ed A free webinar to jump start advocacy efforts in your school district!
Tuesday, March 2nd, 4:00-4:45pm. With local school districts across the state making difficult funding decisions and teachers' jobs on the line, the California Alliance for Arts Education will host an online event to empower teachers, parents, and community members to act quickly to protect arts education funding in their school district. The 45-minute webinar, Standing Up for Arts Ed will help local communities develop an action plan, focusing on three key elements: building a coalition, getting the facts, and finding the right leverage points for effective advocacy. Click here to register Questions? Email: sibyl@artsed411.org Copyright. California Alliance for Arts Education.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 4:00-4:45pm. With local school districts across the state making difficult funding decisions and teachers' jobs on the line, the California Alliance for Arts Education will host an online event to empower teachers, parents, and community members to act quickly to protect arts education funding in their school district. The 45-minute webinar, Standing Up for Arts Ed will help local communities develop an action plan, focusing on three key elements: building a coalition, getting the facts, and finding the right leverage points for effective advocacy. Click here to register
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Duet of Brain and Music
Here's another great research piece by Tom Jacobs on the connection between thinking and music. I want you to read this, so I've posted the entire article. If you're interested in all the varied research done by this organization, check out their site.
...............................................................................................................By: Tom Jacobs | January 22, 2010 | 07:45 AM (PST) | 
Comments
How does the jazz musician improvise such beautiful sounds? Why do teenagers comform? Two new studies of music and the brain give us insights and answers.stockxpert.com
Two new studies of music and the brain give us insights into the mind of the improvising musician, and the conformist leanings of teenagers.
It's always fascinating to ask a jazz musician about the experience of improvising. During their spontaneous solos, these remarkable players are producing notes faster than their conscious minds can think of them, and many report their primary effort consists of staying out of their own way.
New brain-scan research, reported in the new issue of the journal NeuroImage, finds a scientific explanation for that quasi-mystical phenomenon.
Meanwhile, a separate study in that same journal examines the brains of teenagers as they listen to music and finds evidence of the strong pull adolescents feel to conform to the preferences of their peers.
For the improvisation study, researchers Aaron Berkowitz and Daniel Ansari studied the brains of 28 people as they improvised five-note melodies on a tiny keyboard. Thirteen were classically trained undergraduate pianists from the Dartmouth College music department. The other 15 were nonmusicians (though some had played instruments for up to three years in the past).
"The two groups showed significant differences in functional brain activity during improvisation," the researchers report. "Specifically, musicians deactivated the right temporoparietal junction during melodic improvisation, while nonmusicians showed no change in activity in this region."
This suggests trained musicians "are entering a different state of attentional focus than nonmusicians as soon as they engage in even the simple act of playing, and that this effect is particularly heightened during melodic improvisation," Berkowitz and Ansari write.
In other words, they effectively blocked out mental distractions, "allowing for a more goal-directed performance state that aids in creative thought."
That ability to intensely focus has a variety of obvious benefits. Indeed, this study could be used as further evidence of the value of maintaining music education in the schools.
Speaking of students, the second study used similar fMRI technology to study the conformist tendencies of adolescents. A research team led by Gregory Berns of the Emory University School of Medicine scanned the brains of 27 youngsters ranging in age from 12 to 17 as they listened to 15-second clips from relatively obscure contemporary pop songs.
During the first round, the adolescents were asked to rate each of the 60 songs on a five-point scale. In the second round, the musical excerpts were replayed, with one crucial difference: Two-thirds of the time, the song's MySpace popularity ranking was flashed onto the computer screen as the music played. Having received this information, participants were asked to rate the song a second time.
"Without popularity information displayed, participants changed their ratings on 11.6 percent of the trials," the researchers report. "With popularity shown, they changed their ratings 21.9 percent of the time."
Why would knowing other people's opinions influence their own? "fMRI results showed a strong correlation between the participants' rating and activity in the caudate nucleus, a region [of the brain] previously implicated in reward-driven actions," according to the paper. "The tendency to change one's evaluation of a song was positively correlated with activation in the anterior insula and anterior cingulate, two regions that are associated with psychological arousal and negative affective states."
The researchers' conclusion: "Our results suggest that a principal mechanism whereby popularity ratings affect consumer choice is through the anxiety generated by the mismatch between one's own preferences and the others'. This mismatch anxiety motivates people to switch their choices in the direction of the consensus."
So, if you're told your peers all like a certain band, but its music doesn't really speak to you, this creates anxiety — which can, and sometimes is, alleviated by deciding you like the group after all. Of course, we eventually outgrow this need to fit in and boldly follow our own paths. Don't we?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
New Study Reveals No Child Left Behind Leaves Behind the Arts
Arts Education Promotes Emotional Intelligence
By: Tom Jacobs 
Print
Arts education, which tends to be something of an afterthought in many American school districts, is facing an even tougher time than usual. Twin threats — budget cuts necessitated by dwindling tax revenues and the push to focus on math and reading skills as measured on standardized tests — have left music and art classes in a particularly vulnerable state. In December, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District proposed eliminating its 350 elementary school arts specialists over the next two years.
What is being lost — and what, if anything, can be done about this trend — is addressed in two scholarly papers published in the new issue of the Arts Education Policy Review. One notes students whose education is dominated by rote learning will not be prepared for "the jobs of tomorrow," while the other explores the value of the arts in helping kids understand their emotions.
In "No Child Left Behind and Fine Arts Classes," Tina Beveridge of Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., details the obvious and subtle ways a test-centric approach to education devalues arts instruction. (Obvious: School districts being judged on student test scores have little incentive to fund such programs. Subtle: The courses that remain are often classified as "fun," which conveys the unintentional message "the arts do not require skill, knowledge, commitment or work.")
Beveridge finds considerable irony in the fact that the original stated goal of the 2001 federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated standardized testing, "was to close the achievement gap in education." She argues that by narrowing the focus of education to a few testable topics, it ends up doing just the opposite.
"If we marginalize all non-tested subjects, we create a system in which only the affluent members of our society have access to the most comprehensive and well-rounded educations, which widens the achievement gap rather than closes it," she writes.
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To read the second research findings regarding emotional intelligence as taught through the arts continue the article:
http://miller-mccune.com/news/arts-education-promotes-emotional-intelligence-1720.print
Friday, January 22, 2010
Art classes and summer art camps for kids
It may be chilly January, but it's not too soon to think about summer art camp for your kids. Here's a national chain of art providers that might be located in your community. Their programs look very creative and fun. If you're an LA reader, they have locations in the area. Check out Abrakadoodle here:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12647afa3fa29b97
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12647afa3fa29b97
Saturday, January 16, 2010
One Million License Plates for the Arts
Aside from the current CA budget crisis, historically California's per capita state investment in the arts is the LOWEST in the nation. I just cannot reconcile that lack of investment considering what a powerhouse of talent the state attracts and grows. Creativity is a powerful economic engine, but then you've heard me say that over and over.
Here's one way you can help correct this ridiculous situation -- purchase an Arts License Plate for one or more vehicles. The State Franchise Tax Board has now officially declared these plates to be tax-deductible! In turn, 60% of each sale funds the California Arts Council. That's where the majority of arts funding comes from -- the sale of license plates designed by Wayne Thiebaud (who my brother-in-law had as a teacher at UC Davis!). We could turn around this dismal situation of arts-funding by putting a million license plates on the road.
That's the campaign launched by the California Arts Council. One million new arts license plates on California vehicles will bring an additional $40 million for the Arts Council's work. That action would turn around the dire lack of funding to make CA one of the best-funded arts environments of any state.
Check out the website and order an ART LVR license plate today!
http://www.cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php
Here's one way you can help correct this ridiculous situation -- purchase an Arts License Plate for one or more vehicles. The State Franchise Tax Board has now officially declared these plates to be tax-deductible! In turn, 60% of each sale funds the California Arts Council. That's where the majority of arts funding comes from -- the sale of license plates designed by Wayne Thiebaud (who my brother-in-law had as a teacher at UC Davis!). We could turn around this dismal situation of arts-funding by putting a million license plates on the road.
That's the campaign launched by the California Arts Council. One million new arts license plates on California vehicles will bring an additional $40 million for the Arts Council's work. That action would turn around the dire lack of funding to make CA one of the best-funded arts environments of any state.
Check out the website and order an ART LVR license plate today!
http://www.cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Open Letter To LAUSD Board Members: Save the Arts Program
Please join the letter writing campaign sponsored by Arts For LA. Here's the link:
http://www.artsforla.org/lausd_sendletter
Dear LAUSD Board Members,
I’m writing to thank you for your support of arts education and to encourage you to reconsider the proposal to eliminate 50% of LAUSD’s elementary arts instructional program for the 2010/11 budget year.
I taught at Sendak Elementary last year in North Hollywood through a Community Arts Partner organization. Sadly, my art position was eliminated at spring break. I'm a fully credentialed art specialist, having taught in Washington, northern California, and Texas. It's absolutely shocking to me that this district would consider not fully funding the arts training students need for success in the 21st century.
An elementary art teacher helps provide a balanced education for every child in a school -- the effect more profound than one period a week would suggest. I know, for I've taught thousands in other states. Shouldn't the students attending LAUSD schools have the same chance at a good job in the creative economy? How is it that foreign talent has to be imported because our children haven't been trained for these jobs? It's inconceivable that schools in India or Russia provide better training.
While I know you're under an enormous amount of pressure to eliminate art teachers to help close the deficit, I also know that a lot of our education funding is going to be directed toward more test preparation. The first response should not be to throw out the arts as expendable. That's been the same old response for the last twenty-five years. It might surprise you to know that in Texas -- which invented the testing as proof of teacher /student accountability -- the arts were never eliminated. They were fully funded! Students need a balance and relief from the relentless drill and practice routine of their school day.
The way full-time art, music, PE, and some computer teachers were kept at every school was to tie them to teacher planning time. This model is very effective. All teachers of a grade level are thus given a common planning time. This actually enhances teacher and student performance. It saved the fine arts program. I worked in very competitive and outstanding programs located in tough neighborhoods. Those kids received terrific, comprehensive arts instruction. There was no difference between the education received at a school serving the most needy children or the wealthier schools. The resources were provided.
As a stakeholder and arts provider living in your district, I know firsthand the importance of quality, sequential arts education for all students. Not only does arts education provide the critical skills needed for young minds to become engaged citizens, here in LA it prepares them to succeed in a 21st century workforce created by our regional creative economy.
The creative sector is one of the driving forces of the Los Angeles and Orange County economies, generating nearly 1 million direct and indirect jobs and $140 billion in sales and receipts. In fact, one in six jobs is related directly to the creative economy.
I understand California’s economic crisis has put enormous pressure on the District to fill a $500+ million budget deficit. However, the human cost associated with eliminating elementary arts teachers far outweighs the temporary monetary gain.
LAUSD’s historic ten-year commitment to rebuilding its arts education infrastructure is a success. However, the work is far from complete. Eliminating the instructional foundation from the classroom will only harm students and further push back the District’s goal of providing a complete education for all LAUSD students, regardless of their socio-economic status.
My concern is one of unequity -- children whose parents can fundraise large amounts for their individual school will receive arts training. The parents will pay for it. But what of the schools where that doesn't happen? Those children lose out. We then witness a further erosion of equality and equal access to a balanced education across the district. LAUSD will become a have/have not art education organization.
Your ability to sustain this highly successful program is being put to the test. That is why I am taking this moment to voice my support for this important program and to urge you to maintain the integrity of the arts education program.
Thank you for your continued commitment to ensuring that every LAUSD student has equal access to the tools they need to succeed in work, in our society and in life.
Yours truly,
Tracy Cheney
http://www.artsforla.org/lausd_sendletter
Dear LAUSD Board Members,
I’m writing to thank you for your support of arts education and to encourage you to reconsider the proposal to eliminate 50% of LAUSD’s elementary arts instructional program for the 2010/11 budget year.
I taught at Sendak Elementary last year in North Hollywood through a Community Arts Partner organization. Sadly, my art position was eliminated at spring break. I'm a fully credentialed art specialist, having taught in Washington, northern California, and Texas. It's absolutely shocking to me that this district would consider not fully funding the arts training students need for success in the 21st century.
An elementary art teacher helps provide a balanced education for every child in a school -- the effect more profound than one period a week would suggest. I know, for I've taught thousands in other states. Shouldn't the students attending LAUSD schools have the same chance at a good job in the creative economy? How is it that foreign talent has to be imported because our children haven't been trained for these jobs? It's inconceivable that schools in India or Russia provide better training.
While I know you're under an enormous amount of pressure to eliminate art teachers to help close the deficit, I also know that a lot of our education funding is going to be directed toward more test preparation. The first response should not be to throw out the arts as expendable. That's been the same old response for the last twenty-five years. It might surprise you to know that in Texas -- which invented the testing as proof of teacher /student accountability -- the arts were never eliminated. They were fully funded! Students need a balance and relief from the relentless drill and practice routine of their school day.
The way full-time art, music, PE, and some computer teachers were kept at every school was to tie them to teacher planning time. This model is very effective. All teachers of a grade level are thus given a common planning time. This actually enhances teacher and student performance. It saved the fine arts program. I worked in very competitive and outstanding programs located in tough neighborhoods. Those kids received terrific, comprehensive arts instruction. There was no difference between the education received at a school serving the most needy children or the wealthier schools. The resources were provided.
As a stakeholder and arts provider living in your district, I know firsthand the importance of quality, sequential arts education for all students. Not only does arts education provide the critical skills needed for young minds to become engaged citizens, here in LA it prepares them to succeed in a 21st century workforce created by our regional creative economy.
The creative sector is one of the driving forces of the Los Angeles and Orange County economies, generating nearly 1 million direct and indirect jobs and $140 billion in sales and receipts. In fact, one in six jobs is related directly to the creative economy.
I understand California’s economic crisis has put enormous pressure on the District to fill a $500+ million budget deficit. However, the human cost associated with eliminating elementary arts teachers far outweighs the temporary monetary gain.
LAUSD’s historic ten-year commitment to rebuilding its arts education infrastructure is a success. However, the work is far from complete. Eliminating the instructional foundation from the classroom will only harm students and further push back the District’s goal of providing a complete education for all LAUSD students, regardless of their socio-economic status.
My concern is one of unequity -- children whose parents can fundraise large amounts for their individual school will receive arts training. The parents will pay for it. But what of the schools where that doesn't happen? Those children lose out. We then witness a further erosion of equality and equal access to a balanced education across the district. LAUSD will become a have/have not art education organization.
Your ability to sustain this highly successful program is being put to the test. That is why I am taking this moment to voice my support for this important program and to urge you to maintain the integrity of the arts education program.
Thank you for your continued commitment to ensuring that every LAUSD student has equal access to the tools they need to succeed in work, in our society and in life.
Yours truly,
Tracy Cheney
Help Save ARTS EDUCATION in Los Angeles!
Got two minutes? Dash off a letter to a LAUSD board member. If the link below doesn't work, copy and paste it into your browser. There's an advocacy meeting coming up January 14.
LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country. It took ten years to build an art program in the district, and it's about to be gutted in the blink of an eye. The arts partners were cut last year. I got two weeks' notice and was gone by spring break before the year was over. Some weren't so lucky and got the ax that Christmas.
This year the plan is to cut half the elementary art teachers, and by the next year the rest will be eliminated.
And that's in the most creative city in the country! Don't you think other districts will follow suit? How are your children supposed to be educated to get a job in this creative economy?
The goal is to generate 700 letters to the LAUSD School Board in the next 30 days. The district had been leading the way to reinstating arts education. Can we afford to see this gutted at the dawn of a new decade when we see China rising and poised to overtake the US through its support of its own innovative and entreprenuerial enterprises? Educating creative thinkers is the key to USA prosperity in the 21st century.
Please add your voice to the campaign immediately!
This is an urgent advocacy notice from Arts For LA, who's hit the ground running on this issue:
http://www.artsforla.org/node/734/845#comment-845
Here's the link to the to the LAUSD school board members:
http://www.artsforla.org/lausd_sendletter
LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country. It took ten years to build an art program in the district, and it's about to be gutted in the blink of an eye. The arts partners were cut last year. I got two weeks' notice and was gone by spring break before the year was over. Some weren't so lucky and got the ax that Christmas.
This year the plan is to cut half the elementary art teachers, and by the next year the rest will be eliminated.
And that's in the most creative city in the country! Don't you think other districts will follow suit? How are your children supposed to be educated to get a job in this creative economy?
The goal is to generate 700 letters to the LAUSD School Board in the next 30 days. The district had been leading the way to reinstating arts education. Can we afford to see this gutted at the dawn of a new decade when we see China rising and poised to overtake the US through its support of its own innovative and entreprenuerial enterprises? Educating creative thinkers is the key to USA prosperity in the 21st century.
Please add your voice to the campaign immediately!
This is an urgent advocacy notice from Arts For LA, who's hit the ground running on this issue:
http://www.artsforla.org/node/734/845#comment-845
Here's the link to the to the LAUSD school board members:
http://www.artsforla.org/lausd_sendletter
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
More LAUSD Elementary Art Teachers Cut
I read with dismay this blog entry posted on Arts for LA website. Now the poor Los Angeles School District is facing an additional awful budget crunch this next school year. Out of the remaining 345 elementary art teachers, 173 will be cut. That's 50%! I thought it was dire last year when I left at spring break, but I think this is the end of the arts program that took a decade to build in the district.
Make sure to read the blog post directly below the one I've linked to. The writer is a dance teacher who figured out that it only costs $20.00 per pupil to have her at an elementary school. Quite a contrast to the $200.00 per pupil it costs to have her at a high school! I've always said a district gets more bang for its art dollar by keeping an elementary art teacher who reaches every child in the school, rather than the few who take an art elective in high school. It's surprising how much impact the one elementary art teacher can have in one period a week.
Maybe it needs repeating...kids love art!
http://www.artsforla.org/node/681/774#comment-774
Make sure to read the blog post directly below the one I've linked to. The writer is a dance teacher who figured out that it only costs $20.00 per pupil to have her at an elementary school. Quite a contrast to the $200.00 per pupil it costs to have her at a high school! I've always said a district gets more bang for its art dollar by keeping an elementary art teacher who reaches every child in the school, rather than the few who take an art elective in high school. It's surprising how much impact the one elementary art teacher can have in one period a week.
Maybe it needs repeating...kids love art!
http://www.artsforla.org/node/681/774#comment-774
Sunday, January 3, 2010
New Year's Resolution for Creativity
As my busy schedule careened through December, I did not have a chance to write on any of my three blogs for over a month. I couldn't show favoritism and write one and not the others. Too many interests to pursue. I wish I had a single purpose, but like many creative-types, I have fingers in too many pies. My goal is to get back to writing about art, art-making, and the importance of teaching creativity to kids on this blog.
We did make one really great decision in December, which was actually prompted by the need to slow down and catch our breath. We enjoyed a stay-cation in Los Angeles. With everything this city has to offer, including lovely winter weather, it seemed crazy to fight the crowds to fly somewhere else. It was very nourishing to replenish my own creative juices in writing and art, and to plan for student art lessons for the next trimester. It does take a lot to juggle seven grade levels!
I felt the need to connect with some of the creative engine that fuels Los Angeles. The 30 year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, a tour of innovative Disney Hall, and the grandeur of the Rose Parade floats sure helped! So did a trip to the snow, the desert, and researching historical sites for a tv show I'm pitching. No wonder we love Los Angeles. The individual threads woven by creative people into a tapestry of art experiences, coupled with the natural beauty is a magical elixir.
We did make one really great decision in December, which was actually prompted by the need to slow down and catch our breath. We enjoyed a stay-cation in Los Angeles. With everything this city has to offer, including lovely winter weather, it seemed crazy to fight the crowds to fly somewhere else. It was very nourishing to replenish my own creative juices in writing and art, and to plan for student art lessons for the next trimester. It does take a lot to juggle seven grade levels!
I felt the need to connect with some of the creative engine that fuels Los Angeles. The 30 year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, a tour of innovative Disney Hall, and the grandeur of the Rose Parade floats sure helped! So did a trip to the snow, the desert, and researching historical sites for a tv show I'm pitching. No wonder we love Los Angeles. The individual threads woven by creative people into a tapestry of art experiences, coupled with the natural beauty is a magical elixir.
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