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) | 
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 
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.
..................................................................................................................
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.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Pope tells artists beauty can be a path to God
Some 250 artists attended a meeting in the Sistine Chapel aimed at renewing friendship. If the link won't take you to the article directly, copy and paste it into your browser.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34080412/ns/world_news-world_faith
Friday, October 9, 2009
October is National Arts and Humanities Month
Every October there is an annual celebration of the arts and humanities across the nation. This year is extra special, for President Obama has recognized the importance of the arts through an official Presidental proclamation issued by the White House in support of National Arts and Humanities Month. Obama is the first president to make such a statement. He acknowledges that our cultural assets make a significant economic contribution to US society.Check out the president's remarks. Also check out the national website listing events across the country.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Visual Literacy Begins in Infancy
Teaching art full-time does require a lot of preparation and energy -- hence my silence for the past few weeks. But it's not like I don't think about art daily! However, I haven't been so diligent about writing on my favorite topic, art and kids.
I came across this YouTube excerpt about babies and their love of black and white graphics.
When our daughter was teeny, I inked black and white drawings to put at her eye level in the crib. I had read the very recent research at that time about babies' love of these patterns, but there wasn't anything on the market then. Now it's common knowledge. The drawings in this collection are very charming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJuGkivlqSs
I came across this YouTube excerpt about babies and their love of black and white graphics.
When our daughter was teeny, I inked black and white drawings to put at her eye level in the crib. I had read the very recent research at that time about babies' love of these patterns, but there wasn't anything on the market then. Now it's common knowledge. The drawings in this collection are very charming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJuGkivlqSs
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Arts in Crisis Symposium
Last June there was the excellent LA Arts Town Hall Meeting that brought together artists, art educators, and the foundations who fund the arts in the region and state. The people on the panels and keynote speakers were great, even if the topic under discussion was extremely sober.
Now another opportunity for the arts community to come together has been announced. Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative 50 State Tour will make its southern CA stop at the African American Museum on October 8 from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Registration must be received by October 6. Follow this link to register. www.artsforla.org/news/artsincrisis .
One aspect this event will address is the emergency fundraising challenges art non-profits are facing.
One aspect this event will address is the emergency fundraising challenges art non-profits are facing.
Co-sponsors for this event include: Native Voices at the Autry National Center, East West Players, California African American Museum, KUSC, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, LA Stage Alliance, California Arts Advocates, Emerging Arts Leaders/LA and Santa Cecilia Orchestra.
Friday, September 4, 2009
The First Day of School
Amid the happy excited voices and hugs for old friends, kids return to some schools this week without any sort of art program. It's tough times for Los Angeles public schools. Although teachers are under even more pressure, it's still possible to create a classroom atmosphere conducive to creative thought and expression.
The atmosphere needed to promote creative growth is not the same as that required to memorizing math facts or spelling words. To learn math or spelling, the child has to concentrate and get past any feelings of dislike. He's dependent on the teacher for direction, and validity as to doing it right. Art is the opposite. It's about emotion, taking initiative. It's not memorization that's needed, but inventiveness, and independent thinking. The teacher can't be looking for the one right answer.
Teachers should be able to switch gears. It's more nebulous to nurture the creative spirit, but it's done through accepting and rewarding it. Children are usually good about pursuing self-directed activity, they just need the opportunity. The key behavior for the adult is being warm and friendly -- gee, those are the qualities we want expressed around kids anyway!
Even a teacher who doesn't feel like he/she has any artistic ability can't use that as an excuse for not providing opportunity for her students to develop their own (but everyone has creativity just like anything else that needs practice). The fear for such a teacher is that she thinks she has to teach her kids how to draw. But kids will figure that out. All the teacher has to do is let them draw part of the curriculum instead of filling out a worksheet. Providing a "right brain" activity during the school day gives the kids some balance -- and even some relief -- from the totally left brain environment of school.
The atmosphere needed to promote creative growth is not the same as that required to memorizing math facts or spelling words. To learn math or spelling, the child has to concentrate and get past any feelings of dislike. He's dependent on the teacher for direction, and validity as to doing it right. Art is the opposite. It's about emotion, taking initiative. It's not memorization that's needed, but inventiveness, and independent thinking. The teacher can't be looking for the one right answer.
Teachers should be able to switch gears. It's more nebulous to nurture the creative spirit, but it's done through accepting and rewarding it. Children are usually good about pursuing self-directed activity, they just need the opportunity. The key behavior for the adult is being warm and friendly -- gee, those are the qualities we want expressed around kids anyway!
Even a teacher who doesn't feel like he/she has any artistic ability can't use that as an excuse for not providing opportunity for her students to develop their own (but everyone has creativity just like anything else that needs practice). The fear for such a teacher is that she thinks she has to teach her kids how to draw. But kids will figure that out. All the teacher has to do is let them draw part of the curriculum instead of filling out a worksheet. Providing a "right brain" activity during the school day gives the kids some balance -- and even some relief -- from the totally left brain environment of school.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
A Motto For The School Year
I love this quote. It makes a great mission statement for any school.
"There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes: it's what you do with them that's important."
Ruth Ross
"There are only three colors, ten digits, and seven notes: it's what you do with them that's important."
Ruth Ross
Monday, August 24, 2009
Confirmation -- Kids Need Art!
I found this blog entry from another arts organization committed to teaching creativity that confirms what I've been saying for years -- kids start losing their creative expression around age 10. Now, I've contended that kids need art instruction in realism at this point to get over the hump.
Abrakadoodle is having a lot of success doing just that.
http://www.abrakadoodle.com/blog/?p=214
Abrakadoodle is having a lot of success doing just that.
http://www.abrakadoodle.com/blog/?p=214
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Back to School -- Ready for a Creative Year
I didn't intend to take the summer off from blogging, but we went from one adventure or endeavor to another. My creative pursuit was building a pocket garden out of our bare patio. You can read my diary blog about this DIY project at http://pitifulgardener.wordpress.com. Here it is time for school to begin and we're still fiddling with the plants. Gardening is one big problem-solving experience, for sure! It's not my favorite thing to do, but when I finally get it right, I do enjoy the results.
At an educator's conference I attended in Chicago, two of the keynote speakers discussed creativity at school. It's a topic hitting the mainstream more and more. Wouldn't it be great if the people directly responsible for giving the green light at the school level could embrace it -- by understanding exactly what creativity is and why we have to teach the skills to develop it? What a revolution!
I spent the month of August preparing to teach in a brand new art room. Though we are in a recession, this private school just completed a fine arts building. It was time to move out of a dark 25-year-old modular -- and if you know anything about art teachers, they've got stuff stashed to the rafters since they can't bear to throw anything out. The new room is a bright space banked with windows overlooking fields and hills. Wow! How could creativity not flourish in such a space? Not only are the students ever so fortunate, but so is this teacher!
The summer art studio for kids -- teaming up with Reptacular Animals and all their kid-friendly critters -- begins tomorrow. That's Monday, August 24. The focus is on giving kids a chance to work on longer projects in different media, inspired by the animals doing the modeling. We're starting off meeting a pile of wriggly snakes -- long and short, pythons and boa constrictors, and several varieties I don't know. First the kids play with the snakes, then make a life-size papier mache snake. This week we'll also make a pond project, featuring frogs and fuzzy ducklings, and a painting of the rainforest featuring live parrots, and even a macaw. This is certainly the most unusual art class in the Los Angeles region...maybe anywhere! Kids get to look closely at a big array of animals. Observation always improves drawing.
Information is stored in our thinking as pictures. Drawing provides direct access to creative thinking. It's the "doing" that helps spark it. Even if you feel you're bad at drawing, do it anyway. It's the simplest, most effective tool at your disposal. It's not the product you're after, but the thinking that results from the activity. If you've got kids in the house, make sure they get to draw every day. Doodles count!
At an educator's conference I attended in Chicago, two of the keynote speakers discussed creativity at school. It's a topic hitting the mainstream more and more. Wouldn't it be great if the people directly responsible for giving the green light at the school level could embrace it -- by understanding exactly what creativity is and why we have to teach the skills to develop it? What a revolution!
I spent the month of August preparing to teach in a brand new art room. Though we are in a recession, this private school just completed a fine arts building. It was time to move out of a dark 25-year-old modular -- and if you know anything about art teachers, they've got stuff stashed to the rafters since they can't bear to throw anything out. The new room is a bright space banked with windows overlooking fields and hills. Wow! How could creativity not flourish in such a space? Not only are the students ever so fortunate, but so is this teacher!
The summer art studio for kids -- teaming up with Reptacular Animals and all their kid-friendly critters -- begins tomorrow. That's Monday, August 24. The focus is on giving kids a chance to work on longer projects in different media, inspired by the animals doing the modeling. We're starting off meeting a pile of wriggly snakes -- long and short, pythons and boa constrictors, and several varieties I don't know. First the kids play with the snakes, then make a life-size papier mache snake. This week we'll also make a pond project, featuring frogs and fuzzy ducklings, and a painting of the rainforest featuring live parrots, and even a macaw. This is certainly the most unusual art class in the Los Angeles region...maybe anywhere! Kids get to look closely at a big array of animals. Observation always improves drawing.
Information is stored in our thinking as pictures. Drawing provides direct access to creative thinking. It's the "doing" that helps spark it. Even if you feel you're bad at drawing, do it anyway. It's the simplest, most effective tool at your disposal. It's not the product you're after, but the thinking that results from the activity. If you've got kids in the house, make sure they get to draw every day. Doodles count!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Urge Your Senator to Support NEA Funding
Great news from capitol -- the House of Representatives funded the National Endowment for the Arts at $170 million. Although this is below the funding level of 1992, it is far better than expected.
The NEA funds a wide variety of arts programs and events across the country. You may not even realize its effect in your community or region. But to maintain any sort of viable arts presence, your action is now needed to press the Senate to vote for the spending bill. Here's the link, which will take all of two minutes to fill out the form and send it off. Hearing from constituents on what matters to them really does have an impact on legislators. If they don't hear anything, they're likely to conclude it's not that important. Well all you arts advocates out there, we know it's important because it's our jobs and our kids' futures that are at stake!!
Monday, June 22, 2009
LA Arts Town Hall Meeting Official Website
Here's your opportunity to "attend" the big LA Arts Town Hall meeting yourself. They've put up a cheerful website, even though as I've reported previously, we were listening to some rather grim news. Explore the issues yourself!
http://www.artsforla.org/2009_la_arts_town_hall_information_center
http://www.artsforla.org/2009_la_arts_town_hall_information_center
Those Groovy Art License Plates
Want to support the CA Arts Council? Fully sixty percent of its funding comes from the sales of the iconic license plate. Designed by the iconic Wayne Thiebaud, who is now about 95, we in the art field should all have these. (My brother-in-law had Thiebaud as an art teacher at Davis, where Thiebaud was part of a very hip crowd of pop artists/educators). I'm looking to buy a new vehicle before the year is over to take advantage of the sales tax credit off our income tax. It's gonna look great sporting one of these plates!
Proceeds from the sale of the arts license plates supports the popular Artists in the School program, one of many programs that makes art education available to children.
http://cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php
Proceeds from the sale of the arts license plates supports the popular Artists in the School program, one of many programs that makes art education available to children.
http://cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php
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