With apologies for my late entry into the blog conversation due to snow in the Arctic where I am traveling, I want to share how we in Alaska have initiated a process to redesign how the Artist in the Schools program works in our far flung state. For thirty years artists, predominantly from the "lower 48",  have enriched lives of students and teachers in Alaskan schools in one - three week residencies. At the same time there was little substantive evaluation of the impact of residencies aggregated in order to share with local communities and schools, Alaska Department of Education and Early Development or legislators.

A report published last January entitled "On Thin Ice: Status of Arts Education in Alaska" documented that of the responding districts (59% of the state's total, serving 89% of its students) 72% do not have any arts curriculum and 'access to the arts for all students remains a major challenge. Thousands of Alaskan students do not receive any formal arts education." Though some of the lack of access can be attributed to geography, the lack of roads, the high cost of fuel, the diversity of cultures and number of indigenous languages present in our state, teachers  most frequently cite No Child Left Behind mandates, lack of time in the school day and lack of confidence as the major barriers. Administrators report lack of funds and trained teachers as major barriers.

As this school year started here in the North, the Alaska State Council on the Arts invited three very different school districts in remote, rural and "relatively urban" Alaska to embark on a three year process to re-invent how Alaskan Teaching Artists can contribute to the overall goals of increasing confidence and skills of classroom teachers to integrate the arts across the curriculum, K - 12, ensuring that districts develop/adapt and implement arts curriculum and assessments, and most importantly, increasing arts instruction and opportunities for students at all grade levels. At the first gathering of district reps in Anchorage eyes were wide open to the possibilities of creating new models of authentic collaboration between Teaching Artists and classroom teachers and new partnerships with local arts councils (if they exist), tribal councils and regional arts organizations.

"How can we deliver the sparks of artistic creativity that Teaching Artists provide in a village of 200 people high in the Arctic?" "How can we make sure that teachers in our district, who turn over on a regular and frequent basis get training and embedded professional development?" "How can we collect data that shows the arts contribute to higher student attendance and motivation in a Level4 district being monitored by the State Department?"

These are just a few of the questions that emerged, that will challenge and guide this process of discovery and experimentation. What we learn will be shared enroute with colleagues at all levels, and what we create in these districts offers hope that despite geography and federal mandates, by harnessing the talents, experiences and skills of Alaskan Teaching Artists and using the powerful presence of indigenous languages and cultures the thin ice may thicken by the flooding over of imagination, creativity, innovation and hard hearted commitment.