Tiffany Bradley
ARTSBLOG
For Arts Professionals in the Know
By Heather Noonan, Vice President for Advocacy for the League of American Orchestras and Co-Chair of the ad-hoc National Arts Education Policy Working Group
How will the next version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) support access to the arts as part of a well-rounded education for every child? This month the Administration, Congress, and arts education advocates have advanced the conversation. Now is a critical time for arts advocates to engage in the real heart of the debate.
Speaking before the national Arts Education Partnership forum on April 9, US. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered his view, declaring that the arts “can no longer be treated as a frill,” and reported that, during his national listening tour, “almost everywhere I went, I heard people express concern that the curriculum has narrowed, especially in schools that serve disproportionate numbers of disadvantaged students.”
The March 13 Obama Administration blueprint for re-writing ESEA lays out the Department’s view on federal education policy. Three areas of the blueprint emerged in Duncan’s remarks:
First of all, I want to take this time to remind everyone to please pass the word along of how important it is to continue the discussion about the future of the arts in healthcare. This is an opportunity for us to potential shape the outcome of our field into its most ideal format. So, please, don’t miss the chance to make an impact! Thank you to those who have already posted, and I hope that those who have not will start now!
Now, for the discussion topic of the week. Continuing the theme from my previous post – looking at the importance of our current and future leaders being able to recognize how to equally relate the arts (and artists) with the healthcare (and healthcare providers) - I found a sentence from the Green Paper that I thought a discussion could build from:
Read MoreTwo weeks ago, I joined approximately 40 other arts education leaders in a two-day meeting to discuss plans for National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education, a projected originally taken on by State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE).
For the first time in 16 years, arts education experts from national organizations spent time evaluating the possible impact and creating a plan for potential revisions, additions, or replacement for National Arts Education Standards.
Over the two days of discussion, I was struck by the passion in the room and energized by what will be coming in the next steps in the process.
How does one sum up the career of Louise Bourgeois, the French-born American artist who died on Monday in New York City at the age of 98? One of the reigning sculptors of our time, Bourgeois’ tough and emotional work was inspired by the darkest corners of memory and psyche. Evocations of her youth were represented by sexually suggestive fragmented forms, anthropomorphized abstraction, and brobdingnagian arachnids…referencing her mother’s role as both a protector and host but also echoing her craft as a master weaver and tapestry maker.
Her parent’s troubled marriage, complicated by her father’s long-time affair with Bourgeois’ own tutor, who lived in their home, played out in her work and her methodology. The artist said, “When a tapestry had to be washed in the river, it took four people to hoist it out and twist it. Twisting is very important for me. When I dreamt of getting rid of the mistress, it was by twisting her neck.”* Bourgeois’ unique ability to catch memory, like so many pieces of wool on barbed wire, and turn it into her medium and muse, is where her power lies.
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