Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.


Gary DeVault

Prioritizing Parents in Arts Education

Posted by Gary DeVault, May 27, 2010 1 comment


Gary DeVault

Gary Devault

A 2005 Harris Poll shows that 93 percent of Americans feel that the arts are vital to a well-rounded education for all children. The high percentage of Americans valuing arts within education, however, has not led to a prioritizing of the arts within the educational system. 

The Arts Education Council at Americans for the Arts believes that one of the primary focuses of this next decade must be to move from declaring value for arts education to helping decision makers prioritize arts education for all students. Several key groups need to be included for this process to be effective and sustainable: 1.) Local education decision makers; 2.) The business community; and 3.) Parents.  I would like to focus this blog entry on parents. 

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MacEwen Patterson

Remember to Imagine

Posted by MacEwen Patterson, May 27, 2010 1 comment


MacEwen Patterson

photo Michael Hevesy

To me, the arts are really the practice of remembering to imagine. I have a tendency to fall into habitual routines that require little forethought. But when I engage in the arts, I begin with the question, "How do I want this to look?" and then, "What feelings do I want this to evoke in the viewer?"

I remember when my son was 3 years old. We were in the living room and it was play time. He wanted to play with action figures and it wasn't enough that we use those figures in an imaginary setting.

For him, I had to have a unique persona, different from "Dad" that was playing with the action figure "dragon," while he had to be someone other than "son" playing with the action figure "knight." We chose to swap identities. He became "Dad" and I became "son" and together we played "dragon and knight."

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Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

Advocacy at the Local Level

Posted by Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders, May 27, 2010 0 comments


Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

Victoria Plettner-Saunders

I’m Victoria Plettner-Saunders, a member of the Art Education Council and arts consultant in San Diego. One of the projects I’ve been working on this spring is the development of four Local Advocacy Networks for K-12 arts education in San Diego County school districts. It is part of a statewide project that the California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE) began last year and has resulted in the development of at least 20 grassroots community-based arts education advocacy networks throughout California.

The model for developing each local advocacy network (LAN) is quite simple and easily replicable. A coordinator is identified in each community to help launch the initiative via an informational breakfast meeting. About 50 community leaders (e.g. politicians, educators, faith-based community members, arts organizations, school board members, etc.) are invited, which usually nets about 30-35 actual attendees. At the breakfast they hear presentations by school district staff about the opportunities and challenges their visual and performing arts programs are experiencing, as well as a brief contextual presentation by CAAE staff about the role and history of arts education in California’s public education system.

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Michael R. Gagliardo

From "Band Geek" to Strings

Posted by Michael R. Gagliardo, May 27, 2010 0 comments


Michael R. Gagliardo

I started out as a band kid. While my parents started me on piano lessons when I was in the 3rd grade, and I found it to be interesting (as long as I got to play what I wanted to play!), I think my interest in music was really sparked when I started playing the trumpet in the school band in the 5th grade. By the time I got to middle school, I was hooked, and was headed down that path of musical obsession – if there was a school group or a church or a wedding that needed a trumpet over the next six years, I was the go-to guy.

So how did I get involved with strings? It’s really simply – I had an instrumental music teacher in middle school who wasn’t just a band guy. He also conducted the school’s orchestra. That’s correct – not the school’s string class – the school’s ORCHESTRA. When I was in middle school, for two years, I played trumpet in a full orchestra. When I got to high school, we had TWO full orchestras, PLUS a pit orchestra for the annual school musical, where we played shows like “South Pacific” and “My Fair Lady.” 

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Donna Collins

Pizza, Politics, and College Kids…What a Combo

Posted by Donna Collins, May 27, 2010 1 comment


Donna Collins

Donna Collins

One Tuesday in March I had a fabulous evening when I visited with students and staff at Marietta College…it was Pizza and Politics Night! Now that makes for a terrific combo!  We spent our time talking about advocacy, the role arts and arts education advocates, and how passion has such a central role in delivering our messages. Most interesting to me was the energy in the room and the willingness of every student to get involved.

We shared stories about our experiences ‘making the case’ and concluded that when advocates have a compelling story to share they have a much better chance of gaining a policymaker’s attention and support. Couple that personal story with data and research that compliments the message and you’ve got a winner! We must always remember to speak from where our audience is listening!

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Tim Mikulski

Should it be Us vs. Them? (from Arts Watch)

Posted by Tim Mikulski, May 26, 2010 3 comments


Tim Mikulski

Tim Mikulski

As I covered in last week’s Arts Watch blog post (Glee-fully Supporting Arts Education), it certainly seems like the same three or four subject areas are continually battling it out for that last spot into the school building, before the funding door shuts.

Often, it is arts education classes like music, dance, theater, and art that are left out in the cold, but sometimes we’re joined by physical education, foreign languages, library services, and now even formerly-free afterschool sports.

Glee characters Will Schuster and Sue Sylvester battled in out over funding for the glee club or the cheerleading squad, but I’m sure just as often we are seeing Señor Schuster and the media specialist from the library having the same conversation that always starts with, “my subject area/sport deserves to stay funded because…”

While I’m not encouraging dancers, actors, French lovers, and information gatherers to storm the west wing of their school in a battle to the death against language arts, calculus, and physics fiends, I feel that we could be more equitable in the way that all of these subjects are taught in schools today.

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