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.


Donna Collins

Honoring My First Advocacy Instructor

Posted by Donna Collins, May 25, 2010 13 comments


Donna Collins

Donna Collins

I’m a wife, a mom, and a grandmother (affectionately known as Grammy by my grandgirl Cierra).  A typical day starts at 7:00 AM and concludes around 8:00 PM, working Saturdays, and participating in lots of evening events  - a similar schedule to many of my arts advocacy colleagues. Work and family are what I eat, breath, and sleep. Most of the time one is as important as the other and each have their distinct needs and rewards.

On April 26, 2010, my world came crashing down around me when our 31-year-old son TJ died. It isn’t supposed to happen this way. Parents should not bury their children. Through TJ’s death, our grieving, and our memories I now see the world through different lenses. Simple things are more valuable, time is critical, making contacts a necessity since we’re not sure how much time we have, and telling our stories is essential to our future.

I rarely reflect, and until recently didn’t remember, why or how I got into the arts and arts education advocacy business. Thinking back on TJ’s life reminded me that he was the reason.

TJ was our theater and music kid. His brothers Josh (the athlete) and Ryan (the dreamer and reader) offered up other ways to get involved as parents. But theatre and music programs require a special kind of parent volunteer. You have to fight for the music and drama programs in schools. You have to raise money and pay for band camp. You have to work on levy campaigns to protect arts education programs. You have to take long bus rides to get to Disney or a special by-invitation-only parade. You have to pay a special facility fee to keep the theater open late for Friday night’s show and Saturday’s matinee.  You have to drive five kids to the next concert so the show choir can perform at the retirement home. You have to compete for time and resources with the athletic boosters and PTAs.
TJ knew about advocacy!

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Michelle Dean

Art Therapists: Midwives of Personal, Spiritual, and Cultural Transformation

Posted by Michelle Dean, May 25, 2010 8 comments


Michelle Dean

Before we leap into the future visions of art therapy, I am going to spend a little time developing some ideas about the profession and the work itself, which in my opinion are not always one and the same. I am frequently questioned about what art therapy is and how it works. Sure, I have a rote answer I can give on the fly – a 30-second response for people who only offer a half-cocked ear. But I am not going to write about that here.

Reducing the practice of art therapy (and for that matter many things) to sound-bite size pieces of information robs the work of its integrity and diminishes the complexities of process and of people’s lives. Oversimplifications of a subject can dumb it down to the point of being meaningless. What I want to do is convey the depth, significance, and creative life-enhancing power of the work, and the advantages and limitations of this very diverse profession.

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Joan Weber

The Real Goal of Arts Education, According to One Person

Posted by Joan Weber, May 25, 2010 6 comments


Joan Weber

Joan Weber

I’m having a very interesting 140-character-at-a-time conversation with a colleague I’ve never met about the goals of arts education. @readtoday is a professional artist whose goal is to start a “reading revolution.” The question on the table in our conversation is, “If we understand the goal--Genius? Creativity? We can design the #artsed curriculum.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the question since it was posed this week. It’s not that I haven’t thought of it before; it’s that I’ve never been asked for an answer. What do I think the goal (singular) of arts education should be? I’ve decided that my answer is the same as for language arts and math--literacy.

I’m coming at this answer from the perspective of teaching artist, but also an adjunct community college professor, teaching “Humanities Through the Arts” twice a semester to middle-class, suburban students ranging from 18-80. Each semester I’m confronted with students who have little to no literacy in any art form. Each semester, my goals are the same: 1. Provide students with the language to think about and discuss all art forms. 2. Persuade students to give every work of art a chance. It’s not about taste.

My favorite word in my arts appreciation class is “composition.” It’s a word that the students think that they know because they’ve heard it so many times, but they don’t. Not really. “Composition” is a word that is shared by all of the art forms. Art is composed through the arrangement of the elements of its form. 

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Michael Sikes

Evaluating for Pattern

Posted by Michael Sikes, May 25, 2010 1 comment


Michael Sikes

Michael Sikes

My interest in the way that things are connected began when I browsed through a college textbook one day, and my eyes fell on the following passage:

Scientists noticed that on the opposite sides of a farmer’s fence, though separated by only a few inches, two very distinct communities of animals and plants lived. This realization gave rise to the new field of ecology.

I was fascinated by this word and the implications that I guessed. Ecology: the science of the relationships among living things and their environment.

Paul Hawken in his recent book references the concept of “solving for pattern,” the premise that community challenges are interconnected and to solve them we must design approaches that are equally interconnected and systemic. As John Muir noted, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

This is a vital concept for evaluators and managers of evaluation. If we are to assist in the amelioration of these systemic processes, we need to use evaluation systemically, to “evaluate for pattern.” What does this look like in practice? Certainly, it is marked by constant attempts to understand connections: How is a specific program, need, component, etc., connected to others? Which ones? How can the connections be portrayed, measured, observed?

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Zack Hayhurst

Arts Management Education - A Lesson in Setting Expectations

Posted by Zack Hayhurst, May 25, 2010 5 comments


Zack Hayhurst

Zack Hayhurst

A year ago, when I told people I was going into arts management, the inevitable response was always, "What is that?", or my favorite, "What will you DO with that?"

At first these questions irked me. Does one studying business or communications or finance get these same questions? Then I realized, maybe this is a common question for the art management field simply because not many people know who arts managers are, or for that matter, what they DO.

Prior to starting grad school, I had opinions and perceptions about what this degree would entail, and the opportunities it would create, so I would often retort with quips like, "Well, I will manage an arts organization, naturally." Now, with one year of the program successfully under my belt, and a handful of "real-world" arts administration experiences, my perceptions and expectations need a little re-shuffling.

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John Abodeely

The Reason Arts Education Lacks School Day Resources is Because Arts Ed Professionals Don’t Do Quality Work

Posted by John Abodeely, May 24, 2010 5 comments


John Abodeely

John Abodeely

This probably isn’t going to be a popular statement. But let’s throw it out there and see what folks think.

I believe that if arts education professionals provided amazing arts education to students, we wouldn’t have to fight for time in the school day, money in the school budget, or support among our neighbors. From firsthand experience, I know creating art and can be transformational. I believe that if the arts teaching workforce—whether teaching artists, certified arts teachers, or arts integrationists—could regularly and reliably facilitate the best arts education experiences for their students, there would be no question as to the absolute need to provide arts education.

I wouldn’t suggest this is easy. But I think it’s still true. And yes, the implication is that our work—collectively, across the country—isn’t good enough.

To be fair, I can see a couple obstacles to it.
1.    Our governance agents diminish the value of spiritual or personal value when there’s a tax dollar involved.
2.    Scaling up transformational, personally-demanding education would be hard.

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