Developing Partnerships for Arts Education Society has had a sporadic love affair with the arts. In times of plenty, the arts flourish; in times of scarcity, the arts are in danger. This is especially true in arts education. In the sixties and seventies arts education was secure. However, with drastic budget cuts in the late 1970's, funding for the arts in our schools was cut and arts specialists and money for outside resources in the arts were eliminated from school budgets. Today the arts are experiencing unprecedented support in the Puget Sound region. However, the resurgence of the arts is not being felt in our schools. Current conditions are grim. Some schools have no arts specialists, and in many schools the arts specialist teachers are shared between school buildings. These specialists often have a workload so great that only the most basic skills can be addressed, and schedules that preclude any planning with other teachers. External arts resources (performances, field trips, visits from a community or university artist) are sporadic and sometimes not well integrated into the overall instructional program. Moreover, many general classroom teachers have had little education in the arts themselves and are often not equipped to develop an arts-rich classroom. Indeed, in many cases, pre-service teacher training has diminished the arts component to a barely perfunctory position for most teachers. THE ARTS AND LEARNING What this variable support of the arts and arts education suggests is that the essential relationships between the arts and learning have not been well articulated or well documented. Specifically: The arts enable students to understand the world in which they live. Young people cannot participate in the human conversation or have a true understanding of human history without engaging in the study of the arts. The arts are one of the defining human activities and are as basic to enlightened citizenship as understanding the workings of numbers, words, and history. The arts provide languages for shaping and expressing our understandings. Whether we think of the arts as languages, forms of intelligence, or learning modalities, most educators agree that the arts can engage diverse learners and provide them with opportunities to share what they know. The arts help develop intellectual skills. To work in the arts, students are required to notice carefully, analyze and interpret diverse texts, think critically, pose problems, and make decisions and generate multiple solutions. The development of these capacities makes students better learners. The arts contribute to social and emotional growth. Students who participate regularly in the arts develop self-confidence. They see themselves as capable of doing work that is personally satisfying and publicly acknowledged. Because serious work in the arts requires persistence, students develop self-discipline and come to understand what it means to make multiple revisions to achieve high standards. Because so many art forms are collaborative in nature, students often develop the crucial ability to work on a common project with others. The arts contribute to better teaching. Engagement in the arts helps educators develop a broader repertoire of strategies to engage diverse students in learning. Certain powerful educational practices are inherent in the arts such as collaborative learning; portfolio assessment; emphasis on revision; and the construction of rich, long-term projects. The arts support the formation of community. Whether engaged as audience in a powerful common experience or engaged in creating art with others, the arts open pathways for dialogue. And because the arts deal with central aspects of the human experience, those who participate in arts experiences can come to understand one another in new ways. The arts bring us joy. All who have participated in the arts for any length of time talk about the pleasure they found in making and looking at works of art. We know that we can no longer divide the cognitive and affective aspects of learning?that when we feel joy we learn more easily and more effectively. The arts can bring joy to learning and make educational institutions more vibrant places. The establishment of these relationships between the arts and learning 1 requires a dual focus on learning in the arts and on understanding the power of the arts in all areas of learning. Many projects in arts education emphasize one of these approaches to the exclusion of the other. But in the best projects there is a recognition that one cannot exist without the other. THE NEED FOR PARTNERSHIPS Some schools have always recognized the relationship between the arts and learning, and have maintained a commitment to rich internal resources (arts specialists, general classroom teachers who have ongoing learning opportunities in the arts, involved parents) linked to carefully chosen external resources (long term, carefully planned partnerships with museums, performing arts centers, community centers, and other community organizations) 2. These schools have continued to offer well-integrated arts experiences to their students, bucking the national trend begun in the 70's. At these select public schools, administrators and faculty have recognized that art does not deter focus on the basics of learning nor distract students from working for higher achievement. During the same period of time, community organizations such as community centers, parks and recreation departments, community arts centers, and parent organizations began offering more and more arts opportunities after school and on weekends. However, in few places are the in-school efforts and the after-school efforts linked and developed to complement and reinforce one another. In communities across the country 3 educators, artists, parents, and community leaders are beginning to develop partnerships to create meaningful, sustainable arts education both in and out of school. These communities are recognizing that by creating partnerships dedicated to linking in school and after-school efforts, the arts can become a dynamic part of the lives of all our children.
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