ArtsEd Digest

Volume 2, Issue 6 - March 23, 2010

Welcome to ArtsEd Digest, the new and improved face of the AEP listserv. The ArtsEd Digest is an online publication that allows for the easy access to vital and timely information about arts education from our partners and from the field. It is published twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday. Items for inclusion in the upcoming listserv must be submitted by close of business on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month. For example, items for the Digest to be published on Tuesday, April 13 should be submitted by close of business Friday, April 9.

News from the Arts Education Partnership

Join us for our Spring 2010 National Forum in Washington, DC!
States of Change: New Leadership in Arts and Education; April 9-10, 2010

Opening Plenary Session
"A 21st Century Education: Incomplete Without the Arts"
with
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
and
Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts Rocco Landesman

It's not too late to attend this exciting event! The registration rate is now $225!
Click here to register!

The Arts Education Partnership has obtained a special rate for its attendees at the Omni Shoreham Hotel of $229/night plus tax. Book your Hotel Room now!

If you have any questions, please contact Teka Phan, tekap@ccsso.org. Please join us for what will be a very exciting and informative meeting!

AEP Webinar: President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Request for the Department of Education
The Arts Education Partnership (AEP) held a webinar on March 5, 2010 to review the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request for the Department of Education. Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, was available during the webinar to comment on aspects of the budget proposal affecting arts education. Both the PowerPoint presentation and audio recording are available.

New AEP Wire: Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art
In the late 1990s, James Catterall and colleagues analyzed data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88), a study of some 25,000 secondary school students over four years, and found significant connections between high involvement in arts learning and general academic success. In 2009 Catterall analyzed ten additional years of data related to the same cohort of students, now age 26. The results, presented in, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art, strongly connect arts learning with both general academic success and pro-social outcomes. This study provides important empirical evidence of the significant role that the arts play in preparing young people for success, both in academia and in life. Its implications for the education of underserved and English Language Learners are particularly significant, given the compelling need to improve the educational opportunities available to urban inner-city and ELL students. AEP has summarized the findings in the latest edition of its Wire.

U.S Department of Education Releases Blueprint for ESEA Reauthorization

The U.S Department of Education has released A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This publication constitutes a major policy document, outlining the President’s vision for the next generation of ESEA (formerly known as the No Child Left Behind Act). Among its recommendations are emphases on college and career readiness, training great teachers and leaders, providing equity and opportunity, and fostering innovation and improvement. The Blueprint is available at http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html.

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Research on Informal Arts Participation in Rural and Urban Areas
Announcement made during NEA Chairman’s Art Works Visit to Chelsea, Michigan

Washington, DC – Any serious reckoning of how Americans participate in arts and cultural activities must account for demographic and geographic diversity. Prior National Endowment for the Arts publications, including the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, already have examined the age, race/ethnicity, gender, and education and income status of arts-goers. Another way to understand arts participation is by asking where it takes place. Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is the NEA’s first research publication in several years to examine the “informal arts”—such as playing a musical instrument, attending an art event at a place of worship, or visiting a craft fair. This finding is part of new research from the NEA, announced today during a visit by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman to Chelsea, Michigan, as part of the NEA’s Art Works Tour. The publication provides an analysis of arts participation in rural and urban areas.

Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is available in print and pdf on the website.

“Art works everywhere and this new research helps us to understand the many ways and many places in which people across America experience art in their daily lives,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “I look forward to drawing on this data as we move forward with opportunities for cities and towns to invest in the arts in their communities.”

Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities analyzes data from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). Among the findings:

Traditional arts venues and institutions such as art museums, galleries, and performing arts centers and companies cluster in urban populations. Eighty-eight percent of nonprofit performing art organizations and art museums are located in urban metropolitan areas, with the top 10 metro areas home to 30 percent of the nonprofit arts institutions. As a result, a third of all urban metro dwellers attended at least one of the main performing arts events tracked by the SPPA (classical music, jazz, or Latin/salsa music performances; opera; musical or non-musical plays; or ballet or other dance). Similarly, 24 percent of urban dwellers visited an art museum or gallery in 2008.

However, an analysis of the “informal arts” offers a more comprehensive measure of arts participation. Informal arts comprise a broad range of “citizen” arts in the forms of folk arts, popular culture, and casual or hobby arts. Informal arts activities captured by the SPPA include: visiting historical parks and neighborhoods, craft fairs, and outdoor performing arts festivals; attending arts events at places of worship and schools; and personal performance and creation of art, such as playing a musical instrument, singing in a choir, or doing creative writing.

When looking at the informal arts, metro and non-metro residents enjoy most of these activities at the same rates.

In 2008, one in four residents from each type of community—urban or rural—visited a historical park or neighborhood or attended an arts and craft fair; one in five adults from both communities went to an outdoor performing arts festival.
Twenty percent of both urban and rural dwellers attended a music, theater, or dance performance at a place of worship.
Urban and rural dwellers played musical instruments at the same rate—13 percent. Nine percent of each group created paintings, drawings, or sculptures. Two percent performed dance.
There are two notable exceptions: rural residents were more likely to sing in choirs, sew, weave, crochet, or quilt. Urban dwellers were more likely than rural dwellers to create photography, videos, or films for artistic purposes.

The 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is the nation's largest and most representative periodic study of adult participation in arts events and activities, conducted by the NEA in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. Five times since 1982, the survey has asked U.S. adults 18 and older about their patterns of arts participation over a 12-month period.

Resources

The NEA Office of Research & Analysis issues periodic research reports, brochures, and notes on significant topics affecting artists and arts organizations. The NEA research note Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities, as well as the highlights and full report of the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts are available in print and electronic form in the Research section of the NEA website.

Contact: Liz Stark, NEA Public Affairs, 202-682-5744, starke@arts.gov

Reminder: U.S. Department of Education 2009-2010 FRSS Arts in Education Surveys

This is a reminder that the collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) to conduct seven surveys on arts education is still ongoing. The surveys are being conducted by Westat through the NCES Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), which was used to conduct previous national surveys on arts education in 1999-2000 and 1994-1995. The current study was requested by Congress to provide a status update on arts education across the U.S.

The seven FRSS surveys are being administered this school year (2009-2010) and address topics in arts education at the elementary and secondary levels. School and teacher surveys are being conducted with school principals, music specialists, visual arts specialists, and elementary classroom teachers.

The elementary and secondary school surveys were initially mailed out in the fall of 2009, with the data collection still ongoing. The mailout for the teacher surveys began in January, with the data collection also still ongoing.

This message is from the ArtsEd listserv. ArtsEd hosts discussions and communications for the Arts Education Partnership which demonstrates and promotes the essential role of arts education in enabling all students to succeed in school, life and work.

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