We loved sharing, learning and gathering together for the 2022 Annual Convening, Sept. 14-15 in Baltimore, MD! Please enjoy these recordings of the plenary sessions from the event.

Check out resources from other past convenings:

 

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Creativity + Conversation + Connection

We were thrilled to kick off the event with Baltimore Bloomberg Arts Internship interns and staff! They started off the conference with poetry, a conversation about the role of the arts in their lives and education and an opportunity to move and connect with fellow conference participants. Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from young people about how adults can be authentic advocates and allies in the arts.

A Conversation with Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson and Lynda Lopez

In this session, leadership from the National Endowment for the Arts and U.S. Department of Education discuss their shared priorities and vision for arts education.

Creativity + Conversation + Connection Closing Reflection

Baltimore Bloomberg Arts Internship interns and staff return to lead Annual Convening attendees through a reflective poetry exercise.

Thursday, Sept. 15

The Arts Education Data Debate

There are more arts education data available than people know, but less than what people need. Some data describe access – who is receiving arts instruction and where – but there is less information about practice—what learning happens in the classroom. And while available information related to access is increasing, it still might fall short of what the field wants when talking about questions of access and experience. So, what kinds of data are available, and which are most important? What stories do different types of data tell, and for what audiences? What happens when we need to make choices about how to invest in data infrastructure? Watch this session to hear the case for both access and practice data, and leave knowing where you fall in the great data debate.

Lessons in Systems Change from Baltimore Arts Education Leaders

We believe that leaders at all levels have an important role to play in making change. In this long conversation, a student, educator, principal, administrator and community and state leaders discuss the wealth of systems change experience in Baltimore. We know that this work is not without its challenges. Panelists share their experiences, advice and parting words to help empower attendees to activate what they have learned in their own communities.

Title: 2280 Pasos Bajo un Cielo Nublado | Artist: Hernán Jourdan | Medium: Film

When I was asked to create a work of art exploring literacy, I wanted to create a dance but I had no dancers or a studio, so I chose to use my own body in the space I had, my yard. Fluent Nature is video of micro-choreography that explores what cannot be expressed with words, how nature has its own language, and how placing the human body in nature changes the story.

Title: What Is Me and What Is Not Me | Artist: Alex Chadwell | Medium: Music

My thinking on arts and literacy centers around the concept of literacies and artmaking as both sense-making and meaning-making processes that organically and inevitably overlap, intersect, and reciprocate. Compositionally, What is me and what is not me is a sound collage of sorts (there is no notation for the piece, and I'd be hard pressed to recreate it accurately) that abstractly and aurally represents the relationships between literacies and artmaking.

Title: A Curious Honeybee | Artist: Gideon Young | Medium: Film

Offering welcome through traditional and digital elements of literacy, A Curious Honeybee provides an experiential learning environment by activating visual, musical, natural, and emotional literacies.

Title: Tercera Llamada | Artist: Karilú Forshee | Medium: Audio

La Carpa Theatre is a project that I am currently directing in the Detroit Latinx community. The project aims to strengthen and uplift youth voices through devised theatre, in the style of the Mexican Carpas. This audio was created in the theatrical environment envisioned for our project. The ways in which literacies are re-defined are at the heart of La Carpa Theatre's mission.

Title: Literaseas | Artist: MJ Robinson | Medium: Graphite and ink on paper with digital edits

Title: A Riddle | Artist: MJ Robinson | Medium: Graphite on paper with digital edits

Title: False Binaries | Artist: MJ Robinson | Medium: Graphite on paper with digital edits