Americans for the Arts

I was fortunate enough to be awarded Urban Gateways’ 2017 PROPS Award for my proposal “Claire’s Curious City Challenge.” Influenced by a phrase our organization often uses, “The City as a Classroom,” I am using the funds to embark on a yearlong mission to explore the exciting and diverse programming that makes Chicago a vibrant city. I see this challenge as an opportunity to learn more about the interesting work happening in the city, for both my own interest as an active member of the Chicago arts community and for the potential it has to inform future programming and partnerships at Urban Gateways.

I’ve been an artist since my earliest childhood memories, falling in love with crayons, paint, paper, pastels, pencils—anything I could get my hands on. I would create with reckless abandon. Slowly, as I got older, I began to learn how to become a better artist. I learned how to control the medium, hone the skills and techniques needed to make my art look like it was supposed to, how to follow the rules. Although important, I fell into the trap of focusing too much on the technique and final product rather than the process of creativity. I was not exploring the potential for creative discovery by breaking the rules! Here are my top 5 reasons how coloring outside the lines has helped me in business today.

Business needs a creative workforce to compete in the global economy. But our schools are locked into 20th century priorities. We are testing mastery of content when the Internet delivers content in 0.7 seconds. If the only public measure of a school’s progress is standardized testing, then schools have every incentive to “teach to the test.” With limited resources, teaching the arts is dropped, diminished, or dismissed.

Testing establishes the educational priorities. So, how do you measure creativity? How do you test for the A in STEAM? In Massachusetts, we began discussing the concept of a Creative Challenge Index.

While the economy seems to be on the upswing, with jobs increasing and unemployment down, one group is still falling behind: children. The rate of children living in poverty has gradually increased since 2008; currently, 20% of children are living in poverty. That’s one in five American children. This means that the citizens most at risk to deficient health, emotional, and cognitive development, and the poorest citizens of our country, are also the youngest.

We all know those hard working teachers who get up extra early and are in their classrooms long before students have arrived, preparing for the day’s lessons. These are the same teachers who spend their own money on extra supplies for their students. They stay after school advising various clubs to provide students more experiences in the arts. They go the extra mile to take their students on field trips to hear the local orchestra, or attend the art museum in their community. These are the amazing educators who love and care about the welfare of their students. How do we honor these individuals? I suggest an Awards Alternative.

If you haven’t heard about the movement to place art within STEM curriculum, or STEAM, you’ve been missing one of the steamiest topics to hit the arts in decades. Essentially a catchy acronym for arts integration targeted at math and science, STEAM has ignited the imaginations of scientists, artists, and educators nationwide. Those on the outside of art and education may wonder: what does a STEAM program look like? Why do it? This blog offers a quick look into one such program steaming forward in the center of the Midwest.

This year, our Sweet Home Chicago also recorded its most violent and deadliest summer on record—with no end in sight. For too many of Chicago’s children, the wealth of opportunities this city provides is seemingly too distant to access due to the many barriers that remain in place.

I’m entering my third year on the council, and it’s been a valuable experience to grow in my field. It’s provided me the opportunity to meet and work with people from across the nation who focus on the same goals and face similar challenges. We have meaningful conversations about where we are and where we need to go—individually, as a group, and as a nation.

We know arts education levels the playing field and gives those without hope, hope; those without opportunity, opportunity. As arts educators, we must continue to promulgate the same messages over and over—to each generation, to each politician, to each school principal, to each parent. 

Not only can such programs nurture the creativity of kids without art education in school, but afterschool art enrichment is a powerful compliment to classroom learning, allowing the seeds planted in art class to grow and flourish over time. Put another way, informal art education is the practicum for the young artist-in-training! 

Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined arts education would have resulted in a professional career enabling me to work with with renowned artists including Kennedy Center Honorees Arthur Mitchell and Yo-Yo Ma to plan and deliver arts education programs.

If I can pinpoint one thing #BecauseOfArtsEd—it’s that the arts is a connector, it’s the social tissue that binds us together, it makes us human. When I think about my life and my education, I can’t separate the arts from it.

"American Dance Corner" consisted of two lectures about American dance history with a focus on cultural diversity. The lectures were followed by choreography activities where the students expressed themselves in English and developed dance moves. The movement created was then assembled into a dance throughout series of four technique and choreography workshops in the rehearsal room at The School of Arts.

I’m attracted to the idea of thinking inside the box. A 2013 piece in the Wall Street Journal, Think Inside the Box, posits, “People are at their most innovative when they work within the constraints of what they already know.”

In the early eighties Benny was a sixth grade student in a New York State Literary Center program on Ancient Greece that integrated ancient Greek literature in English translation, as the inspiration for student writing, with the school’s Social Studies curriculum on Ancient Greece. As part of my two-month residency with sixth grades in two schools, I invited poet, Greek translator, and Harvard professor, Robert Fitzgerald to work with me for two days.

Walking down Broadway in Nashville, TN I instantly felt like I had arrived at the place I was meant to be. I could hear music pouring out of every door that I passed by, and I felt more alive than I ever had before. Within the first week of moving to Nashville I got to see Sheryl Crow at the Bluebird Café, and I knew that I had made the right choice in pursuing my dream of being a musician.

Renowned architect and Artists Committee member Frank Gehry talks about "The Simpsons," modern communication, and the difficult decision to change his name in part two of an interview with a California student.

Renowned architect and Artists Committee member Frank Gehry talks about his inspiring grandmother, Frank Lloyd Wright, and defying a professor's expectations in part one of an interview with a California student.

Everyone can make a difference; together we can make a big difference by pushing to make sure arts programs continue to be funded and offered. By finding new ways to integrate and implement arts programs, we can help kids learn in creative and different manners.

This post has nothing to do with the financial implications of music, of the arts, or of education at all, and you won’t see a single chart or dollar sign on this page. Instead, I’m going to highlight a simple economic concept that many of you may have learned at some point, and see if we can use it to open up our minds to a new wrinkle in thinking about arts education.

Fall is sneaking its way into the air slowly here in northwestern Alaska. Soon, the all-night sunshine will be but a memory, the ocean will freeze over, and my job, as an art teacher, will be even more important: we all know how a little creativity can lift the spirits and a little color can turn a dark day around.

To me, an education in the arts is about the freedom to fail and the recognition that we are all human, with human limitations and vulnerable hearts. Through this vulnerability lies connection. I continue to take larger risks in my own work—ever trying to trust that the floor will still be there after I turn myself upside-down.

The power of music cannot nor should not be underestimated. It helped my ancestors communicate through the Underground Railroad for freedom; it is a healing agent to the body, mind, and soul. The beauty of art is that it speaks to different people in different ways. Art—more specifically, music—intertwines with every part of my life.

In 2009, my family formed the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts and as Executive Director I was tasked with trying to make sure the arts were kept in schools in a meaningful way. We believe that the arts are not just fluff, but that they are critical for student development in the 21st century.

Today when I think about back-to-school time, I worry. Will the teachers be prepared to reach every student—and reach them in the poorer corners of cities as well as rural areas? Are the schools welcoming and enticing to students and parents? Will creativity be a daily activity in the lives of our country’s next generation of thinkers, leaders, and artists?

There is artistry in everything from performing with the Kansas City Youth Symphony to rebuilding a competition robot. Our school district believes the creative process will serve students well as they work to make their mark on the world, and to make a positive difference in the lives of others. 

Who would have thought that a kid from the south side of Chicago, who taught himself to sing listening to the soundtrack of “West Side Story”, (and Frank Sinatra records), would someday become known internationally as “the Shoemaker to the Stars”?

Here’s what I know for sure: if it hadn’t been for my access to excellent arts educational opportunities through Seattle Public Schools & TeenTix, my interest in business might have led me down a very different path. Instead, I chose to pursue an arts administration degree that allowed me to study at the intersection of business, public administration, and artistic practice.

One important lesson I have learned during my college career is to “learn how to learn.” To be competitive in the industry, you must take the initiative and continue to learn throughout your life. I believe arts education in school is important because in addition to teaching essential skills needed in every day life, it is the keystone in a well-rounded education.

People often assume Juilliard students could never cope with the rigors of military life, but I beg to disagree: Nothing could prepare one better than pervasive pressure to perform at a level of utter perfection, interminable personal and professional criticism, and the resultant ability to flourish in an environment where failure is simply not an option.