How are you balancing divergent or converging influences on your work and honoring differences and similarities between people and experiences in the arts & cultural education space? We want to know what’s happening in your sphere, whether that’s direct in- or out-of- school arts and cultural education, administration, advocacy, field-wide services, or your personal artistic or cultural practice. This could mean, “How do I collaborate with people that have different priorities than I do?” or “How do I elevate the needs and lived experiences of different groups of advocates?” or "What commonalities was I surprised to discover between two groups of people?” or some other option we haven’t even considered!
Read moreUncovering a Missing Narrative: Black* Teaching Artists
In the Spring of 2020, Black Teaching Artist Lab (BTAL) and Creative Generation collaborated in order to examine the prevalence of Black voices in the dialogues about teaching artists and collect ethnographic data - specifically the demographics, attitudes, and perceptions of Black identity in teaching artistry - with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the role of Black teaching artists in the field..
Read moreCollective Impact and Coalition-Building: A Dynamic Relationship
In this sixth article in the series Case-making and Systems Change in Arts and Cultural Education, we explore elements that are foundational to change-making coalitions. The article describes some shared characteristics of collective impact projects and coalition building as well as how they differ. It describes the strategic and structural elements that enable effective coalitions. Coalition building requires advocates to work continuously to align a vision of the ideal with the reality of the everyday. The iterative work of coalitions means continuous improvising, evolving, and a commitment to authentic collaboration.
Read moreSystems Change in Arts Education
In this fifth article in the series Case-making and Systems Change in Arts and Cultural Education, I expand on the theme of Advocacy for the Sector, describing how history has shaped the system of arts education, with a review of the components of our current system.
This article proposes a new systems model of arts and cultural education in an attempt to understand the sectors, influence, supports, and drivers of change.
Read moreThe Art of Strategic Communications
'Strategic communications' is a term describing an intentional and targeted messaging plan that is linked to overarching goals. The article places strategic communications in the context of arts and cultural education. It describes a framework for creating communications plans, guiding questions for engaging in different types of communications, a glossary of terms, and provides examples of effective strategic communications tactics used in campaigns to advance arts and cultural education. The fourth article in the series, the ideas inform advocacy of self, field, sector, and justice and are most enhanced when applied both to the individual and the collectives assembled to advance arts and cultural education.
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