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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 morePeople are involved in the arts in some form on a daily basis, whether we recognize it or not. For most of us, (like the readers of this blog) this seems obvious , but what we do not realize is that not everyone experiences or interacts with the arts in the same way. Because of this lack of awareness, often time our society leaves behind people with disabilities: our cultural systems, institutions, and education programs often lack the necessary accommodations to make arts & cultural education inclusive and accessible.
Read moreIn thinking about the topic of ‘Bridging’ I immediately remembered some of our sessions during ITAC 5 - the fifth International Teaching Artist Conference - led by the Korean Arts and Culture Education Service (KACES) in partnership with ITAC Collaborative. The theme of the conference was ‘Boundaries Into Pathways’ and we explored the different ways creative engagement can dismantle or address challenges/blockages. To me, this feels like another way of talking about Bridging - how do utilize the arts to develop new routes and paths through historically hard to navigate or neglected spaces? How do we reach the other side? In thinking about these questions, I approached our colleagues at KACES who, since ITAC5, have been developing the ITAC Korea Hub alongside us. In response to my invitation, KACES suggested sharing the below interview from their webzine called 'arte365. This one, which they have generously translated for us, explores Teaching Arist Oum Jeong Soon’s project, which is a “big picture” answering her childhood question of “what is seeing”. We think it touches on the interesting gaps which often appear when thinking about how you bridge preconceived perceptions, with other people’s lived realities.
Read more'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.
Read moreRecently, Creative Generation team member Jordan Campbell wrote a blog about the concept of the arts hybrid - “A person with multiple professional identities whose work is interdisciplinary in nature, spans multiple fields or domains, and is grounded in arts & culture.” It is this framing that I have worked much of my education and now my career to rationalize and explain within siloed fields, especially in higher education. Though many colleagues and friends may identify similarly as Arts Hybrids, it is often difficult to share the value of that multi-speciality, when many opportunities call for a more linear set of experiences.
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