Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools

"W" is for Winning in the A to Z Challenge

I'm sure many of you will be relieved that this blog has gotten through "V" day and moved on. We've made it to "W" day, and today's post title is drawn from the website pcah.gov, the President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities.

I've been tipped off to a couple of interesting posts because I have a twitter account that is about 18 months old, and I recently started "following" @BarackObama, which is run by the Obama 2012 campaign staff. If you have no earthly idea what I'm talking about, go over to twitter.com and start poking around. Explaining how twitter works is beyond the scope of this post. Anyway, there was a tweet which led me to an article titled Re-Investing Through Art's Education: Winning America's Future through Creative Schools.

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that arts education is a subject near and dear to me. (No, I don't just write about things in an attempt to make you blush in front of your grandmother). This is the blurb from the PCAH link:


"The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) announces the release of its landmark report Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools.  The culmination of 18 months of research, meetings with stakeholders, and site visits all over the country, this report represents an in-depth review of the current condition of arts education, including an update of the current research base about arts education outcomes, and an analysis of the challenges and opportunities in the field that have emerged over the past decade. It also includes a set of recommendations to federal, state and local policymakers. A summary of the report is here."


The link in the word "here" is worth clicking. I'll summarize the summary for you though:

"It has been more than a decade since any federal entity comprehensively examined arts education data in the United States. During this time, there have been important developments in arts education research, as well as major shifts in the landscape of American education—including the impact of No Child Left Behind and increasing economic pressure."

Basically, as I've indicated elsewhere, they've discovered two things:

1)NCLB has resulted in fewer arts programs in schools

2) Kids do better when there are art programs in schools

Wow. What a surprise. I've loathed NCLB and the tyranny of standardized testing ever since my own kids, now 22 and 25, where enrolled in school. With each of these studies that are released, I'm just nodding my head. I'm glad they are finally figuring these things out, but it has been at the expense of an entire generation subjected to a failed experiment.

I'll skip over the details of the findings of the study. (After all, this is a summary of a summary, so I can have time to add parentheticals like this one!) Here are the recommendations of the study:

Recommendation 1: Build robust collaborations among different approaches to arts education
Recommendation 2: Develop the field of arts integration.
Recommendation 3: Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists.
Recommendation 4: Utilize federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K- 12 education.
Recommendation 5: Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education.

Swell. It is about time. But what does that mean in practical terms? How do you start?

How about like this:

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) announced the launch of a new arts education initiative to help turn around low-performing schools. Developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council, the Turnaround Arts initiative is a new public-private partnership designed to narrow the achievement gap and increase student engagement through the arts. Working in some of the nation’s lowest-performing elementary and middle schools, this program will test the hypothesis that high-quality and integrated arts education boosts academic achievement, motivates student learning and improves school culture in the context of overall school reform, announced the committee’s co-chairs, George Stevens Jr. and Margo Lion.

Turnaround Arts will work in eight “turnaround schools” across the country—public schools in the lowest-achieving five percent of their state that are receiving School Improvement Grants through the U.S. Department of Education. Over the course of two years, Turnaround Arts will bring intensive arts education resources and expertise into these schools and support the school leadership in using the arts as a pillar of their reform strategy. An external evaluation of the program will measure the impact and effectiveness of this approach.

Oh wait... I asked what does that mean in practical terms. How about THIS? Pairing these schools with famous artists. Which famous artists? These:

Chuck Close

Yo-Yo Ma

Sarah Jessica-Parker

Kerry Washington

Forest Whitaker

Damian Woetzel

Alfre Woodard

I have no doubt this program will be a success, and will result in funding and regulation for artists across the country to be able get back into schools without smashing their creativity into the bland box of standardized testing curricula.

Here's the link to more info.

W is for Winning, and April is winding down Parkinson's Awareness Month

Christian Youth Theater

"C" is for Christian, in my A-Z challenge. 

I was fortunate to work for CYT Richmond in the Winter and Spring of 2009. My wife, a piano teacher, had gotten a phone call for teaching for CYT. While she was too busy to take on any extra work, I was intrigued by the call. I had already taught technical theater and puppetry for the Ashland Stage Company's after school arts program, and I have been doing storytelling for kids in schools ever since my own boys, now 22 and 25, were in kindergarten. I was part of a storytelling performance troupe, The Wonderland PLayers, in Ashland, VA. And of course I have a lot of experience under my belt as a theatrical set designer and technical director.

From Christian Youth Theater's (CYT) website:

Christian Youth Theater (CYT) is an after-school theater arts training program for students ages 4 - 18. Since its founding in 1981 in San Diego California, CYT has grown to be the largest youth theater in the nation. There are affiliates across the country training thousands of students a year. CYT is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization funded primarily through its tuition, ticket sales and outside contributions.

In the Winter, CYT was working on Narnia. They brought me in to help out with scenery. Some faux finishing techniques, covering some large boulders, and designing trees. All went well, I had a great time, and got paid a decent rate. I wound up designing the sets for their production of Willy Wonka, which is one of the highlights of my career thus far. The experience was spectacular.

CYT is a finely tuned machine. If ever there is a model of how educational theater should be done, this is it. Children pay a tuition to take classes, and when their children are in a show, their parents have to sign up to work on one of the crews. CYT rents adequate shop facilities for scenic construction and costuming, and hires professionals to run each of the crews. However, theaters are rented from local schools and other facilities on a per show basis, and classes are taught in area schools, churches, etc...
They also depend heavily on financial donations.

Crews work for about a month prior to the opening of a show on a weeknight or two plus Saturdays, creating scenery, props, and costumes. The parents I worked with were among the most delightful crews I've ever worked with, with a real passion for excellence. There were well over 20 people working on the sets, eager to understand my designs and execute them to my standards. I also had some of Richmond's top notch scenic artists working with me, resulting in a scale of achievement that astounded me.

Here are some pictures of the set design:

The Wonka factory in the background with city skyline, and the Bucket Shack in the foreground. Design inspired by architecture of Richmond, Virginia, including the defunct Lucky Strike warehouse.

Bucket Shack rotates to reveal interior, with "funhouse" style bed.

Chocolate River Room with Tim Burton inspired Candy Canes, flower umbrellas, and fabric waterfall

Physical model of set

Construction of Wonka Factory. Wings swing inward to become stairs.

You can see photos of the actual show by going to CYT Richmond's website gallery and clicking on Willy Wonka.

I was amazed that not only was a stage full of (at times) almost a hundred kids not a mess of chaos, but that the show was among the best live theatrical performances I've seen.

CYT is an exemplary case of outstanding arts management, quality education, great entertainment, and cooperative creation. Any arts organization would do well to study the example they have set.

Here's a video from Youtube of their closing number:

"C" is for Christian Youth Theater, and April is Parkinsons Awareness Month