Feeling Glee-ful

“…'Glee' is about the importance of arts education, so I would like to dedicate this to all my teachers who taught me to sing and finger-paint." --Ryan Murphy, “Glee” co-creator upon receiving a 2010 Emmy Award for Best Director of a Comedy

It will be National Arts in Education Week very soon. As one of the three “legs of the stool” on which our mission, vision, and goals rest, arts education figures quite prominently in the work we do at the Council. Like almost everyone I know, I am constantly impressed and amazed at the dedication and skill of the art, music, dance, and theater teachers at our schools. Although most have support networks (VATA, VMEA, and the VAAE), few believe their job is ever truly secure. Budget cuts tend to first focus on the arts and almost never on math, science, or physical education (hint to dance teachers…if you’re not already doing so, get your dance classes classified as Physical Education. You will sleep better at night!)

Into this mix comes the Arts Council with its particular focus on the teaching artist: the professional artist who either has or wants to become proficient at handling the various rules and regulations that are required for “serving it up” in a classroom setting.

We believe in the transcendent (or transformational) power of the arts to heal or empower or inspire students to achieve—not just in the arts but in life. We are convinced that creating art and bearing witness to art created/performed by others is among the most important things a young person experiences. And anyone who has gone through the agony/ecstasy of a recital, an opening night, a showcase, or any other public display where one’s “art” is featured, can tell you of the profound life lessons such events provide. Although occasionally these experiences are miserable and even destructive, for the most part, kids who survive tend to thrive, though not always as artists.

In a recent post I excoriated our Vermont education system for pretending it will succeed in the face of 20% cuts to personnel, eliminating specialists in the arts, sports, etc. In today’s post I want to draw attention to some of the positive things that are happening in Vermont's schools and arts-training programs--some of which are as professional and entertaining as anything you might see on television.

The New England Consortium of Artist-Educator Professionals (NECAP) will hold its annual conference in Brattleboro, VT on Thursday, September 23rd. Featuring world-renowned “new vaudevillian” artist Michael Moschen, the day is packed with workshops, lectures, and demonstrations. It is a great opportunity for teaching artists in all disciplines to network and share their varied experiences across New England.

The Arts Council has launched its new “Cultural Routes” initiative—a rapid-response grant program to help offset transportation costs related to delivering school children to performances at cultural institutions. These performances are frequently cited as the only professional performing arts experiences a child will have during the year. Helping schools in this cash-strapped economy will, we hope, keep this vital opportunity available to a broad cross-section of Vermonters.

More and more, our local arts presenters are taking leadership roles in delivering high quality arts-education experiences to their communities. Leading the way in Vermont is the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts whose programs and services include student matinees, camps, workshops, student passes, study guides, and curricula. But there are many others (and forgive me for presenting an incomplete list) such as Burlington City Arts (also in Burlington), River Arts (Morrisville), Catamount Arts (St. Johnsbury), Studio Place Arts (Barre), Chandler Center (Randolph), Weston Playhouse (Weston), Vermont Arts Exchange (No. Bennington), and Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center (Brattleboro), throughout the length and breadth of our small state that year after year deliver the goods.

There are the compelling programs for high school age artists of all types from the year-long Vermont Youth Orchestra and New England Youth Theatre in Colchester and Brattleboro, respectively, to more focused and discipline-specific projects like Vermont Stage Company’s Young Playwrights Project, to the well-known, two-week long “retreat” at Castleton State College known as the Governor’s Institute in the Arts. These programs focus much more on the budding creative artist and help prepare them for post-secondary and professional success as artists.

And finally, I would be remiss in not drawing special attention to G.R.A.C.E. in Hardwick—a program founded in 1975 to provide lifelong learning opportunities to elders and underserved populations throughout Vermont, and to showcase the best “outsider” art Vermont has to offer.

These institutions and many others [feel free to send me links to others I haven’t mentioned!] do so much to educate and enlighten all of us. They are the vanguard of the new arts education movement. And they all deserve our support.

Sometime in the next 20 years there will surely be another talented artist or producer or director who will pause while receiving her Emmy, Grammy, or Oscar and say “You know, the only reason I am here tonight is…I’m from Vermont.”

On Meteors and Cicadas

Every year, two things creep up on me and remind me that it is August, not April, and that the curtain on Vermont’s summer will soon be drawn.

The first is the Perseid meteor shower, an annual display of heavenly fireworks that happens at the end of the second week in August each year as the Earth passes through the 130-year orbital path of the comet Swift-Tuttle.

The second is the realization that the sawing noise I’m hearing is not a neighbor weed-whacking but the annual return of the cicada, newly transformed from its underground nymph stage to its adult, tree-climbing stage where it makes as much noise as possible to attract a mate.

From astronomical and entomological perspectives, these phenomena are worth a lot of study. For me, however, they simply mean that I have run out of time. School is about to start, I have to commit to a pre-buy, and I’m looking at the calendar wondering where did all the time go.

Leaving aside the concerts, plays, openings, and other events I have been unable to get to (and God forbid I neglect visits to grand-parents and vacations with in-laws!), there are so many planning meetings, marketing meetings, development meetings, advocacy meetings still to shoe-horn in, I simply don’t know how it will all happen before Labor Day.

But somehow it will.

We all take advantage of as much as Vermont has to offer in the summer from fresh produce at farmer’s markets, to isolated lean-tos on lakes with loons, to incredible cultural events where mountain or lake views vie with the performers for the audience’s attention.

But today it’s all I can do to keep from wishing that it was April and that I still had the whole summer to get the rest of what I wanted to do, done.

First on my list...Basin Harbor. What a great program they have involving artists, adirondack chairs, the lake, fine dining and an auction to benefit the Arts Council.

I wonder how the meteors look and the cicadas sound over by the lake?

Are We Insane Yet?

A few days ago, I found myself reading a recent memo from Vermont School Commissioner Armando Vilaseca. Its content was alarming.

The memo starts out with an upbeat tone, informing the reader of the Department's new mandates and goals (called "Transformation Goals") which position "the department to increase support for schools in ultimately improving outcomes for all Vermont learners. The structure we have defined is intentionally focused on mobilizing all of our staff to support schools in improving instruction and learning outcomes for all students."

Okay so far.

But then the memo gets to the real issues facing the education establishment: massive budget cutbacks, lay-offs and retirements resulting in a 20% workforce reduction, and--here's the kicker--yet another reorganization of staff around "new learning goals."

Really?!

Gone are content specialists in social studies, foreign languages, art and music, gifted and talented programs, and physical education. Those people not let go who held positions in those areas have been reassigned to something called an "Integrated Support for Learning" team. The remaining content specialists in the fields of special education, math, English language arts, English Language Learners and science will stay put as they are "part of the statewide assessment system."

This sounds to me like we are paying more and more attention to "teaching to the test" than ever. Are we surprised, therefore, that student learning is at risk? Are we surprised that more and more parents continue to question the value and efficiency of our once-vaunted school system?

None of this is the fault of one person--especially not of Commissioner Vilaseca. He's been given an impossible job to do ("Fix Our Schools") and he's doing the best he can. But this memo reminds me of my favorite Einstein quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Surely, by now, we are all insane. How many more times are we going to refine, reduce, reassign, re-strategize, re-formulate, re-eliminate, re-focus, and re-incentivize (using made-up words is fun because nobody can refudiate them irregardless of how they are misinterpretated) our education system before we finally come to the inescapable conclusion that this is NOT the way to "improve outcomes for all Vermont learners?"

Surely, if this method worked at all, it would have worked by now...?! (And I'll stop calling you Shirley if you agree with me :)

So what CAN be done?

Let's start with this question: What do we want our children to learn and why?

This is an important question for policy-makers to return to often, because the answer changes over time. For me, at this moment in history, there are global issues to consider all of which impact the outcome of student learning (not to mention the human condition) in profound ways. Global Warming, Renewable Energy, Religion, Population, Food and Water Management are five that immediately come to my mind. But I'm not suggesting that we run out and create curricula around these issues for first-graders.

What we must do is develop curricula that will serve as a foundation for first-graders to lean on when, as young adults, they begin to focus on solving these thorny and sophisticated problems. For example, wouldn't it make sense to start teaching a second language to preschoolers and NOT wait until they are in the 7th grade (as is the current practice in the Montpelier school system)?

Everyone who has ever had a child (or read the research literature) knows that it is during these formative years that our "language centers" are at their most receptive. Regardless of what captures the imagination of a young learner enough to cause him/her to dedicate a career to it as an adult, being able to converse with colleagues from Spain, Egypt, China and Russia who are working on the same issue(s) will certainly be advantageous.

Science and math are important, no doubt. So here's another idea: why don't we go crazy and hire some Hispanic, Arabic, Chinese, or Russian teachers to teach those subjects in their native language once our kids have enough basic linguistic knowledge under their belts? I say kill two birds with one stone: learn the language AND learn geometry! I know it can be done because I know people from Spain, Egypt, China, and Russia, and every one of them learned geometry, and lots more besides.

So right now, what do I think the goal of education should be? Simple. To help every child discover for him or herself the joy of lifelong learning.

What feeds this desire?

The ability to speak more than one language
The ability to carry on a discussion about religion with a person from another faith without resorting to epithets or physical violence.
The ability to do sums in more than one currency.
The ability to weep at the end of Madama Butterfly.
The ability to weep tears of outrage about the lost boys of Sudan.
The ability to dance with a parent more often than at your own wedding.
The ability to return to William Faulkner novels again and again...and again.
The ability to read aloud to your child.
The ability to cheer your child's role as a triceratops in his class play about dinosaurs.
The ability to explain why you're supposed to stand when the National Anthem is played.
The ability to explain why you're supposed to stand when Handel's Hallelujah Chorus is played.

Our world is very small. Understanding how to navigate its complexity starts with language and culture. We need to teach a basic appreciation for all culture, starting with our own. This includes not just social studies, but the arts, music, poetry, dance, and drama that constitute our collective human expression. From this common understanding we can nurture our expertise in the sciences, in mathematics, in the constant quest for human knowledge. This is how to instill in our young learners a hunger for learning. This is what we must demand of our schools, of our teachers, and of ourselves.

To do otherwise is insanity.

Survey Says!

Summer in Vermont is the time when many of us put into action all the plans we have been fine-tuning since the weather drove us indoors last November. There is a lot to pay attention to.

Here at the Arts Council we are in the middle of taking stock of a couple of key items that have been commanding a lot of our attention.

The first is The Art of Action. We want to know from all of you who participated in it, helped organize it, or for any reason have an opinion about it, to let us know your thoughts. We are putting together a brief survey and would love to have feedback from you. Look for it in the next few days...

The second is the upcoming primary and election.

In part because so many important statewide offices are up for grabs this year (meaning an incumbent is not running), and in part because we were all quite surprised at the last-minute sales tax on tickets to non-profit performances that was passed by the Legislature in May, we felt that this was a good time to find out where all our candidates stand on arts-related issues.

A few days ago we issued our first-ever “Candidate Survey” on the arts to all those who have registered as candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Vermont House and Senate, and asked them to please respond by August 2. This will give us time to tabulate responses to our questions and share them. [ Note: less than 24 hours after it dropped we already had 37 completed surveys submitted. Thank you!]

It is our intention to provide clear information about every candidate’s level of commitment to the arts and to arts education. We have also asked candidates who have already addressed the arts as part of their platform to provide a link to their documentation so that we may share that information with Artmail readers as well.

Since, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit we are not allowed to endorse any candidate for office, it is our intention to let the candidate’s own responses to our questions speak for themselves.

Some candidates have already responded by saying “I make it a policy not to respond to surveys…My record speaks for itself.” While I understand the frustration people running for office must feel about having to respond to surveys on many different subjects, my over-riding response has been to respectfully ask those candidates to reconsider their policy.

First, what "record"? In the Vermont legislature, issues involving the arts are usually buried deep in the Appropriations Bill, or—as is the case with recent 6% Sales Tax on nonprofit ticket sales—buried in a huge “Miscellaneous Tax Bill.” It is impossible to carve out an incumbent’s voting record on the arts because there are usually so many other material issues in a bill affecting a legislator’s vote. The only effective way to let the candidates speak for themselves about the arts is to ask them.

Second, I believe that there is too little attention paid by the media and, consequently, policy-makers, to the role the arts play in our economic recovery. Candidates from all parties talk about the importance of investing in vital communities, in improving communications infrastructure, creating jobs, curing whatever ails our schools, and in general improving Vermonters’ quality of life. But hardly ever does the word “art” or “culture” appear in their words or in print. (Yes, I may be exaggerating to make a point, but-ahem-my point speaks for itself!)

So here is what we need YOU to do. Between now and August 24th, let your candidates know that the arts are important to you and ask them whether they have responded to the Arts Council’s survey. If so, thank them; if not, ask them why. If they say it is not their policy, then make it YOUR policy to ask them how they would vote on increasing support for the arts, on increasing funding so that every schoolchild would have adequate resources to study the performing or visual arts during their K-12 years. Then let US know how it went…!

As soon as we have tabulated the results, we will share them. Look for them around August 10.

In the meantime, enjoy the sun, the showers, the fresh vegetables from your garden and take in a concert or a show. Or take in two or three—there is plenty to choose from!

From Point A to Point Beyond...

"…there are no organic transitions, only edits. The idea of A becoming B, rather than A jumping to B, has become foreign."

Esa-Pekka Salonen


Though Salonen was talking about transitions in music, this quote also resonates in a larger context. The problem is that in life, some transitions, even ones we should be prepared for (where "A becomes B"), are extremely hard to understand, interpret, and read meaning into.

I recently wrote about three important arts administrators who had decided to retire (with at least two more that I know of in the coming year) signaling a huge generational shift in arts management. But in the past week we have lost two people whose passion for life, for their family, and for their community touched all of us at the Arts Council.

Mary Prior was a fighter; a truly engaged community activist who loved her Danville community with all the fire and brimstone she could muster (and, boy, could she ever muster!). I knew her initially as the proprietor of the Danville Historical Society, and a very committed member of the local arts review committee that oversaw the Danville Route 2 transportation enhancement plan. For the past five or six years, however, she became more and more aware of the Transportation Agency’s inability to break ground on this award-winning project, and instead of getting depressed and throwing in the towel, she’d call me up to strategize as to what other political tack we could take.

About a year ago she told me she was dying and probably would not see the Danville Project through to completion. She made me promise not to compromise, not to forget that a really great group of people put together a great plan back in 2000, and not to waver in my commitment to see it through to completion.

Craig Byrne was a different kind of community activist. I didn’t know him as well or for as long as I knew Mary, but it was clear from our first conversation, that here was a man cut from a different sort of cloth. It was through his constant but gentle reasoning that our collaboration with Lyman Orton and Janice Izzi around the Art of Action got off the ground and became what it is today.

Where Mary might use facts fearlessly to make her case in Danville, Craig would use persuasion and humor. Where Mary might cut right to the chase, telling one and all what needed to be done and what her strongly-held opinions were, Craig was full of empathy and willing to listen completely to all the viewpoints around the table before helping us all to reach consensus about how to move forward.

I don’t believe Craig and Mary ever met each other. But wherever they are now, if they discover each other and compare notes, I imagine them coming to consensus (thanks to Craig) that Mary was someone who liked A to jump to B, while Craig liked A to “become” B.

In the end, and in their own way, they were a pleasure to work with. On behalf of everyone at the Arts Council staff who worked with them in one way or another, I send my thoughts and prayers out to Mary’s and Craig’s families. These are two transitions that will be hard to get used to.

Requiescant in pace…

A Time of Transition

The Arts Council’s annual meeting is always a time for reflection—a time to say goodbye to wonderful trustees who are rotating off our Board and welcome new trustees who are eager to serve.

It is a time to consider all the plans we made last year and consider what we achieved and what we let go; a time to celebrate the many considerable successes of artists and arts organizations across Vermont and the role, sometimes large, sometimes not, the Council had in helping to make those successes happen. And it is a time to reflect on the state of our sector and on how we are doing.

Later this week we will recognize three people without whom the arts in Vermont would have taken on a considerably different kind of character than it has for the past 20 or 30 years. Jane Ambrose, Jean Olson, and Andrea Rogers have all announced their retirement and we will be honoring them with our Cerf Lifetime Achievement Award at our Annual Meeting later this week.

Their retirements from The Governor’s Institutes, The Lane Series, and The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, respectively, signal a generational shift in the arts from those who successfully managed their way through the culture wars of the 80s and 90s to those who have cut their teeth on the new technologies and new political realities of the 21^st century.

The pace of change is constantly gathering speed. The number and variety of art forms grows faster and faster. Opportunities that lead to success or failure increase with each passing season. Technologies that used to attach us to a desk now allow us to do our work anywhere, any time, all the time.

So it is good to pause at least once a year and take stock. Celebrate those whose work has affected so many others. Catch up with old and new friends.

Join us at our Annual Meeting, this Thursday at 4 pm in the Vermont State House. If nothing else, it will be a welcome change of pace.

Ready? Set? Open...

It's been around since long before I became director of the Arts Council. It has grown much bigger than even the tallest mountain in Vermont. It has its roots in dozens, if not hundreds, of Vermont communities. It is one of the quintessential Vermont happenings that define our collective character. And this year it is turning 20 years old.

Happy Birthday, Open Studio Weekend.

And while I'm at it, a big shout out to Martha Fitch who is the brains and the heart of this magical event that this year involves more than three hundred artists and artisans throughout the state organized by region and by type.

This annual event is a celebration of all artists and artisans--yes, even those who for a variety of reasons aren't part of the official tally of participants--who call Vermont home. Many of the participants view this as one of their primary "retail" opportunities; to connect with either an in-state or out-of-state buyer, and make enough sales to carry them through and beyond the summer season.

In most cases, artists and craftspeople open their own studios, but increasingly groups of artists are collaborating with each other; renting out empty storefronts for a short period of time, experimenting with ways to extend the luster of Open Studio Weekend by gracing an otherwise shuttered downtown street with their vibrant and colorful presence which reminds us, ultimately, of why we need art in our lives.

For the Department of Tourism, this event kicks off the Summer Travel Season which extends through fall foliage in mid-October. During these 4 1/2 months, Vermont shows off its plumage in a variety of ways. First is Open Studio Weekend, followed in short order by the Discover Jazz Festival, The Vermont History Expo, July 4th Celebrations everywhere, Yellow Barn in Putney, The Vermont Symphony's Summer Festival, Vermont Mozart Festival, Music at Marlboro...

...well, I am going to get in trouble because I can't possibly list the hundreds of extraordinary artistic offerings Vermont offers up in this column, nor have I even mentioned all the recreational and site-specific events and festivals that are out there to be enjoyed. But you really should keep track of what's going on in Vermont by visiting the statewide arts calendar frequently. It's worth your while

And after all, this post is about the Open Studio Weekend.

One of the ways the Open Studio Weekend is celebrating this anniversary is by working with the Bennington Museum to create a 50 year retrospective of the Vermont Crafts movement. State of Craft is an extraordinary exhibition that opened last weekend and will run through October and is absolutely a must for everyone this summer. Plan your staycations now, and be sure to include Bennington on your itinerary.

Well, that should do for now. Enjoy the coming weekend. Enjoy the summer. It may be short but it's packed!


* * * *

A follow-up to my last post on the Sales Tax issue (scroll down).

The final legislation was a little bit different than the draftI first reported on. It turns out the law will not change the current exemption for schools or student performances, but the law will go into effect on April 1, 2011 and not June 1, 2011 as I had been led to understand. Performances by artists after April 1, 2011, but who are under contract by June 1, 2010 will be also exempt from this law.

We will soon be dropping an organizational survey to ascertain how many arts organizations are likely to be impacted by this law--so please be on the lookout for it and get it back to us as soon as possible. Thank you!