Keynote Speaker Susan A. Gendron, Commissioner Of Education.

Arts In Education

Maine Arts Commission’s Summer Institute for Arts in Education Professional Development

Every civilization needs arts education, not to create great artists but to create great citizens.” – Isaac Stern

Arts educators understand the value of what they do for Maine’s children. But when budgets are tight and the arts often seem to be first on the fiscal chopping block, it can feel like the message is not always getting through. Do parents and administrators think of the arts as “nice, but not really necessary?” And what is the state’s view? On a warm August day in Waterville, a classroom of Maine teachers heard the answer.

“Arts are a window on the world in the same way that science helps us see the world around us,” Susan A. Gendron, the state’s Commissioner of Education told the group. That sounded encouraging coming from the top, but it got better.

“Literature, music, theater, the visual arts, media, film, photography and dance reveal aspects about ourselves, the world around us and the relationship between the two,” she said.

Gendron was the keynote speaker at a first of its kind professional development workshop held for four days this past August on the Colby College campus. The Maine Arts Commission’s Summer Institute for Arts in Education Professional Development was created to help teachers and artists become advocates for the arts while also finding new ways to incorporate the arts into an entire school’s curricula.

Gendron’s speech turned out to be more than just encouraging, it also came with news. Not only does the Commissioner of Education believe the arts can help in a child’s overall academic performance, the state plans to hire a visual and performing arts consultant who will work specifically on helping teachers create a curriculum that incorporates the arts. “The arts,” Gendron told the group, “can also help children improve their creativity, problem solving and even teamwork skills.”

	Physical Theater Leader Diane Noble.

In all, 22 teachers attended the program, but their message will spread. Part of the program calls for holding workshops in their own regions across the state. These institute trained artist-educators will teach other professionals how to develop standards-based teaching in and through the arts.

While some found workshops in dance, music, movement/theatre and visual arts gave them new ideas that they can use right away in the classroom, other teachers and artists said networking with professionals was just as valuable.

By running more of these professional development workshops across the state, the Maine Arts Commission intends to involve partners in a new training system that will make professional development in all the arts more uniformly and equitably accessible to both classroom teachers and arts specialists. During the 2005–2006 school year, the teachers will offer the why’s and how’s of teaching the arts through the curriculum in an interdisciplinary approach in two workshops at designated regional sites. The workshops will include at least two arts disciplines to be integrated with other subjects. The workshops will be scheduled to take place at school systems, arts organizations, and other locations throughout the state.

The Maine Arts Commission encourages all school administrators to make professional development in the arts more accessible to classroom teachers in their regions by participating in this regional workshop series. Interdisciplinary instruction that includes the visual and performing arts improves learning in all content areas. Do not miss this opportunity for teachers and administrators to take advantage of this valuable training through the Maine Arts Commission’s Arts in Education Professional Development program.

For more information about the Maine Arts Commission’s Summer Institute for Arts in Education Professional Development or the Professional Development Regional Workshops series contact: Paul Faria at 207/287-2790 or paul.faria@maine.gov.

Teachers and artists attended dance and physical theater workshops and learned improvisation can be a powerful learning tool in the classroom.