Along with five other state arts agencies, the Maine Arts Commission has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) that allowed the agency to assemble a team of arts education experts that travelled to Chicago on June 14 for a three day arts education institute. At this institute experts in their field joined with the five state teams to discuss an arts education challenge, and create strategies to strengthen Maine's arts education policies.
The five member team from Maine includes Steve Rowe, former Attorney General, Sue Gendron, Commission of Education, Linda Nelson, Co-Director of the Stonington Opera House (who serves on the board of the Kennedy Center arts in education partners), Jen Ryan from Harvard's Project Zero, Gibson Fay-LaBlanc, founder of the Telling Room and Donna McNeil, director of the Maine Arts Commission.
The five states participating in the institute were Alabama (team lead: Alabama State Council on the Arts); Indiana (team lead: Indiana Arts Commission); Maine (team lead: Maine Arts Commission); New Mexico (team lead: New Mexico Arts; and Utah (team lead: Utah Arts Council).
How does arts education fuel the nation's economic prosperity and innovation? Or capitalize on new media trends? These and other questions will be addressed at this weekend's Education Leaders Institutes, an NEA initiative that convenes "dream teams" to develop coordinated state arts education plans. The NEA has assembled policymakers, educators, advocates, and artists to design arts education plans for their respective states.
"We are rapidly rolling out a platform to integrate the arts into national educational policy," said NEA Arts Education Director Sarah Cunningham. "Our efforts are resulting in greater awareness of innovative practices, new partnerships, and a host of dynamic state leaders who recognize the value of arts education to their economic and social welfare."
Arts & the Economy, a recent report by the National Governors Association, cites the importance of the arts to state economies, and warns of an increasingly competitive global economy. The report notes that "the most desirable high-wage jobs require employees with creativity and higher order problem solving and communications skills."
The NEA Education Leaders Institutes bring together state teams to discuss a shared arts education challenge, and create strategies to strengthen their state's arts education policies. As participants exchange ideas, innovative partnerships emerge, coupled with renewed commitment to arts education to train the creative workforce in and out of school.
The NEA Education Leaders Institute is modeled on the successful Mayors' Institute of City Design (MICD), a 20-year partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the American Architectural Foundation. Since 1986, more than 700 mayors and hundreds of design professionals have attended design institutes dealing with urban planning issues such as downtown and waterfront developments, transportation, housing, schools, and public facilities. The NEA Education Leaders Institute seeks to give a similar platform to school leaders, legislators, and policymakers to discuss the challenges of arts education and develop concrete strategies to strengthen their states' arts education policies and programs.
For more information:
Contact: Darrell Bulmer
Phone: 207/287-6746
email: darrell.bulmer@maine.gov
WWW: mainearts.com
