Staying in School: Arts Education and New York City High School Graduation Rates

Download the report here:
http://www.cae-nyc.org/staying-in-school/arts-and-graduation-report

Social Justice for Podunk?

Thinking about our conversation last night in class, something is sticking with me.  This program is asking us to consider what social justice means and one of the chief gifts for me so far has been the opportunity to deeply investigate personal bias. 

I think our conversation about the midwest was a revealingly interesting discussion, and yet if I replay the scene replacing "Indianapolis" with Harlem or Little Village or Compton, it takes on a whole new meaning entirely.  Could we have had the same conversation about certain parts of Rogers Park?  What are the discourses informing the idea that a museum in Indiana is exceeding expectations?  What did I mean when I knocked "the south" for not having any teen programs in a tone that suggested I might have expected such a thing?  When has it ever been true that our birthplace extends us rights to judge the neighborhoods of others?  When we talk about geography we're not talking about land, we're talking about people. 

There's a bigger issue here for me than whether the midwest gets a bad wrap.  Those aren't terms we have the luxury of thinking in anymore as cultural workers.  The issue is when do we right injustice and how?  I posted a few days ago about hearing or being faced with statements at work that I caught as overtly unjust and I let them go.  Do we have the responsibility to shut down thinking that is at best misguided and at worst hateful-- to our personal definition of social justice?  Do we have a right to?  I think we do have a right and a responsibility, but how?

SFMoMA Interactives

From: Carolina Kaufman

Date: October 20, 2009 10:39:04 AM CDT

To: Rachel Harper

Subject: Re: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presents

 Yes...definitely...also check out the Anne Frank House video (virtual interactive)  that I put up on the Ning...although you may have already seen it.

Best

Carolina

On Oct 20, 2009, at 10:03 AM, Rachel Harper wrote:

Carolina,

May I post this with your comments for my cyberpedegogy class?

Thanks,

Rachel

On Oct 20, 2009, at 9:47 AM, Carolina Kaufman wrote:

A cute interactive recently released from SFMoMA (has story telling components, writing components, and a gallery displaying what was created within the interactive).  Should we ever want to expand on Curious Corner, one nice added feature would be able to email share the Cornell and African Mask creations as this did with my Frida creation.  I also like the Gallery component to show how many different ways you could dress Frida or tell the story of an object.  

I am also noticing that some educators are using online games/interactive stories with their interactive whiteboards in class such as the Alexander Calder "Mobile Maker" interactive.

-Carolina

http://countrydogs.sfmoma.org/

Mobile Learning Institute Leadership Summit on Digital Media

FYI, FREE from Pearson Foundation:

Mobile Learning Institute Leadership Summit 

on Digital Media 

November 5, 2009 

YouMedia Center, Harold Washington Library 

Chicago

In the 21st Century, young people, without always realizing it, are taking more control over the

ways they acquire, create, and share information and knowledge. Much of this is being brought

about by everyday digital technologies: mobile devices with multimedia capabilities, internet

access and text messaging; social networking sites; new modes of communication like text

messaging, blogging and twittering; complex gaming environments; and a wide array of

virtualized resources that are assessed dynamically via the internet.

The Leadership Summits are sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and Nokia. It is free of charge

to participants. Similar events are taking place in major cities in the United States and around the

world.

In partnership with local educational and cultural institutions, the Leadership Summit aims to

explore the ways in which digital media are changing the way young people learn, show what

they know, and share their ideas – inside and outside the classroom.

Some of the issues the Summit will address are:

 How do young people today interact and communicate with one another?

 What are the core tools and services they use?

 How can educators harness the attractiveness to young people of social networking,

mobile phones, and informal virtual communication to meet basic educational objectives

and extend learning?

 How can new technologies re-invigorate learning for disaffected youth?

 What are the best case studies that showcase digital media-based programs?

 How do you begin to integrate digital media into the curriculum or into existing

programs?

The Leadership Summit on Digital Media Literacy takes place in a one-day workshop at the

YouMedia Center of the Harold Washington Library. The workshop day features interactive

presentations by leaders in digital media programs, demonstrations of new media approaches,

and videos that showcase new media being used in a variety of settings.

There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions, share ideas about projects that fit the needs

of participants. If you are interested in participating, please contact:

Stephen Brown

Stephen.brown@mobiledigitalarts.com 

415 378 1064

Those people

I had a very nice Diwali program this past Saturday, I'll post the fabulous time-lapse I made of our collaborative Rangoli soon.  There was one negative moment, though.  Even though I believe that I need to respect the complex value systems of the families I work with and allow them enough space in our interactions to let me know what to leave out, this incident caught me by surprise:

Me: Well, that is a lovely mask!  Tell me about it.
Child (age 9): (silence)
Me: (can I help?) I bet you can guess who it reminds me of!  Ganesha!
Mom: It's just an elephant.
Me: Oh, do you know about Ganesha?
Child: (shakes head)
Me: Well, there are wonderful stories--
Mom: Listen, lady, I do not want her hearing about what those people think.  
(also, we are in a room FILLED with Indian-American families, by the way)
Me: Oh!  Sorry, I'm an art teacher, so I'm super-used to talking about all kinds of art!  (walking away) Have a really fun rest of your visit.

And what do you do?  I guess I get it, it's her right to block information she doesn't want.  Families do that all the time, usually with sex or violent death, although I don't really feel the need to put those elements into a program for children anyway.  I can hope that she's making developmental decisions, like maybe at some point they'll talk about it, just not right now.  I think it was the "those people" part that really got me.  Earlier this week, I was looking at some Mughal & Rajput paintings and heard a man ANNOUNCE to his wife so that EVERYONE in the gallery knew how he felt: "let's get out of here and see if we can find something a little less offensive than Islamic Art."  "What?" I said aloud to myself.    And I looked again at the floral pottery and golden jewelry-- what?  

I can't really relate to a fear of other cultural ideas, but one hope I hang on places like museums is that they might serve to bring us together-- when we see sweet children dancing like Ganesha or perfectly benign floral pottery, we start to use these clues to formulate the conclusion that it's not so bad, what all those other people think.  And maybe it doesn't happen right away, maybe what I see is the initial resistance, and maybe later it comes together?

MusEd Discussion

If you're into Museum Ed, and you haven't already subscribed, I recommend this discussion list.  I subscribe to the emailed digest & find it helpful and interesting to find out who's thinking what and what they're trying to do.  Here are the topics of some recent conversations:

Archives:

5914. [talk] Reggio Emilia Open House and Presentation in Washington, DC: November 17 
      Sent October 17th 2009
      This upcoming professional development program is especially relevant to those interested in integrating elements of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education in their work with museums' youngest visitors: Come join us on November 17th, the...
      
5913. [talk] DINOSAUR NEWS - Huge Find In China * Dinosaur Cannibalism * Smallest Baby Dinosaur Footprint Discovered * Why Were Some So Strange? * Third Of Dinosaur Species Never Existed? * Early Bird Dinosaur Challenged * Coping With Slippery Slopes * More 
      Sent October 16th 2009
      Welcome to this edition of DINOSAURNEWS - the international Dinosaur Webzine with bite! This Week's Headlines: (For the FULL STORY visit the NEWS section of the webzine at this address: http://www.dinosaurnews.org ) ** GSI rejects dinosaur nest...
      
5912. [talk] CFP - Taking Stock: Museum Studies & Museum Practices in Canada 
      Sent October 16th 2009
      CALL FOR PAPERS Taking Stock: Museum Studies and Museum Practices in Canada Museum Studies Program, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada April 22-24, 2010 http://takingstockmuseumstudies.ischool.utoronto.ca/ Over the past 40 years, ...
      
5911. [talk] Artist Statement Workshop Question 
      Sent October 16th 2009
      Hello All- Next year Id like to offer an Artist Workshop focusing on How to Write an Artist Statement. Who should facilitate this presentation? Can you recommend anyone? Many thanks, mary *Mary E. Cantu* Program Manager Artpace San Antonio 445 North ...
      
5910. [talk] 
      Sent October 14th 2009
      Interesting article- definitely one to ignite discussion- FYI http://www.newsweek.com/id/217012 Leah M. Melber, Ph.D. Director of Student and Teacher Programs Lincoln Park Zoo 2150 North Cannon Drive Chicago, IL 60614 312-742-2064 lmelber@lpzoo.o...
      
5909. [talk] Teen Museum Theatre Program 
      Sent October 13th 2009
      Hello Everyone! I am a Public History graduate student at Texas State University and am doing an internship at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum where I am developing a teen theatre program. The goal of the program is to teach Texas history to h...
      
5908. [talk] Re: Scheduling Software 
      Sent October 11th 2009
      Hi Joanna, We bought a site licence for Artifax Event. However, after installation we discovered that some functionalities that are crucial for us were not there. These all related to a requirement that we have that apparently many other museums _don't_ ...
      
5907. [talk] Re: Hazardous Art Materials 
      Sent October 9th 2009
      Dawn and everyone, I know this woman, Monona Rossinol, was very helpful to the Newark Museum re: material safety data sheets, etc- looks like there is another organization that is similar to ACMI. I would suggest contacting her, perhaps she has some examp...
      
5906. [talk] Hazardous Art Materials 
      Sent October 9th 2009
      Does anyone who runs art-making programs have a policy document on the use of hazardous materials, or have you found one by another institution? Id also be interested in educational materials, like posters or pamphlets you might have found on the topic. I...
      
5905. [talk] Archaeology Labs for School Programs 
      Sent October 9th 2009
      Roberson Museum and Science Center has a really impressive wet lab facility. Originally it was built exclusively for life science programs, but as time and needs have changed, the uses for this space also have. We're still teaching Gel Electrophoresis in ...
      

AIC education videos are up

Find them here.
I'm having problems seeing them with safari-- well, not seeing them, but pausing, etc.  What do you think?

The production is beautiful, especially the one for community programs.

I play favorites

We all do, right?  When I was teaching in the classroom, I went to great lengths to hide my special affection for certain students, and I suppose I still do in my informal setting, but I do have a favorite student named Ada.

I met Ada when she had just turned 3.  I met her in the galleries with her mom and she talked to me so openly that I invited her to come to Mini Masters, a class I teach for 3-5 year olds.  She's been coming now, twice a month, for two years and I've gotten to know her fairly well.  

Looking at the Turner, she is the child who wants to talk about the dark water, who moves her arm like the waves and shows us how all the movement flows up to the tiny flag.

Yesterday with the Kerry James Marshall, she noticed the fists behind the loving couple.  She talked about the shackles for slaves and that the artist was showing us that the fist broke the shackles and now the fist stays on the fence forever.  

She questioned Sol Lewitt's originality with bars of tones, wondering if he didn't owe Ellsworth Kelly something (ha! she's right) and opened up a PRESCHOOL WORKSHOP to a conversation about participation in a school of thought.  

She's homeschooled, or unschooled, evidently-- something I'm interested in. Her parents support her ability to construct her own learning.  

I'm thinking about asking her mother (and Ada) if I might make recordings of Ada.  I'd use lapel mics and walk around the museum having casual conversations.  My work is usually fiction, and I really don't know much of anything about crafting solid non-fiction, but I'm thinking about it.

Kerry James Marshall and the unexpected upset

I posted this on the Art Ed ning site, which I only found out existed 8 seconds ago because nobody tells me anything :)

LinkedIn?

Meredith's post about the CNN article is making me wonder:  does anyone use LinkedIn?  Should I be?

volunteer @ threewalls

hey, I just saw this on saic launch:

Position Information
Expiration Date:	October 31, 2009
Employer:	ThreeWalls  [view profile]
Title:	Salon Coordinator
Description:	threewalls is offering a unique opportunity to graduate students studying in the visual arts: SALON coordinator. threewalls hosts a variety of public programs aimed at engaging audiences in conversations about the visual arts. These include: engagements (open topical discussions), artist talks (scheduled with each SOLO exhibition) and an annual summer symposium.We are seeking up to two students to coordinate this program, which includes: designing and coordinating a topical discussion series with 4 events to be held over the course of the programming year, overseeeing artist talks and working on the symposium publication in spring 2010 for which they will receive editorial credit. Students will work alongside the Executive and Artistic Directors, with creative license over the discussion series. Students will gain experience in directing a public program, writing PR and marketing.
Posting Date:	September 2, 2009
Qualifications:	Looking for students seeking graduate education in Fine Arts (studio), Arts Management, Arts Education, Arts Administration, Curatorial Studies, Arts Journalism or Art History, Theory and Criticism
Location:	Location City Chicago State Illinois Country United States
Position Type:	Part-Time, Temporary, Volunteer
Salary Level:	Volunteer/internship
How should applicants apply for this job:	Email.
Job Duration:	1 year
Compensation Type:	Unpaid
Restrict Applications:	no