Arts Education

For those of us who are passionate about the arts, it has been disheartening to see so many schools cut back on arts education. I am happy to report on a new initiative by the American Architectural Foundation that hopes to boost interest in teaching kids about architecture and design.

We live in a world of "widespread hostility toward the United States and its policies."1 This antipathy is not limited to the countries and peoples that are directly affected by the U.S. "war on terror" and its attendant pol-icies, but includes many of our former allies and fellow democracies. A friend who just returned from a year in Spain reports that she spent a significant amount of time and energy convincing people she met there that the U.S.

October 2005, 200 pages, $19.95. New Village Press, Oakland, CA, 510-420-1361, www.newvillagepress.net

A Beginner's Guide to Community-based Arts is a wonderfully designed and accessible training guidebook for teachers, artists, and activists wanting to use art as a vehicle for social change. Lead writer Mat Schwarzman and cartoonist Keith Knight create graphic profiles of ten exemplary practitioners followed by activities, exercises, discussion questions, and resources on how to connect with and develop art emanating out of a particular community.

2004, 18 pages. Los Angeles County Arts Commission, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, 213-974-1343

Download pdf: www.lacountyarts.org/artsed/docs/artsedu_artsforall09-02.pdf

2005, 139 pages. Dance/USA, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005, 202-833-1717, www.danceusa.org

The Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association, using a three-year grant from Hewlett Packard in 2001, has created the Tribal Digital Village (TDV). Using a high-performance wireless backbone, the TDV project delivers wireless broadband to community centers, fire stations, sheriff substations, Tribal administration buildings, and Tribal libraries in-and-around eighteen tribal reservations. This long-distance, point-to-point, wireless system is ideally suited to the geographically diverse area that required coverage.

2004, 180 pages, ISBN 0-325-00603-2. Heinemann, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH, 03801-3912, 603-431-7894, www.heinemann.com

Directed toward educators and school administrators, this book outlines how the integration of arts-based instruction can create breakthrough educational moments in and out of the classroom, and provides practical real-world experience to guide teachers and administrators around problems that can derail the best-planned reform efforts.

2004, 152 pages, Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago

2004, 88 pages, IBSN 0-8330-3650-5. Published by the RAND Corporation, 1700 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA, 90407-2138, 310-451-7002, www.rand.org

Download Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9058/

March 2004, 40 pages. Published by the Council for Basic Education, 1319 F Street, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC, 20004, 202-347-4171

Download pdf: www.menc.org/documents/legislative/AcademicAtrophy.pdf