There’s no time like the present for pragmatic optimism. So last week, paddling through the eddies of our recent election, we helped the Oregon Arts Commission launch the 1st Annual Oregon Arts Education Congress.
The Canoe Group kept getting asked: “What’s an Arts Education Congress, anyway?”
Then we were queried: “What’s a Bill of Creative Rights”?
And finally: “What’s an article for a bill of creative rights supposed to look like?”
We’re not completely certain, but heck, the framers didn’t know where they were headed when they convened the first constitutional convention in Philadelphia, either.
The Oregon Arts Education Congress story so far: 200 representative leaders were identified by the Oregon Arts Commission from business, education, arts and political leadership across the state. The first 100 that RSVP’d became Congress delegates for an all-day event held last Monday. An online public survey (answered by over 500 Oregonians) identified arts education themes for the Congress to address. The #1 theme: Arts education allows for expression and creativity. (You can check out the other nine themes at www.oregonartseducationcongress.org.)
At the Congress, delegates proclaimed: Arts education will help address community needs and challenges, help solve Oregon’s 21st century issues.
The idea of the Bill of Creative Rights started with the notion that such an articulation could help align arts education advocates from across Oregon. The format? Ten specific, well-stated reasons that explain why arts education is a right not solely for the privileged. The central concept? Public education is necessary to a democracy. Our 21st century challenges demand innovation. And arts education, in its essence, teaches and develops the skill set of innovation.
Delegates to the Congress offered clear and specific advice: The goal must be required, systemic K-12 arts instruction. A campaign would target new advocates and make more room at the arts ed table for the design community, for business owners, for teachers, parents, grandparents, and must include higher education. Such goals require artists and teachers who can create good, solid artist-driven assessment tools that demonstrate results.
The efforts should be run and managed as a high-integrity political campaign, a campaign with clear and strong messaging, credible spokespeople and political leadership. A campaign plan should organize volunteers and employ an Internet infrastructure that keeps everybody motivated and informed. Like the Obama campaign, but focused on the CHANGE that comes when arts is part of public education.
Hence, the starting point: Oregon’s Bill of Creative Rights. A platform for change. A platform that conveys why arts education is an essential right for Oregon students. As Will Hornyak, the official Congress storyteller wrapped the day: “It takes us all to keep the sky from falling.”
More to come. Stay tuned.
Related Posts
- Oregon Arts Commission hires The Canoe Group for 1st Annual Oregon Arts Education Congress
- Oregon Arts Commission hires The Canoe Group for Arts Learning Initiative
- The Canoe Group Communications Strategies sell-out the Oregon Arts Summit 2009
- Oregon Arts Summit 2009: Important Links
- Oregon Arts Commission hires The Canoe Group for the 2009 Arts Summit
As someone who just got his Master’s degree in Teaching Music, I’m thrilled that you’re involved in this project to articulate the fundamental truth about Arts & Education that has been so clear to me for so long.
Congratulations!