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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-05-05; Arts Commission; MinutesMINUTES FOR ARTS COMMISSION MEETING: MAY 5, 2005 All six current commissioners present. Staff: Colleen Finnegan Guests: Sybilla Voll, David Seeley, Diane Adams, Stephanie Casenza, Judith Anderson, Called to order at 8:10 a.m. Change to minutes: Chairman Hill did not attend the breakfast for artists in the Juried Exhibition, just the opening. Minutes approved (Barbara/Ron, 6-0). n. Presentation by Carlsbad Oceanside Art League (COAL) Sybilla Voll, president, and David Seeley, 1s* VP, presented an overview of the Carlsbad Oceanside Art League (COAL) and its services. The organization was founded in 1951, currently has 202 members, and is developing a five-to-ten-year strategic plan for the future. They are examining all aspects of the organization, including increased membership, services, programs, problems and most particularly the need for a permanent home. Currently, COAL operates a Gallery in the Village Faire which it rents. It presents ongoing exhibitions and its annual shows include the Members Show, Student Show and Children's Show. It also presents artists' demonstrations for members and the public monthly at Calavera Hills Community Center. These demonstrations are partially funded by a Community Arts Grant from the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Office. They are very interested in learning how the organization can work with the City and other organizations to promote art. Commissioner Shaw: Are management and business members contributing to the development of the strategic plan? Are there strategies to reach new residents? David Seeley: There is no current business assistance; it would have to be pro bono. Outreach is a sore point; they are seeking solutions and need some professional expertise. Commissioner Shaw said she may be able to help with consultants for planning. Commissioner Juncal: What presence is there in schools and what plans currently exist to reach area youth? Diane Adams, Chair of Youth Programs: COAL's main efforts are in conducting exhibition opportunities for youth, including a high school exhibition open to five area schools, displaying an average of 300 pieces annually; Scholarship awards amounting to $2,500-$3,000 annually. There are no current in-school programs. Commissioner Francis: How is the Gallery financed? David Seeley: Member contributions, percentage of artists' sales and a reduced rent in exchange for four-month notice to vacate. Commissioner Iserloth: What is the selection process for children's art? Diane Adams: Guidelines are provided, teachers encourage participation and "jury" at the entrant level. COAL just judges the entries to assign awards. The reception for the next Children's Show is May 8th. Commissioner Carrillo: What form do the scholarships take, cash or worskshop fees? Diane Adams: students receive cash scholarships based on portfolio submissions. Chairman Hill said the Commission is encouraging better City/citizen communication, including that the website include "non-City" art and that the Arts Office develop an Artists Directory. David Seeley noted that COAL has a website and asked if it could be linked. Chairman Hill said the Commission could recommend that to the City. HI. San Diego Performing Arts League Presentation Executive Director Stephanie Casenza and Marketing Director Judith Anderson gave a power point presentation overview of the organization and its purposes and services. SDPAL began as the San Diego Theatre League in 1983 and later expanded to include other performing arts groups. Current membership is 140 organizations, and lower level affiliate members that join to take advantage of inexpensive publicity opportunities. SDPAL's mission is to promote and market the performing arts, to create and advance community among the arts, to advocate for the arts, to serve the membership and to develop useful collaborations. The presentation included information on publicity outlets, Artstix Booth, Business Volunteers for the Arts, Board Training, the Star Awards, the San Diego Regional Arts Coalition, the National Arts Marketing Initiative and public forums on various issues affecting the arts. A special segment of the presentation focused on SDPAL's new major effort to develop a "chapter" called San Diego Arts North which will promote and serve the organizations in North County. The new website page with links to North County member groups was displayed and the presenters discussed recent gatherings to examine the issues shared by arts organizations in this region. Commissioners asked: Are Business Volunteers are available to non-members - yes. Can the League help with the plan to convene the various city arts commissions - yes. Chairman Hill noted that the Commission is seeking pertinent information on the arts as more than an entertainment value and focusing on arts education as schools lose the arts. He is serving on business committees seeking information on the decrease in "soft skills" like creativity and critical thinking in today's high school and college graduates and would like to know of any studies on this subject. Ms. Casenza replied that the League studies the issue, advocates for the arts from that perspective when meeting with local officials, and shares the information from the recent Rand Corporation report. Chairman Hill stated that general public outreach presented different difficulties. One hundred years ago the performing arts were the main source of entertainment, but now the Commission is exploring where the community value of arts and culture lies and how to communicate it. He suggested that when the city commissions come together the event should be part socializing and part educational. IV. Commission Discussion of Ken Robinson Article The Commission discussed the information distributed concerning arts education. It was noted that the education system is focused on "product" knowledge ~ facts and figures — while the arts represent our human side and cannot be quantified in the same way. The Governor recently eliminated $6 million for statewide arts education, and politicians aren't interested in fighting for arts education, they don't believe in the needs. The Wyland Report did discuss "education of the whole child" and Ms. Carrillo suggested adopting that vocabulary when developing arguments that the arts should not have to advocate for inclusion but that the public must include the arts because the arts create citizens. Chairman Hill stated that he wants to forward this information to the City Council to provide them with background knowledge for Arts Commission decisions. V. Public Comment: Mark Winkler (of the Carlsbad Friends of the Arts) introduced himself and said he and his wife are making a CitySmart presentation for third grades on "How to Start a Restaurant" and they will include some art aspects. He said the City website is difficult to navigate and he could not find Arts Commission minutes or get notices of meetings. He noted that name plates and agendas were missing, which would help the public. VI. Committee Reports Ms. Carrillo reported that she and Tonya Rodzach attended the California Associaton of Arts Educators Conference and met many legislators and CAC representatives. She was proud that Carlsbad was represented, as there were no attendees from San Diego. Ms. Iserloth reported that she attended a COAL demonstration in April, with 45-50 people in attendance; the group was all white, all senior, predominantly females, and the artist did a mirror demonstration that could not be seen. Ms. Francis reported that the Education Committee had finished its meetings for 2004- 2005 school year; Ms. Iserloth noted she had seen a SUAVE presentation on infusing the arts into the regular curriculum. Mr. Juncal reported that he attended the New Village Arts production of "The Waverly Gallery" and that a handbill for the Carlsbad Friends of the Arts was inserted in the program. He also visited Rancho Buena Vista High School and took part in their annual Chalk Festival. He visited the art classes and shared with students that he had been affected as a wild teenager by an art teacher who set him on the path to becoming a successful artist and businessman. Chair Report: Mr. Hill also saw "The Waverly Gallery" and pointed out what a different experience it is to see theatre in such an intimate setting. He also saw "Gypsy" at MiraCosta College and noted that really fine theatre is available to Carlsbad residents at the community colleges for very little money. Staff Report: In Peter Gordon's absence, Colleen Finnegan reported on recent and upcoming programs conducted by the Arts Office, including the Cannon Art Gallery exhibitions of the Juried Biennial and Painted Ladies, and the events of Festejando, Opera Lectures and TGIF Jazz in the Parks. The meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m. Knowledge-Based Global Economy Ken Robinson Professor of Arts Education University of Warwick I!: don't know who your heroes are, but Paul McCartney is one of mine. About a year ago I got to meet him over lunch to talk about the future of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Paul is its patron, and I'm its chief examiner. If s his old school. I told him I was from Liverpool too, and he asked me what school I went to. I said I went to the Collegiate, because I did, which was a selective grammar. And he said, "Oh, I wanted to go there." And I said, "Why didn't you?" and he said, "I wasn't good enough." I said, "Well, come on Paul, it worked out. Let it go, forget the school." The point is that people don't. It amazes me how many successful adults carry with them some idea that they're not really very clever. What is it that we're doing to kids at schoolWe cannot fulfill our which makes ^ many current economic P60?16 leave believingthey're not very good? objective by just QT being demoralized doing better what we ^ me whole *&*-ence? And, is this jus- used to do; we have tifiable? This is the . j . j-ff .1 seat of my interest into educate differently. , y 3 the arts. In most education systems throughout the world, the arts are at the margins. They're optional, low sta- tus and not in the center of education pro- vision. Thaf s been the case now for the last 150 years. It's true in your system, if s true throughout Europe and in Asia. Now, education worldwide is under- going a revolution. That's not too strong a word; if s a complete revolution. The arts need to be at the center of the new forms of education that are emerging. Private foundations have absolutely pivotal roles in achieving the shift thaf s required in realigning the arts to the center of educa- tion. They can leverage the kind of inno- vation thaf s needed. But to do that you have to tackle three questions. The first is, What are the arts? You can have very interesting and amicable con- versations with people about the arts all day, providing you don't say what you're talking about. The second is, What are the arts for in education? The phrase the creative arts is a misconception. The arts are not always creative, and they don't need to be, and other areas of education can be equally creative if properly taught. These concep- tions separate the arts from other parts of the curriculum where they should be nat- urally joined up. That's why crossing boundaries is such a good theme for this meeting. The third issue is provision. What kind of experiences do people need to benefit from the arts properly? One of the problems in most of our school systems is that children do not have the kind of arts experiences they need to feel the positive benefits from them. So definition, function and provi- sion are key questions. For the last year I have been leading a national inquiry for the government of the United Kingdom, the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE). When Tony Blair was elected prime minister in 1997, he said he had three priorities, "education, education, education." All countries are having to reposition themselves economi- cally, culturally and socially, and educa- tion is the key to that process. There isn't a country in the world that isn't reforming its education system and talking about raising standards. Tony Blair also talks about raising standards. The problem is that he, like most political leaders, means academic standards in particular. They confuse academic work in particular with education in general. Their more specific interest is in literacy and numeracy. These are important but not enough. Our education systems have been built on the economic model of industri- alism. The industrial economy required a workforce that was 80% manual and 20% professional. Most of our education sys- tems were designed to pick out this 20% of kids and give them privileged access to certain sorts of occupations. That model is changing irrevocably. We no longer live essentially in an industrial economy, and the work force we need now has a new pattern. We cannot fulfill our current economic objective by just doing better what we used to do; we have to educate differently. Academic standards are very impor- tant but they're very particular. Academic ability is not the whole of your intelligence. If the human mind was restricted to academic intelligence, most of human culture would never have happened. There would be no paintings, there would be no music, no love, no intuition; there would be no dance, no feelings, no architecture, no design, nothing. I think these are rather large factors to leave out of a model of human intelligence. The arts have been at the margins of education because they have not been seen as useful in getting jobs. This is part- ly because the practice of the arts does not conform to the dominant idea of academic intelligence. There's a very interesting con- trast in this respect in universities, which are the apotheosis of the academic system. If you're a chemist in a university science department doing research, you do chem- istry. If you're in an art department at a university, you don't paint; you write about painting. The reason is that our dominant model of education doesn't rec- ognize that the arts are essentially ways of knowing. Research is defined as a system- atic inquiry for new knowledge. Yet, really, music, poetry, dance and painting are ways of knowing things that we couldn't know in any other way. There are ideas, feelings and sensations that can only be under- Education has to stood in these ways. The arts are ways of say to [children], "-»at can you dor mittee brings together rather than, "can artists, scientists, busi- , ., . „,, ness people and educa- 3™ d° thlS? tors. One member of my committee is Professor Harry Kroto. He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry three years ago. Harry is a professional designer as well as a distinguished scien- tist. I asked him, "What is different between the creative process of the arts and the sciences?" He said there was no difference; that in both cases, if s a dia- logue between speculation and tradition. He said, "The outcome is different but the process is the same." Another NACCCE member is Sir Simon Rattle, director of the Berlin Philharmonic. Sir Simon and I were dis- cussing the similarities between mathe- matics and music, both forms of represen- tation. If you don't read music well and come across a new musical score, you see a puzzle rather than hear the symphony. People who don't speak mathematics can find it an equally perplexing puzzle; they see numbers rather than elegant solutions. We owe it to children to give them access to all of these different modes of understanding. Without them they never engage with the real heart of themselves. We're creating a world of such immense complexity now that children need many ways of engaging in order to experience it fully. Education has to say to them, "what can you do?" rather than, "can you do this?" In order to move These three arts to me center of education, we need to curriculum, training address three issues. The first is the curricu- lum. I know of no pivotal to moving argument that can be forward this agenda of sus^ed thatmathe-matics is more impor- getting arts from the tant man music or that and partnership, are margins to the center.°^ tant than arts and humanities. These are equally important But all of our systems perpetuate a hierarchy of ability in which the arts are at the bottom. The second is the training of profession- al teachers and others. Teaching the arts is an expert job. It is not easy. A great disserv- ice has been done to the arts over the years with the general idea of free expression, that all we have to do with children to get them to benefit from the arts is let them loose. It isn't true. To benefit from the arts children need to be immersed in the disciplines and practices of the arts. There's a delicate bal- ance between learning skills and having the freedom to innovate and speculate. Most of our teachers and most of our artists are not trained to do this. The third is partnerships. Schools should no longer be sole traders in educa- tion. There are thousands of organiza- tions — businesses, cultural organizations of every sort — that want to be and should be partners in education. These three, curriculum, training and partnership, are pivotal to moving forward this agenda of getting arts from the margins to the center. We have to recognize synergies, not separateness, between science and art, mathematics and music. We have to recognize syner- gies between what goes on in schools and what goes on outside of schools. This is a job of melding different areas of children's experiences. Private foundations can do a huge amount by setting up pilot projects, which provide evidence of success, by generating new models of practice and by advocacy. There is a genuine revo- lution happening out there. It isn't that we need to consolidate the old system; we need to renew and reconstruct it. That's a job for innovation, adventure and creativity, and your organizations could be at the very heart of that adventure. Education is the key to the future. The arts are part of the combination. But a key can turn two ways. Our lead- ers keep talking about human resources and the need to unleash them. Education will do that but if you turn this key the wrong way, you lock people in. I think we've done that systemati- cally for years. The real trick is to turn the key a dif- ferent way so that we unlock people's potential. That means developing a sys- tem of education which is mapped onto a conception of human capacity rather than on some traditional model of aca- demic and nonacademic substitutes. That's where we should start. Too often teachers are employed to teach the cur- riculum, not to teach children. To teach children we need to start with a view of what their natural capacities are. That isn't just a question for the arts; it's for the arts in combination with science and humanities and physical education and the rest. Turning that key is the real challenge we face. If s a challenge that can only be met collaboratively and can only be met essentially as this conference has done — by crossing boundaries. Thank you.