Focusing on the Next Generation of Leadership in Arts Education
by Sarah Tambucci, Director
Arts Education CollaborativeOne of the critical elements of the AEC Leadership Academy is the concept of reflection. While the literature supports reflection as a strategy for internalizing content, time dedicated to reflection in a hurried world just doesn’t happen without making it a priority. Feedback from past participants of the Academy continues to encourage us to find the time to do what we know we must; slow down, think, and plan forward based on lessons learned.
The dedicated professionals who have participated in the Academy are assuming leadership roles in their organizations and often in leadership roles in the AEC. They continue to help us ‘think through’ our work as they help strengthen and support our initiatives and accomplish our goals in the spirit of a shared vision. They remind us of our successes but continually raise expectations regarding next steps in our organizational development.
During the recent review of the Leadership Academy curriculum with alums, two recurring themes emerged that have import beyond the Leadership Academy for the AEC. The first is the need for the AEC to build capacity and the second is the important role parents play as advocates for arts education.
We are encouraged by the enthusiastic reception that many of our programs and tools receive but as a small organization, we constantly face the challenge of making what we develop more accessible to a broader audience while retaining the quality of our work. Our strategic planning process afforded us the opportunity to reflect on not only what we do as an organization but also consider delivery systems to “spread the word” and expand our ability to affect arts education. The recent redesign of the AEC website was a first step to increase the use of technology for both broader and deeper accessibility. Our next venture is to present a webinar on July 21. We invite you to register for the webinar here. After the webinar, we will continue the conversation on our website’s message boards.
Parents as advocates have received some attention at the AEC with the publication of the refrigerator version of the standards, a magnet designed to pose guided questions that parents can ask to explore the arts programming in their child’s school. Contact Adam Kenney at kenneya@artsedcollaborative.org for more information on obtaining a standards magnet. Follow up to this project was the publication of our parent handbook, High Quality Education in the Arts: A Handbook for Parents. Written by the AEC Policy and Advocacy Committee members, this document provides valuable information for parents that summarizes the criteria that constitutes quality arts education programming. What’s next? Read in the August 2010 version of this newsletter how you might register to participate in the pilot opportunity for parent groups to provide a school based program that will engage and inform.
Reflection is a good thing. It helps us imagine the possibilities and then move forward to implement the vision as we focus on ways the AEC can engage the region in providing leadership for arts education.
