Arts Education and the CCA

CCA Bul­letin 23/10

 

August 31, 2010

 

Just the Facts

As edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions across the coun­try rev up their pro­grams for the fall semes­ter, many arts edu­ca­tors, prac­ti­tion­ers and patrons wait with bated breath to see how enrol­ments will fare. Pro­grams in arts edu­ca­tion are as diverse as the coun­try itself. They offer a plethora of essen­tial learn­ing out­comes includ­ing cre­ative devel­op­ment, self expres­sion, aes­thet­ics and bol­ster­ing self-determination. Cre­ative processes and diverse approaches are seen in the devel­op­ment of arts edu­ca­tion pro­gram­ming by arts spe­cial­ists, artists and gen­er­al­ist teachers.

In the regional forums con­ducted by the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) across the coun­try in the fall of 2008, arts edu­ca­tion was one of the piv­otal con­cerns of par­tic­i­pants. They were asked to answer the ques­tion: How can we bet­ter posi­tion arts and cul­ture in Cana­dian soci­ety?

When it comes to the issue of arts edu­ca­tion, national orga­ni­za­tions that like the CCA, advo­cate for the over­all health of the Cana­dian arts and cul­ture sec­tor, face a some­what daunt­ing chal­lenge. As edu­ca­tion falls under provin­cial juris­dic­tion, it is dif­fi­cult enough to know the style of car being dri­ven in var­i­ous parts of the coun­try, let alone offer­ing advice across the land as to which parts to change or which fuel to use!

Over the past year, the CCA edu­ca­tion com­mit­tee has strug­gled with its role in this mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary and com­plex, but so nec­es­sary root to artis­tic expres­sion. Some­what restricted by resources and a very large man­date, the Board of Gov­er­nors of the CCA has agreed on three approaches in deal­ing with this crit­i­cal issue. These include:

• The promo­tion of  the value of arts edu­ca­tion by offer­ing links between recent research com­pleted by arts orga­ni­za­tions pro­jected on the CCA website

• Being mutu­ally sup­port­ive of arts edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives and where pos­si­ble, con­nect­ing sim­i­lar practices

• Pro­vid­ing an oppor­tu­nity  to meet and dis­cuss strate­gies to pro­mote arts edu­ca­tion dur­ing the white­board ses­sions at the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence in Ottawa on Novem­ber 2 and 3 enti­tled Artists: Pow­er­ing the Cre­ative Econ­omy

Tell me more

The CCA hopes that by fos­ter­ing a dia­logue on arts edu­ca­tion, an increased abil­ity to employ emerg­ing inno­va­tions in crit­i­cal think­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion will occur. The rever­ber­a­tions from all arts dis­ci­plines will be felt more fer­vently and will occur with greater speed as edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions evolve.

The CCA has sup­ported the use of the online CHRC book­lets Careers in Cul­ture, which out­line careers in the cul­tural sec­tor. Through the par­tic­i­pa­tion of its National Direc­tor, the CCA has joined hands with the Cana­dian Net­work for Arts and Learn­ing in pro­mot­ing the impor­tance of arts and learn­ing in pub­lic pol­icy and its ram­i­fi­ca­tions on social and cul­tural well-being. The CCA sup­ports the Network’s rela­tion­ship to the inter­na­tional UNESCO Con­fer­ence on Arts Edu­ca­tion held last spring in Seoul whose man­date includes the pro­mo­tion of social respon­si­bil­ity, social cohe­sion, cul­tural diver­sity and interculturality.

Two suc­cess­ful tele­con­fer­ences con­ducted by the edu­ca­tion com­mit­tee last fall yielded some infor­ma­tion on com­pre­hen­sive stud­ies on arts edu­ca­tion. Over­all, par­tic­i­pants longed for an oppor­tu­nity to meet con­jointly so that they could dis­cuss arts edu­ca­tion research and strate­gies employed in deal­ing with the public.

Doc­u­ments iden­ti­fied included, but were not lim­ited to the following:

• In 2006, the New­found­land and Labrador gov­ern­ment along with the Asso­ci­a­tion of Cul­tural Indus­tries pub­lished a com­pre­hen­sive doc­u­ment enti­tled The Blue­print for Devel­op­ment and Invest­ment in Cul­ture out of which has come many arts edu­ca­tion initiatives.

• Génie Arts Smarts has done both quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive stud­ies –includ­ing Walk­ing Tall in the Hall, a review on the impact of the arts on abo­rig­i­nal communities.

• Montreal’s Segal Cen­tre has pro­duced a sum­mary of stud­ies on the impact of per­form­ing arts on youth.

• The Coali­tion for Music in Canada and the Cana­dian Music Edu­ca­tors Asso­ci­a­tion con­ducted a “state of the nation” report on the sta­tus of music edu­ca­tion, as well  as the impact of arts edu­ca­tion on learning.

• The Cana­dian Music Cen­tre pro­moted the Knight Foundation’s study enti­tled The Search for Shin­ing Eyes: Audi­ences, Lead­er­ship and Change in the Sym­phony Orches­tra Field .

• The Fédéra­tion des asso­ci­a­tions de musi­ciens éduca­teurs du Québec has many research stud­ies con­cern­ing music posted on its web­site.

• Uni­ver­si­ties’ crit­i­cal role in arts research is evi­denced by the com­pre­hen­sive web­site of Memorial’s Research Cen­tre for the Study of Music, Media and Place or the Cen­tre for Mov­ing Inter­ac­tion at Emily Carr Uni­ver­sity of Art and Design.

• The Arts Research Mon­i­tor Vol­ume: 9 Issue No: 1 pub­lished by Hill Strate­gies includes four reports on arts edu­ca­tion in Canada and the United States, includ­ing a sur­vey of the cul­tural activ­i­ties of Montreal-area youth as well as Amer­i­can reports on arts learn­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion and the nature of excel­lence in arts education.

What can I do?

Attend the CCA’s national pol­icy con­fer­ence Artists: Pow­er­ing the Cre­ative Econ­omy? and join in the con­ver­sa­tion. We will be host­ing white­board ses­sions where all atten­dees can pro­vide their own con­tent, pre­sen­ta­tions, and dis­cus­sion groups on top­ics of their choices. This is an oppor­tu­nity to net­work with col­leagues in the field and voice opin­ions on arts edu­ca­tion and other issues. Reg­is­ter now!