At this year’s SXSWedu Conference (March 9-12, 2015), I will be moderating a panel with Felice Cleveland, Director of Education at the Mattress Factory; Heather McElwee, Executive Director of the Glass Center of Pittsburgh; and Tresa Varner, Curator, Education & Interpretation at the Andy Warhol Museum. We will be discussing “Using Art to Transform Physical Space & Minds,” using the Pittsburgh Galleries Project as a model. The Galleries Project has students learning about the ins and outs of curating an art exhibit before creating an exhibit with their museum partner on our school campus (Avonworth High School, Pittsburgh, PA).
While the reauthorization and standardized testing is once again in the forefront of public discourse, it is important for schools to focus on activities and ideas that will help students be innovative problem-solvers. Employers, more and more, want individuals who are creative, collaborative, and critical thinkers. The arts offer these opportunities. Whether through fine arts or the performing arts, students work with discipline, creativity, and design. They are aware of an audience for their work and create art that is aesthetic, arresting, or both wrapped up together.
It is imperative that schools not fall back to cutting the arts and other special areas, which occurred when NCLB was first put into law, and that policy makers embrace the arts instead of focusing on testing basic knowledge in only a few areas. As Duke Orsino proclaims in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love, play on!”
The Disruptive Educator 