Characteristics Breakout Sessions
Characteristic #3
The
arts are valued as a critical component of learning for all children-including youth at-risk-and
for adults both in the classroom and in other educational settings.
Arts Learning Characteristic:
People value arts learning, are aware of its attributes, and enact arts learning programs, policies, and initiatives that enhance the livability of the community.
Introduction and Set-Up
- Howard Spector, Vice President, Education, Americans for the Arts
- Toby Herzlich, Facilitator, Arts Consultant
Warm-up arts learning experience- Toby Herzlich, Facilitator
- Greg Hodge, CEO, California Tomorrow
Arts Learning Characteristic Questions
How would collaboration between all learning efforts, home (parent/family), school (K-12), and community (higher education, arts organizations, youth development organizations) contribute to a more livable community? How do we define/redefine roles for the various resources that make up the ecology of an arts learning community?
How do we integrate current and future arts learning research in our efforts to build more livable communities?
How can providing arts learning opportunities for all citizens act as an investment for a community? (jobs, built environment, youth engagement, economic investment, redefining communities).
How are “ethnic and traditional arts” identified, represented and brought into the arts learning dialogue? How do they contribute to new understandings for communities?
Visions/Images of Success
What indicators (success factors) do we need to identify to determine a community’s readiness to embrace and be impacted by arts learning?
What policies, programs, initiatives and activities are present in a community that values arts-based learning?
What does successful implementation look like?
What action strategies can we employ to enhance a community’s readiness to be impacted by arts learning?
- Judith Conk, National Director of Arts, Culture and Community Partnerships Galef Institute, Santa Monica, California.
- Isaac Colon, student Administrator, DC Writers Corps, Washington, DC.
- Gregory Hodge, CEO, California Tomorrow, Oakland, CA.
- Dianne L. Gadow, Superintendent, Ferris School, Wilmington DE.
- Toby Herzlich, Facilitator
Participants Bios
Judith Conk is an educator who has taught and administered at all levels of education from preschool to graduate school in a career that spans more than thirty years. Working in both urban and suburban settings, the school systems she has led as a Principal, Assistant Superintendent and for the last fifteen years, Superintendent have won recognition for their outstanding educational programs that recognize the individual in each student. She retired from public school administration in April 2001 in order to devote more time to supporting creative teaching and learning.
She is presently National Director of Arts, Culture and Community Partnerships for the Galef Institute in California. Mrs. Conk has also held leadership positions with a variety of state and national arts education groups including serving as Chair of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network from 1999-2000. In May of 1996, Mrs. Conk was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Service Award for Educational Leadership from the New Jersey Association of School Administrators for work as an advocate within the state for a high quality education for every child. Most recently, Mrs. Conk received a Governor’s Award in Arts Education as Outstanding Superintendent of 2001. Mrs. Conk has authored a number of professional articles in a variety of areas concentrating in the area of teaching and learning. She recently wrote the task force report of the Kennedy Centers After-School Task Force, The Arts Beyond the School Day: Extending the Power. She has also authored two books that served as a companion for a beginning reading series of books.
Isaac M. Colon III, 17, is a junior at Washington, DC's acclaimed Duke Ellington School of the Arts where he majors in visual arts. Isaac has performed at the White House and State Department as well as the Kennedy Center on three occasions where he was featured with Mark Smith, the inventor of the Poetry Slam. Isaac was the team captain for the 2000 DC Writers Corps National Teen Poetry Slam and is making his third appearance at the national competition in 2001. He has also performed on the nationally syndicated Black Entertainment Television show Teen Summit.
He is in his fourth year as student intern and now student Administrator for DC Writers Corps and a member of the Youth Development Board where he represented the U.S. at the International Youth Conference in London, England. Isaac is also an upcoming filmmaker as well as performer for Soul y Soul's Spoken Word Resistance Troupe.
Gregory Hodge is a youth development policy advocate. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for California Tomorrow, an Oakland based organization, which is dedicated to building a strong multiracial and multicultural society, which embraces diversity as our greatest asset. California Tomorrow works on a variety of community building issues - social, educational and economic - by conducting action research, policy advocacy and capacity building trainings.
He previously served as the Executive Director of Safe Passages: the Oakland Child Health and Safety Initiative, an effort designed to improve and promote the health and safety of youth in the City of Oakland, California through community involvement and systems reform. Safe Passages is a collaborative effort of the City of Oakland, Oakland Unified School District, Alameda County, and community residents. Major aspects of the initiative include the implementation of the “Village Centers” strategy, administration and evaluation of the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, and supporting youth involvement on citywide boards and commissions.
Prior to coming to OCHSI, Hodge was the executive director of the Urban Strategies Council where he served as the director of the youth development initiative, managed the Freedom Schools program and worked as the regional representative of the Black Community Crusade for Children, an effort coordinated nationally by the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1996, he helped recruit, train and facilitate a 42-member community building team as part of Oakland’s Empowerment Zone/Enhanced Enterprise Community program. Hodge has also worked as an attorney in private practice handling a variety of civil litigation matters. His involvements include work with African American youth as a teacher and mentor; board member and minister at Wo’se Community Church; drummer with Bantaba Dance Ensemble; board member of The Marin Institute; and member of the national Annenberg School District Reform Task Force. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California.
Dianne L. Gadow has been the Superintendent, Ferris School, Wilmington Delaware for the past nine years. During her tenure, Ferris School has transformed its operations, programs and workforce into a nationally recognized model institution. Ferris School is a 72-bed maximum secure care school that has court adjudicated males, ages 13-18. The vision for Ferris is that the facility be safe and secure and that a total learning environment be maintained. Program services beyond normal institutional offerings include a community partnership with the Dupont Community in the HOSTS program (Help One Student To Succeed), a licensed drug and alcohol treatment programs and an exemplary visual arts program.
Ferris was featured in the 1999 annual report from the Council for Juvenile Justice as a national model for successful juvenile programming in the juvenile justice field. Prior to working at Ferris, Dianne worked in the youth correction system in Colorado and was the Assistant Director at Look Out Mountain School in Golden Colorado. Dianne also was an instructor for seven years at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York. In 25 years of working with the high-risk youth population, Dianne’s belief is that change is possible for these youth given the opportunity, providing the appropriate structure and staff commitment to motivate youth.
Toby Herzlich is a skilled facilitator and trainer with a background in community development, conflict resolution, and participatory strategic planning. Her work focuses on assisting arts organizations, public agencies, and nonprofits devoted to building community assets and protecting cultural and natural resources. With a practice aimed toward the diverse needs of multi-cultural groups, Herzlich's participatory methods emphasize dialogue and collaborative problem solving toward sustainable solutions. Her work has been focused in the southwestern United States, with additional clients nationally and internationally.
Some of her clients include New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Western States Arts Federation, City of Santa Fe - Culture, Arts, and Tourism Plan, Institute for American Indian Arts, The Trust for Public Land, Commission on Higher Education, and UNICEF-Bangladesh. Ms. Herzlich holds a B.A. degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California. She is certified in-group facilitation methods from the Institute for Cultural Affairs and is a member of the inaugural alumni of the Community Building Institute at Sol y Sombra in Santa Fe, NM.
Howard Spector is currently Vice- President of Education and Youth Development at Americans for the Arts, Washington, DC. His responsibilities include developing national partnerships with arts and non-arts organizations to advocate for increasing arts education at the local level, developing relationships with the private sector to strengthen support for arts education, working with media partners to influence and positively change America’s public attitudes in support of arts education and working to increase the number of decision makers in the education, private and public sectors that support policy and funding for arts education as part of core curriculum.
Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, he served as the Cultural Arts Manager for the City of Manhattan Beach California from 1990- 1999. Spector was the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies from 1983-88 and Executive Director of The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina from 1978-1983, and both non-profit photography/media organizations. Spector has served on many national, regional and local Boards of Directors of non-profits and has been a visual artist for over 25 years.
Resources
President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
"Gaining the Arts Advantage"
"Champions of Change"
www.pcah.gov
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
"ArtsEdge"
www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org
Crayola Power of Creativity
www.crayola.com
"Arts in Focus" - LA County Report on Arts Education
www.lacountyarts.org/AIFMay01.pdf
Public Education Network
www.publiceducation.org
Education and Community Building
www.communityschools.org
Arts Education Partnership
www.aep-arts.org
California Tomorrow
www.californiatomorrow.org
Galef Institute
www.dwoknet.galef.org/galef/index.html
