Rep. Louise Slaughter speaks about the economic and employment impact of the arts and music industry on March 26, 2009 (via the Education and Labor Committee's YouTube channel).

A few months ago, I went to the Bronx for a studio visit with an accomplished artist, John Fekner, whose personal brand of street graphics helped define a tumultuous era in New York’s cultural life in the late 1970s and early 80s. He explained to me something that people of my generation may not remember, namely that in the early 1980s federal funds for the arts quickly dried up and countless arts programs went into crisis and eventually closed their doors. It was a difficult time, he said, and the decline in federal funding seemed to continue until the mid-1990s, when federal arts funding became a lightning rod issue as the ICA’s exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe photography became the poster child for an art establishment that reputedly didn’t represent the values of middle-class Americans. The resulting controversy made the federal agency that allocates federal arts money, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), a target for national disdain.

If the late 1990s were the nadir of federal arts funding in America (funding hit an all-time low of $97.6 million in 2000) since the turn of this century, the numbers have started to creep up. This year, the NEA received $155 million in funding, with an additional $50 million as part of President Obama’s stimulus plan.

But these small victories are not easy ones for the arts community. Fortunately, the arts sector has two champions in Congress who co-chair the House Arts Caucus, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA), both of whom I spoke to separately via phone about the state of federal arts funding today.

A longtime art advocate and a powerful voice in Congress, Rep. Slaughter of Western New York mentioned that while President Ronald Reagan “zeroed out arts funding,” it was also the period when the House Arts Caucus was established. “The Mapplethorpe controversy was a major problem in the 1990s and in 1994, we had people who were being elected to Congress to kill the NEA,” she explains. “They thought it was decadent and didn’t fit their pattern of decency.”

After the turmoil and culture wars of the 1990s, things changed after the 1999 elections. According to Rep. Slaughter: “[Arts funding] did better under President Bush and now with President Obama, we have a more sympathetic ear.”

Rep. Todd Russell Platts speaks at National Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC (via Americans for the Arts' YouTube channel

Slaughter’s co-chair, Rep. Platts, mentions that in the last nine years arts funding has risen by about 50%. “Changes in the way the NEA operates has helped and by making [funding] a less partisan issue, it will help it to grow,” he says. “Depoliticizing the NEA and its approach and making it non-partisan and merit-based were all positive. This way we can ensure that all corners will support it. Today, we can say that all congressional districts have benefited from the funding of the arts and the NEA has done a great job at not focusing only on the major urban centers.”

Rep. Slaughter also mentions this important geographic shift in where arts funds go as a key point for the recent success: “Before, all funding was granted only to New York, Chicago, and LA, where most touring companies were based. But now it is guaranteed that all 50 states are funded.”

If federal arts funding was once a driving force in funding everything from regional museums to avant-garde projects, the consensus seems to be that federal funds will be easier to find if they are tied to an impact on early education. Rep. Platts‘ passion for the arts stems mostly from his experience as a father. “I believe in the importance of arts in the broad quality of life for our citizens, but particularly for our youth,” he explains. “There’s broad data to prove that the exposure to arts translate to interest and success in other aspects of their academics and lives.”

Rep. Slaughter says data supports the funding of the arts and points out that many companies, including those not traditionally associated with the arts like Westinghouse, say they prefer to hire people with an arts background. She also explained that school data also demonstrates the importance of exposure to the arts at a young age: “If you have art in high school, reading scores go up.” She spoke about the case of Rankin Elementary School in Gaston County, NC, where teachers use visual and performing arts to help teach subjects such as math, science, history, and language. As a result, the school’s state exam scores rose 8 percentage points. She offered a long list of data about the size of the arts economy ($166.2 billion of yearly economic activity) and the number of jobs the sector provides nationally (5.7 million). And she proudly points out that more full-time jobs are supported by the nonprofit arts than they are in accounting, public safety, law, and just slightly fewer than elementary school education.

If the case for arts funding in America is being made with more precision today than ever before, it is most likely thanks to organizations like Americans for the Arts, which was created in 1996 as a result of the merger of a number of smaller organizations. Its advocacy work has helped make the case on paper for a rejuvenation of national interest in the arts and seems to be effective.

But if the data and numbers help make the case in Congress, personal stories about the importance of the arts often seal the deal for arts advocates. I asked both Arts Caucus co-chairs about their own memories that helped form their enthusiasm. Rep. Slaughter was quick to reply that her passion is rooted in her Kentucky childhood, when books were hard to come by. “The books that I read lifted me over that mountain and showed me the world out there,” she says. “I was able to see the value of looking at things. It makes us better citizens.”

Rep. Platts shared his own formative experiences: “I have fond memories of attending performances as a child. As an arts student, I was challenged in my own personal art abilities,” he jokes. “But what had the most profound impact on me is becoming a dad and seeing the effect on my children.”

Today, Rep. Slaughter represents a district that includes exemplary regional museums, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and the George Eastman House in Rochester, and a number of smaller museums that make the area rich in visual arts resources. Rep. Platts represents a district in south central Pennsylvania which has a number of institutions that support the local arts community, including the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York, PA.

As part of the phone interview, I asked the congressional co-chairs some questions artists and culture aficionados in my Facebook network wanted me to ask when I appealed to them for ideas. The most pressing question was: do they ever think individual artists, and not only institutions, will ever receive direct funds again?

“I’ve not seen much of a push for any real changes to fund individual projects,” Rep. Platts responded. Rep. Slaughter was more realistic: “Until the funding goes up, we can’t even approach that question.”

And how about the creation of a Secretary of Culture, which was an idea originally suggested by music producer Quincy Jones on WNYC on November 14, 2008 and opined by former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities William Ferris in a New York Times Op-Ed back in December?

“I don’t know if we need more bureaucracy,” Rep. Slaughter said. Rep. Platts also didn’t see a point to a new position.

I asked the two co-chairs if they thought arts organizations were effective at making the case for their own funding and what they do for our country. Should artists be doing anything to ensure that arts funding is a priority for our elected officials?

“No, I don’t think they are doing anything wrong,” Rep. Slaughter said. “And artists don’t owe us a thing. It’s incredible how they make a living.”

Rep. Platts took a different approach and explained that, “the more personal the communication to members of Congress the better.” He seemed to discourage organizational lobbying and wanted individuals to relay their own stories to their elected officials which, he said, makes a big difference to people like him.

“It could be teachers who can see the difference to their students in core subjects because of the impact of the arts. This is very powerful information. People should not hesitate in communicating not only if they support funding in the arts but why they do,” he said.

Rep. Slaughter also valued personal stories and she peppered our conversation with stories she heard from individuals who valued the arts. “When a little theatre goes dark I take it personally,” she says.

They both saw a positive future for arts funding in the country, though Rep. Platts emphasized that the biggest obstacle today is the economy. Rep. Slaughter explained why she thought there is a more rosy perception towards federal arts funding: “There’s a shift because we are understanding the economic benefits and not just their impact on the arts.”

She also summed up the argument in favor of arts funding most succinctly: “people who create don’t destroy.”

*****

Also of interest online—view the following National Arts Advocacy Day (May 1, 2009) videos from the Americans for the Arts’ YouTube channel, when both Arts Caucus Co-Chairs spoke to Congress as to why the arts should be federally funded: Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA).

Melanie Pullen-American Revolution Soldier

New media tools are a rich addition to an art teacher’s toolbox and the Web is overflowing with opportunities to discover new artists and art forms. Here in San Francisco, we are fortunate to be surrounded by a myriad of creative folks. Our public media station, KQED produces two artist documentary series, Spark and Gallery Crawl which, like Art:21 Web Exclusive content, are available for free download as video podcasts from iTunes, where you can edit video podcast clips and compile them into playlists. As you start planning innovative, new curriculum for fall 2009, spend some time exploring the endless possibilities of podcasting.

Invite students to practice self-directed art study and become curators, creating thematic playlists highlighting artwork that speaks to their sensibilities. As they discover new artists on iTunes or ArtBabble.org, students should practice critical viewing skills and consider how they might create their own podcast highlighting an emerging artist from their school or community. What further questions do students have for the artists they “meet” in the videos? How would they conduct an interview? Would they include music or graphics? There are endless new media production tools available to our students today, and it’s entirely possible that they’ll be interested in starting their own artist documentary series.

For a specific example of a thematic playlist, take a look at Melanie Pullen’s interview and soldier-focused photographs in her exhibition Violent Times on Gallery Crawl and compare it with Art:21 Season 2 photographer, Collier Schorr’s series of German youth in uniform. How are Pullen and Schorr’s photographs fundamentally similar, and how do the artists’ intentions differ? How does each artist’s treatment of her subjects differ? Do the photographs seem feminine, masculine, or both? Are there other portraitists or photographers who come to mind when viewing these artists’ work? Who are they? Students might choose to create a playlist of video podcasts based on a theme or genre, and close the playlist with their own piece of media such as a video response or short film that ties in with the selected topic.

As Joe Fusaro and Olivia Gude mentioned in their panel discussion at this year’s NAEA conference, teachers should try making less art with their students and focus on thematic study of contemporary artists, considering their relation to artists throughout history. By exploring renowned and emerging artists online and learning about artists’ intentions straight from the source, students will begin to intuitively make connections with their own art-making practices, and be inspired to experiment with fresh ideas and new media tools.

Kristin Farr is an artist and Project Supervisor for Arts Education at KQED in San Francisco.

President Obama, with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., signing the $787 billion stimulus bill at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in February. (via NYTimes.com, photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

Talking about federal arts funding in America can be very confusing because of the many facts and figures. So, in an effort to understand the current and historic levels of federal funds that artists of all types have enjoyed, and to better understand the economic impact of the arts in America, I have compiled the following data from online sources for Part 1 of this two-part series. Part 2 is an interview with both Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chairs, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA) about federal funding for the arts, and will post on Thursday.

STIMULUS ARTS FUNDING TODAY

Current funding for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA): $155 million

2009 Stimulus Bill
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka 2009 Stimulus Bill): $787 billion

Arts portion of the Stimulus Bill: $50 million (0.006%)

• 40% for state & regional arts organizations
• 60% to arts projects competing for NEA grants

Other arts-related funding in the Stimulus Bill:

• $150 million for infrastructure repairs at the Smithsonian

What the Arts Does For America Economically (via Americans for the Arts)

• There are approximately 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations in America, which spend $63.1 billion annually.
• There are more full-time jobs (incl. accountants, designers, plumbers, union workers & engineers) supported by the nonprofit arts organizations than are in accounting, public safety officers, even lawyers and just slightly fewer than elementary school teachers.
• America’s nonprofit arts & culture industry generates $166.2 billion economic activity annually, including 5.7 million jobs, generating $29.6 billion in government revenue, of which $12.6 billion is federal revenue.

HISTORIC FEDERAL ARTS FUNDING

Arshile Gorky, "Aerial Map" (1936-7), a Federal Art Project (FAP) mural (via Brown Univ. website)

Arts Stimulus during the Great Depression (1930s)
The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “stimulus,” made the arts a priority. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest New Deal agency and it included the Federal Arts Project (FAP).

1935-1943 WPA “Stimulus”: $11 billion*

$35 million (0.318%) of the WPA’s budget was allocated to FAP, and according to Encyclopedia Britannica:

…[it] employed more than 5,000 artists at its peak in 1936 and probably double that number over the eight years of its existence. It produced 2,566 murals, more than 100,000 easel paintings, about 17,700 sculptures, nearly 300,000 fine prints, and about 22,000 plates for the Index of American Design, along with innumerable posters and objects of craft.

President Johnson signs the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, establishing the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, on September 29, 1965. (photo via NEA website)

During its life, the FAP employed many American artists who would later become the greats of 20th-century American art, including Berenice Abbott, Arshile Gorky, Jacob Lawrence, Mark Rothko, and many others.

History of Federal Funding (post-1965)
In 1965, the US Congress created the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) as an independent agency of the federal government. Since 1965, the NEA has awarded more than 130,000 grants totaling more than $4 billion (source).

Appropriation History (complete list):

• 1966 — $2,898,308
• 1970 — $9,055,000
• 1979 — $149,585,000 (which the LA Times estimated is worth $434 million in today’s dollars)
• 1980 — $154,610,000
• 1990 — $171,255,000
• 2000 — $97,627,600
• 2009 — $155,000,000

Anti-copyright graphic on Latin-American Solidarity, by the Beehive Collective (http://www.beehivecollective.org)

There is quite a tradition around visualizing information that reaches beyond the more familiar pie charts and quantifications used in science and commerce, dealing with the communication of complex thought and circumstance. Here’s a small sampling: Pioneer Otto Neurath developed a pictorial language to aid education. Both Alfred Barr and Fluxus founder George Maciunas mapped their art worlds. Graphic designer Edward Tufte coined the term “cognitive art.” Artist Mark Lombardi was an early proponent in the arts; of a younger generation, Ashley Hunt crosses between art and activism, and the Beehive Collective explicitly produces non-art, activist works. Socially conscious graphic designers populate and run a number of firms worldwide, for example Piece Studio in Baltimore, creating edgy products like the Good Sheet.

Be it termed art or design, created independently, on spec, or for a client, what is produced is intended to make a cognitive impact by mediating complexity. That intent can be termed didactic, and as such it is much maligned in visual arts discourse, at its worst as boring indoctrination that neglects formal concerns and fails to transcend issues of the day. Looking at the works linked above, it should be clear that those criticisms don’t need to apply. I would love to reclaim the didactic for the arts, as part of their range. Didactic refers to the art of teaching. In conservative terms, teaching may be framed as authoritative instruction, perpetuating canons and control, but progressive concepts of education center on a give-and-take that supports critical thinking—the capability to evaluate provocations and propositions in context.

Why the resistance, then? Isn’t the art world largely progressive? Should provocative, didactic work not be supported, particularly now? Cognitive linguist George Lakoff holds that US liberals tend to fund down by aiding those who can’t help themselves and conservatives fund up in support of preferred ideological infrastructures. That leaves liberal US intellectuals and artists in a bit of a pickle. While they certainly can help themselves, their capacity to help create a more just and equitable society does not receive the extra support it could.

The opening screen for “The Story of Stuff,” sponsored by Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption (http://www.storyofstuff.com)

A project that was able to gain some support, The Story of Stuff, seems to be a success. This is work that wants to be given away, distributed freely. We have the technology, a large and growing audience has access to it, but how can we arrive at schemes to fund the creation of this work? We need improved models of state support, new collective and entrepreneurial models and appropriate forms of sponsorship. Mr. Landesman might want to consider creating a visual think tank—maybe starting with a funding category for cognitive arts. Collective and entrepreneurial models are under discussion around the world. As I am writing this, an Artist Run Credit League is getting ready to launch in Chicago.

In thinking about sponsorship, anthropology offers a pattern. Studies cite examples of twin spheres of economy, a swift and finite economic exchange that trades goods against currency, and a ceremonial exchange of gifts that relies on accumulated memory and tracks the movements of goods and the modifications of reputations of all three elements: the gifts, their makers, and their temporary custodians. The well-known Kula exchange is an example. Each time it is handed off, an object both receives and imparts status. The transaction gives rise to social negotiation.

Transposing that negotiation onto the art market with its collections, galleries, auction houses and museums, the distribution of art objects among art world players has similarly sought after social effects, on the objects, their makers, and their holders. With each move along the chain of custody, artworks accumulate exhibition stickers, artists acquire resumes and reputations, and collectors both share in and add to the status of artworks, their makers, and presenters. Economic exchange and ceremonial effects are intertwined here, but the elements are clearly distinguishable - the more so in cases when the amounts of money changing hands clearly point to the presence of the absurd.

Purchase model, sponsorship model, A. Mers

Can that balance be refocused by shifting the financial input to another place of the chain, namely to the beginning? For works of art that are to be distributed freely, without copyright or under copyleft protection, can object ownership be replaced with object affiliation? By allowing those willing not to commission, which is an ownership concept, but to financially sponsor the making of non-market, didactic works to directly attach their names to the objects created, their reputations are yoked to both the makers and paths of the object, impacted with each click, view, or download. Who is ready to ante up?

Eleanor Antin, Art21 production still

It’s been quite a year. Quite an academic year, that is. Between the country voicing a collective NO to four more years of the same Bushed policies and Bernie Madoff being sentenced to the equivalent of a few lifetimes in prison, a lot has happened and been written about. While I haven’t had any obsessed music fans calling to threaten me lately (haven’t I mentioned the response to The Billy Joels of Art Education??) I just wanted to take this opportunity at the beginning of summer to provide a TwCA roundup of sorts….

The year started back in September 2008 with an article on Mining Ideas - examining the use of sketchbooks in the classroom. Thinking Through Possibilities shared a variety of student sketchbook work as result of this popular theme, and students continued to use sketchbooks in order to respond to and create work influenced by the highly controversial Bodies exhibit.

I was honored to be given the opportunity to interview Eleanor Antin for the TwCA column in December, and right through the holidays she and I e-mailed back and forth (and back and forth… thank you Eleanor!) to create Myths, Metaphors and More: An Interview with Eleanor Antin, which was then published in two parts on January 14th and 15th, 2009.

As winter literally plowed along it became necessary to tackle the bizarre nature of art competitions in What’s an Art Contest? The following week led to a post highlighting how contemporary artists are relying more and more on others to make their work. It Takes Two… or Two Hundred was inspired by the highly coordinated and detail-obsessed season 4 artist Mark Dion.

TwCA investigated the understated art of Robert Ryman and listened to him discuss his work live before writing the post, What Light? in February. Only a week later I came across a Scholastic Art magazine featuring five Art21 artists and was thrilled to see the periodical break free from it’s staple of Van Gogh, Cezanne and O’Keeffe. I love the artists, but don’t necessarily need classroom resources dedicated to them once a year. Working Without Warhol examined how Scholastic Art and other magazines like it can indeed incorporate contemporary art and artists meaningfully.

As spring began I was excited to share my work with students creating paintings driven by an investigation into what exactly is power? Power(ful) Painting highlighted the initial steps they took to create work about a big question and theme, which then allowed students to demonstrate skills they learned in previous lessons. Immediately following this unit, we made our way to the newly redesigned Museum of Art and Design to see Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary. Classes were in the midst of changing gears and working with everyday materials to create works of art that were more than just another project about the principle of rhythm. Remixing. Transformation. highlighted the importance of this influential museum visit.

In April, the TwCA column began reporting on the work Art21 was doing with teachers at the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies. The post Teaching with Film, Teaching with Objects was the first of these updates on the three-part workshop series titled Teaching and Learning with Contemporary Art, which concluded in May.

The spring also saw the Education and Public Programs team at Art21 travel to Minneapolis for the National Art Education Association’s annual conference, punctuated by our work at the Walker Art Center and with season 4 artist, Mark Bradford (see Burn Baby Burn). The conference itself provided many possibilities for the TwCA column, and I spent the following three weeks looking into questions posed at our panel discussion with Mark Bradford, Olivia Gude and William Crow. These questions are highlighted in the posts Getting Beyond, Authoritarian?, and Make Less Art.

It summer now. Time to relax and read. Two recent columns, Summer Reading Part 1 and Summer Reading Part 2, suggest a variety of works to inspire you as we get some collective distance from 2008-2009 and prepare for beginning all over again in September. Enjoy!

Christian Marclay, still from "Video Quartet," 2002

With the opening of Christian Marclay’s Video Quartet at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (on view through July 26, 2009), I have been thinking about how to share this 14-minute video work of art with students.

For educators, I think there is often a reluctance to discuss video art on tours. Sometimes there are logistical issues in terms of time and sequencing, while at other times, the narrative of the video poses challenges. However, works like Video Quartet—videos that can be watched for a portion of time and then discussed—offer possibilities for meaningful exchanges with students and exposure to this medium.

I developed some strategies to discuss Video Quartet after hearing a talk from educator Denise Gray. In regards to looking at video art with students, she emphasized a structured interaction, such that it includes time to experience the work, as well as the conditions in which to discuss it. The discussion portion sometimes requires you to step away from the work, or even outside of the gallery where it is being shown. These comments might be helpful for talking about video art by Art21 artists Matthew Barney, Pierre Huyghe, Mike Kelley, and Paul Pfeiffer.

Before entering the gallery showing Video Quartet, I introduce students briefly to what they will see: a collage of over 700 film clips of sounds edited together by the artist Christian Marclay to create a musical composition—a quartet. I mention that they will watch about five minutes of this 15-minute work. I also ask students to look for something specific: the various ways in which sounds are made, as well as how the image of the sound fits with the recorded sound.

A recent group of eighth graders, upon viewing part of Video Quartet, discussed “traditional music,” and how combined sounds—such as those made by car horns, feet tapping, and glasses filled with water—also create a type of music. The musical possibilities of car horns caused many of them to view the sound in new ways.

Marclay’s process to create Video Quartet was also something they wanted to discuss. While they were familiar with collage, seeing a collage made with video allowed them to think about repetition and arrangement in new ways. One student said how she thought the four screens was a really engaging choice, and another commented on how the clips on different screens competed for his attention. Through this work, Marclay also demonstrates an interest in the memory that viewers may have with some of these movies—which is something else that the students picked up on, recognizing films including Back to the Future and The Addams Family.

In addition to talking with students about this work, we plan to facilitate a drawing activity for summer K-12 tours where students draw the pattern of a sound or sounds they choose to focus on, creating an alternate image to accompany the sound and image pairing that Marclay produced. At our May Family Day, we also had stations where students could experiment with the mixing and editing process, creating their own song using an application called Super Duper Music Looper.

In our media-saturated lives, Christian Marclay reminds us to question the relationships that we are presented with—the sounds and images edited together for films. I also feel he encourages viewers to think creatively about ways in which they can change their role from being a consumer to being a producer.

Julie Thomson is the Associate Curator of Education at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University where she develops materials for docents and teachers to use with K-12 audiences.

Jenny Holzer, "WISH LIST BLACK," detail, 2006

Continuing with my column from May 27, I’d like to suggest a few more books related to contemporary art education that you may be inspired to buy, borrow or steal this summer (but please, steal from someone who has the book sitting on a shelf waiting to be opened, not from your local library!).

First, Julie Thompson’s suggestion to check out Paulo Freire’s Teachers as Cultural Workers - Letters to Those Who Dare Teach is an excellent one. Thank you, Julie! She also mentioned John Dewey’s Art as Experience, which is must reading if you haven’t already.

Other suggestions include:

Elliot Eisner’s The Arts and the Creation of Mind

Olivia Gude’s article, Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century Art Education (also a must!)

Anne-Celine Jaeger’s Image Makers, Image Takers: Interviews with Today’s Leading Curators, Editors and Photographers

Please continue to share your ideas for summer reading as we get closer to the official start of the season….

Raymond Pettibon, "No title (I must tell)", 2002

June can be a real catharsis of both the most beautiful and ugly kinds, but it doesn’t have to be a week-to-week whirlwind waiting for the next test. The last few weeks of the academic year are a chance to step up and possibly do a few things different, or daring, or even a little dangerous. Here are a few ideas we have recently tried:

• Ask students to work alone or in teams to create an installation. Install art in parts of the school that never see any art (What will the phys ed teacher think?).
• Have students select showcase portfolios- three or four examples from their entire body of work- and create a group exhibition with classmates. Again, think about installing exhibitions in  places that don’t usually feature art to get a different kind of attention.
• Ask alumni, who are usually around and available before summer jobs start in July, to come in and give an artist talk about their work since graduating. If they have portfolios to share, have them show students who will be entering their senior year, giving them food for thought as they begin planning to apply for undergraduate programs.

As I simultaneously get ready for the end of the school year and the opening of my own exhibition beginning this Friday, I’m also thinking about the fact that it’s time to take stock of what went well and what kinds of challenges I faced. It’s a perfect time to revise and update goals for the following year and get some good books together for the summer (more recommendations on the way!). Whatever you do, please don’t be one of those people who sits around and “counts” the days until “it’s over”… Do something different, or daring, or even a little dangerous.

Jessica Stockholder, "Red Tube + Two", 2005

Season 3 artist Jessica Stockholder states, “What kids do with play is a kind of learning and thinking. It is a kind of learning and thinking that doesn’t have a predetermined end. I think I am involved in that.” Stockholder has spent a career exploring how disparate materials go together. After viewing the segment on Stockholder, the first graders in my art class got to explore their own unique sensibilities and create a sculpture based on intuitive thinking.

Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute of Play, defines play as “a thing of beauty best appreciated by experiencing it.” This is what makes watching first graders explore the work and ideas of Jessica Stockholder so enjoyable. Just by setting out various materials (rubber bands, pipe-cleaners, tape, popsicle sticks, paperclips, straws), students can cheerfully and expressively create works while exploring the creative process. This type of innovation and creativity is what artists and art educators have been involved with for a long time It’s also the type of thinking that everyone from Daniel Pink to Apple to the Partnership for 21st Century Thinking Skills is talking about.

In a reflective class discussion upon completion of the sculptures, we examined what makes creating these works of art different from other ways of making sculpture. Most students responded to having fun while making the sculptures (6 and 7 year-olds tend to respond like this to most projects). Some responded excitedly about how they could easily take their sculpture apart and make something different. One student even pointed out how her sculpture included sound and motion. The idea of Play allows students to make artwork without the pressure of making Art.

Nate Morgan is an art teacher at the Hillside School in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and also serves on the Art21 National Education Advisory Council.

Allora and Calzadilla- production still (2007).

As we get closer to rounding out another academic year, it’s probably a good time to think about some of the books that might make it onto our summer reading lists. While many might take detective or romance novels onto the beach, I am happy and at the same time embarrassed that I can’t get away from non-fiction. I find myself reading a lot about things that connect to teaching and art in general. I’m helpless… I love my work.

If you haven’t already got some good books on the radar, here are a few to consider as you begin getting ready for those first few sniffs of summer air… wherever you are…

Arthur Danto’s Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life (2005).

Jessica Hoffman Davis’ Framing Education As Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day (2005).

Maxine Greene’s Releasing the Imagination (1995).

Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind (2005).

Judith Olch Richards’ edited collection, Inside the Studio: Two Decades of Talks with Artists in New York (2004).

Kirk Varnedoe’s Pictures of Nothing (2006)

Please feel free to share your recommendations for inspiring reading related to teaching and contemporary art. More to come as we get closer to the official start of summer.

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