Bingo! Research topic coming into focus -- thanks to Jane Remer, whose questions in "Beyond Enrichment: Building Effective Arts Partnerships with Schools and Your Community" have haunted me since Lori's class last Winter. Why not acquaint myself with these behind-the-scenes catalysts / cheerleaders / resources, who work primarily on the local and state level to promote awareness of and resources for arts education?
Remer asks: "What constitutes an effective catalyst for local community activism and the arts in the education of all children?" (p. 430).
As an educator, I've long been intrigued by organizations who are not directly involved in the classroom, yet whose work provides a pool of community-based cultural experiences and professionals to indirectly enrich what schools often lack, due more to the district's anemic arts funding than the teacher's lesson plans. Remer describes the need for these "catalysts" to build community partnerships and to unify/nurture local arts and culture constituents; that is, this isn't Young Audiences; these are the groups who strategically orchestrate opportunity windows for community needs, state and national policy, and systemic educational reform. On a good day.
Nationally: Americans for the Arts, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies - or more locally, the Creative Advocacy Network.
I guess being in DC for the summer has encouraged me to take a more active interest in the politics which ultimately shape education and community - I'd say it's certainly worth my year of research to get a grasp on this enormously complex "state of the arts." Hurrah!
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