Investment dollars will ensure that every student in the Central Pathway of Seattle Public Schools receives a minimum of two hours per week of arts education programming, as well as support the purchase of instruments and other art supplies for classrooms. The Central Pathway, which consists of schools in and around Seattle’s Central District, was chosen due to strong existing partnerships with community-based arts education organizations. The eventual goal of the program is to expand each year until all SPS students receive two hours per week of arts education programming by 2020.

This investment was made possible by higher-than-expected admission tax revenue, primarily due to the new cultural facilities Chihuly Garden & Glass at Seattle Center and the Great Wheel on the waterfront.

“This investment will allow us to deepen our existing partnership with Seattle Public Schools to improve access to arts education for all students in our community,” said Mayor McGinn. “Arts education has been consistently shown to improve educational outcomes, increase attendance rates and decrease discipline rates.”

Studies have found that Seattle students do not have consistent access to arts education, and access can be predicted based on ethnicity, English-language-learner status or free-and-reduced-lunch status.

This investment builds on the ongoing partnership between the city of Seattle and SPS, now called The Creative Advantage. In 2011 the city and SPS received a Wallace Foundation planning grant of $1M, which provided for the creation of a comprehensive K-12 arts plan that ensures that every student will receive 120 minutes of arts instruction per week. The city’s investment kick-starts the implementation phase of The Creative Advantage.

“Our community has spent the last two years developing and writing this plan, and the time is now to make it a reality,” said Superintendent Jose Banda. “Our first investment area is the Central Pathway.”

“Furthering our work in arts education is the most important thing I can do in this job,” said newly appointed Director Randy Engstrom, Office of Arts & Culture. “This initiative will change the way nearly 50,000 of our city’s young citizens engage with their community and think about the world. This investment is a major turning point.”

Randy Engstrom

As our office begins the new year, we are excited about our work plan for 2013. In October we launched a survey for all of our constituents. With more than 600 responses, our areas of focus were clearly defined. One of the top issues was a desire for an increased concentration on arts education. We have been working with Seattle Public Schools and dozens of community partners on an arts plan funded by the Wallace Foundation. Building on our partnership of more than five years with the district, the K-12 Arts Plan seeks to ensure two hours of arts education instruction for every student in every school—all 48,000 of them. We’ll begin implementing part of the plan in 2013, with our office acting as the connector between schools and community-based organizations, making partnerships more streamlined for both. We’re excited to be expanding our work in arts education, an area so crucial to the future of our industry.

Another area of focus that emerged was the issue of affordable cultural space. From the sale of the Oddfellows building in 2008 to loss of 619 Western last winter, Seattle’s cultural community has long sought a program that could help to preserve affordable spaces for artists and arts organizations. In 2013 we will be hiring a cultural space liaison, and working with the Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture, will develop a cultural facilities program that can meet the needs of our community. Two specific areas of focus will be on match-making between available spaces and those who need it and technical assistance around land use, code, zoning and incentive polices. Stay tuned for the job opening coming this spring.

A third area of focus will be on professional development and capacity building for the arts and culture community. While our funding programs will continue (check out our 2013 funding deadlines here), we are also seeking new ways to support our community beyond grant-making. This could include supporting emerging leadership, finding ways to help mid-sized organizations, reaching out to rising public artists, and offering workshops on race and social justice, among other things. We will focus on technical assistance in 2013. Do you have ideas on what would be most useful? We’d love to hear it. Please drop me a line.

We are also excited to welcome a new branch of our office—the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI). This new name (formerly the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center) and new home are the beginning of a new movement. We look forward to supporting and amplifying LHPAI’s important programming, and also look forward to partnering with Langston Hughes staff, Seattle Arts Commissioners, and community stakeholders to develop an action plan that will ensure long-term sustainability. In the near-term, look for LHPAI’s new website to launch later this month.

It is sure to be a busy and exciting 2013, and we look forward to working with all of you! Thank you for your continued support and please stay in touch.

Best,

Randy Engstrom
Interim Director

The acrylic-on-paper painting The Devil as a Joker (1982) by Ted Wiprud can hardly be labeled as minimal in approach or statement. The devil figure visually consumes the surface of the painting and figuratively consumes the air surrounding it. The painting currently hangs between the offices of our public art manager and communications manager. Bwahahahaha!

The city’s Portable Works Collection is a rotating collection of more than 2,800 artworks in all media, representing hundreds of artists collected by the city since 1973. The collection includes sculpture, painting, mixed media, prints, photography and textiles. The artworks are exhibited primarily in public areas of municipal buildings and include the work of emerging and established artists.

Image: Ted Wiprud, The Devil as a Joker, 1982, acrylic on paper.

Download the report here.

The meetings were part of the Seattle K-12 Arts Learning Collaborative to create a comprehensive arts plan to ensure all students in SPS schools have opportunities to learn through the arts.

The report shows that community respondents want arts access to be consistent across the school district. They believe that arts learning builds skills such as innovation and collaboration and should be used by teachers as part of an instructional approach. Community members also believe that arts curricula need to be updated to be multi-cultural, representative, relevant to students, broader in scope and integrated with other content areas.

Student respondents want exposure and access to all four disciplines (dance, music, theater, and visual arts) that is early, broad and guided by professional arts instructors; opportunities to learn about arts careers; and opportunities to showcase and share their learning.

We will partner with SPS to host a public meeting in the fall to update on the K-12 Arts Learning Collaborative and the arts plan. Stay tuned for details.

The arts education planning work is made possible by a grant that SPS received from national philanthropy The Wallace Foundation. The creation of the arts plan builds on the multi-year Arts Education Partnership between the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and Seattle Public Schools. Go here for more information on the partnership.

The roster identifies and promotes experienced teaching artists in all disciplines who are qualified to work in K-12 public schools in Washington state. The roster is open to artists residing in Washington state, or who reside in Oregon or Idaho but live within 60 miles of a Washington-state public school.

Download the roster application guidelines and forms. For more information, contact Lisa Jaret, WSAC Arts in Education program manager, (360) 586-2418. Applicants will be notified of their application status by September.

Check out WSAC’s current roster. We will link to the updated roster, once available, on our website.

 

May is Arts Education Month in Washington state. Together with ArtsEd Washington, we invite you to join the statewide campaign celebrating and promoting arts education. Read Mayor Mike McGinn’s proclamation in support of Arts Education Month. And check out ArtsEd Washington’s suggestions on how you can get involved and their Arts Education Month toolkit to learn more about the issues.

Through our Arts Education Partnership with Seattle Public Schools, we are working to give students in all schools an arts education that prepares them for success in school and in life. In March, we hosted a series of five community meetings in partnership with the school district with the goal of creating a comprehensive, multi-year, district-wide K-12 Arts Plan. More than 250 people attended and gave input on the Arts Plan. The school district will compile the results in a report to be released later this month. We will partner with the district to host follow-up meetings in the fall and continue to provide updates on the status of the Arts Plan. Stay tuned.

We’re also partnering with the Washington State Arts Commission (WSAC) on their Roster of Teaching Artists. The roster identifies and promotes experienced teaching artists in all disciplines who are qualified to work in K-12 public schools in Washington state. The roster is open to artists residing in Washington state, or who reside in Oregon or Idaho but live within 60 miles of a Washington-state public school.

Applications for the roster are now open with a deadline of June 11. Applicants will be notified of their application status by September. Download the roster application guidelines and forms. For more information, contact Lisa Jaret, WSAC Arts in Education program manager, (360) 586-2418. 

Check out WSAC’s current roster. We will link to the updated roster, once available, on our website.

And finally, at the 2012 Arts Education Forum in February, hosted by the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, the Seattle Arts Commission and the school district, community members spoke about what arts education means to them. Watch this video to hear what they had to say.

Please take 10 minutes to complete this 25 question survey.  The last day to complete the survey is Monday, April 30.

The information will inform the development of tools and resources to help organizations like yours.

Read about the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs’ Arts Education Partnership with Seattle Public Schools here.

Families, students, teachers, artists, arts administrators and supporters of an equitable and well-rounded education for all are encouraged to attend. Join in the discussion about arts education, creative learning and student success. Provide input and help create the arts plan.

The first meeting is 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 13 at Ballard High School, 1418 N.W. 65th St.  For the complete schedule, go here.

Children are welcome. Free supervised arts activities and snacks for school-aged children will be provided at the first four meetings. Space is limited; RSVP is required.

 RSVP for a community meeting here: arts-ed.eventbright.com

We are also seeking people to help facilitate discussions and take notes at the first four meetings. If interested, please contact Irene Gomez, (206) 684-7310, by March 15.

Check out our March eNews, with information about upcoming arts education community meetings, funded CityArtists, opportunties to join our team, a new exhibition documenting family homelessness,  and more.

Check it out here.