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Fine Arts began this year with the eighth annual Fine Arts Day. This year's focus was on developing partnerships with community organizations. Given the myriad of arts organizations active in Maricopa County, a single day would not begin to establish the depth of relations that we intend, so we focused our attention on organizations that support and advocate for arts education in Arizona.
These organizations are addressing a very critical need in the arts: the shortage of teachers from K-12 to higher education. These initial conversations grew out of the Teacher Shortage Conference convened by Maricopa's Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development, Dr. Anna Solley.
In the arts, the teacher shortage is nearing the crisis point. To address this and to share concerns with the faculty, we invited six leading advocates for arts education to share their outlook with us. Our panelists were: Jacky Alling, Executive Director, Arizona Alliance for Arts Education; Rob Taylor, Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Arizona State University West; Jocelyn Hanson, Arts in Education Director, Phoenix Arts Commission; Becky Gaspar, Executive Director, Arizonans for Cultural Development; Alison Marshall, Education Director, Arizona Commission on the Arts; and Andre Licardi, Director of Arts Education, Peoria Unified School District.
Panelists at Fine Arts Day 8, August 16, 2001, Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. (From l-r): Jocelyn Hanson, Rob Taylor, Alison Marshall, Andre Licardi, Becky Gaspar, and Jacky Alling.
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The panelists, along with many other members of arts education advocacy groups, then participated in roundtable discussions with faculty and administrators from Maricopa. The discussions were structured to help community organizations learn about the arts in the Maricopa Colleges, to look at shared areas of concern, and to brainstorm recommendations for collaboration or ideas for future exploration. Each of the groups reported their top three recommendations. Some of the highlights from the morning session included the following recommendations:
- Better marketing of the present Maricopa Visual and Performing Art Programs to High Schools.
- Use of well-designed posters and marketing material to appeal to high school students.
- Enlistment of scholarship recipients to act as ambassadors to their former high schools to increase awareness of scholarship opportunities.
- Provision of an arts specialist at the college level who can intern in K-12 to assist understaffed art programs.
- Research into the 2+2+2 model for the visual and performing arts.
- Increase communication between the community college and the high school faculties.
- Development and maintenance of effective personal relationships to nourish communication between the community and the schools.
- Provision of re-assigned time for college faculty for outreach with high school arts and education organizations.
We have already begun to act on some of these ideas with our community partners. In November, we will help sponsor the "Mayors Breakfast with the Arts" in the city of Scottsdale. The topic "Better Schools, Better Skills, Better Communities," is a continuation of our Fine Arts Day discussions. We will also continue to represent the Arts in further discussions concerning the current crisis in teacher preparation in higher education.
Introducing the Maricopa Jazz Orchestra
The inaugural year for the Maricopa Jazz Orchestra will be highlighted by a concert performance at the Kerr Cultural Center on November 14th, featuring special guest, saxophonist Bob Mintzer. The seventeen-piece band is comprised of Jazz students and faculty from music programs across the District. Led this year by Fred Forney of Mesa Community College and Dave Schmidt of Glendale Community College, the students also received direction from guest conductor Steve Owens of the University of Oregon Jazz Studies Program.
League for Innovation Student Contests
Creative Writing Contest: We are looking forward to another exceptional collection of Short Stories, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, and One-Act Plays. Last year John Michael Day of Phoenix College won second place at the national level for his poem, Cedar Island N.C., and Nancy McCurry of Paradise Valley Community College was awarded an Honorable Mention in Creative Non-Fiction for her piece entitled Taking Wing.
Visual Art Contests: Mesa Community College student, Bari Read, was awarded the First Place Prize this year for her ceramic sculpture Ruby. Her piece and other Maricopa entries can be seen at the League of Innovation Student Art Competition web site.
 Bob Galloway, mcli
Visual and Performing Arts
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/arts/
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