A Strategic Conversation About the Arts at the Maricopa Colleges

A Strategic Conversation on the Arts in Maricopa Colleges was held on October 8, 2002. This discussion highlighted the current state of the Arts and the factors that will effect change in its future. The goal was to inform decision makers in the District about the value and potential of the Arts and to create a forum to discuss how the Arts are integrated into the college environment. This article was the basis for a white paper to that conversation. The complete white paper and presentation can be found at:http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/arts/events/stratcon02/

The Arts Are Fundamental - Not Incidental

When the Arts are grounded in rigorous instruction, they provide meaningful assessment of academic progress and performance. In fact, the focus on assessment over the last decade has benefited the Fine Arts. Previously, the Arts were seen as operating on the periphery of the educational core. We were perceived as a specialized function slightly removed from the central issues around teaching and learning. This was partially due to the perceived focus on process, materials, and technique. While these are essential skills in the Arts, the tools often obscure the learning that takes place.

Recent evaluations reveal that the Arts have had a greater integration into the teaching and learning core than previously thought. When arts educators reviewed the methodologies for teaching and the learning outcomes in the Arts, we became aware of how many of our practices were being adopted to fit other disciplines.

What do students learn when they learn about the Arts? Why is this important?

Collaboration

The Arts may develop the talents of an individual but the culmination of this training acts in unison or collaboration with other trained and disciplined individuals. The Fine Arts require an exceptional level of teamwork to produce a final result.

Problem Solving

Working in the Arts is more than "knowing the answer," often it is solving for X. Students must identify the problem, strategize the method to solve the problem, acquire the necessary skills to complete the task, and then design the solution. At this stage in the group process, students realize their solution was only one of many that could address the original problem. The Arts encourage an exploration of multiple solutions that engage different styles of learning. Each individual must bring personal resources and skills that are then blended with the larger group, which becomes a problem solving team.

Creativity

The Arts are laboratories for risk taking. Students express ideas, meaning, and emotion in multiple forms. Without a single correct answer, the Arts require us to explore relations from multiple perspectives. Even failure in this environment has value. An individual learns persistence and resilience, and has respect for authentic achievement. The learning occurs in the journey rather than the solution.

Workforce Development and the Arts

As the work environment evolves in the United States, the Arts learning experience is remarkably consistent with the new demands of the changing workplace. Ideas, creativity, and the ability to communicate them will be the future face of work. The process of learning in the Arts is a laboratory for a new work environment. Technology is also transforming the Arts, as it is in every other aspect of our culture. Technology is allowing us to incorporate the Arts at increasingly sophisticated levels into new products and methods of communicating.

Creative thinking, collaborative work, and problem solving are the hallmarks of a successful workplace, whether it is a theatre company or a financial service provider. The experiences that a student takes from a carefully designed program in the Arts translates far beyond the final product.

The Arts have a unique ability to communicate the ideas and emotions of the human spirit. They are fundamental to communicating and understanding not only ourselves but others as well. The Arts have a beauty and power unique in our culture that can connect us to our history, our traditions, and our heritage. We will be known to future generations by the legacy we leave in our dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and literature. These are often more telling histories of a culture because they describe passions and aspirations.

The Arts Are an Integral Core Discipline to a Liberal Arts Education

The recent changes to the K-12 curriculum (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) have placed the Arts on a level with other core academic subjects such as math, English, and reading. An increasing number of K-12 school districts are including competence in the Arts as a fundamental methodology for learning. The challenge at the community colleges is to prepare for this influx of students who have been exposed to the Arts on an equal footing to other disciplines. Jason Ohler, author of Art: The Fourth R, has proposed that visual learning in the increasingly graphical, digital age will require a sophisticated level of visual understanding for what is becoming a basic form of communication. Text is quickly giving way to graphic images as our basic form of communication. The students who are prepared to use these skills will be the ones who succeed in the future.

Come for the Passion, Stay for a Degree

Many students come to the community colleges to pursue their interests in the Arts without the intention of completing a degree. The community college programs can accommodate both the life-long learner and the new student who is looking for an environment to pursue and practice the Arts. However, many of these new students who begin with the Arts often stay for a degree in another discipline. The Arts are the stabilizing influence for these students because this is where they get the rewards and successes that give them the confidence to pursue a degree in higher education.

The Arizona charter schools that focus primarily on the Arts have been the leaders in student retention. We see that students who have an environment to practice their passion use the same process to build confidence and success in other areas.

Cultural Development and Community Resources

The Fine Arts programs at the Maricopa Community Colleges provide another significant service to the academic mission. Students involved in either the performance or humanities courses are better engaged with arts and cultural issues in the community. These individuals value the role of the Arts and help strengthen cultural awareness in their own environments. Community members are also the beneficiaries of the performance groups. Audiences are key to completing the learning for any performance group. It is a critical part of the evaluation process.

The colleges provide free or very inexpensive, but high quality, performances, targeted to the local community and in return, students receive real-world learning experiences. The nature of the Arts makes them a valuable asset for building community relations and maintaining a presence in the local cultural scene.

Many community colleges have become a focal point for the Arts in their communities. They fill the void between large cultural institutions such as major art museums or symphonic orchestras and smaller or private performance venues. This community relation is one that the colleges will need to cultivate to a greater degree as these programs expand.

Summary

The Arts enrollments have steadily grown over the last decade with significantly higher increases over the past three years. New digital technologies and the Internet have been embraced and the demand for these courses has been outstanding. The new Performing Arts Centers are invigorating arts programs and college environments. The Arts have recognized the role they can play in the learning environments. They have been successful as an academic pursuit, a community outreach and resource, and now in workforce development.

The Arts at the Maricopa Colleges are at an important juncture. Stability and growth have given us a solid foundation to launch future planning. The time to look at the future is when we are in a strong position with options and optimism. We have the chance to explore the future from this new plateau and plan what the potential for the Arts can be.

Robert Galloway, mcli

the Arts
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/arts/