In just a few hours I will introduce the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory's "Celebration of Music Education" concert. It is the one time in the year when all of our 500 students perform on a single concert. We annually honor a local music teacher for a lifetime of acheivement and provide free tickets to private, school, and university music teachers. We're actually … [Read more...] about Arts Education is a Social Justice Issue
Talking Structural Overhaul at Every Turn
Last week we had the California Arts Advocates lobbyist in San Diego to present a briefing on the current political realities in Sacramento. The message I took away was simple: change is coming because every aspect of state government is broken. This is echoed in our California headlines about the need for prison reform, education reform, water infrastructure investment, and … [Read more...] about Talking Structural Overhaul at Every Turn
Finding Your Inner Arts Advocate
Becoming an arts advocate really takes little more than getting over the hurdle of one's own reluctance. My friend and colleague Victoria Saunders articulates this very well in a piece she recently wrote for Americans for the Arts about accepting the role as leader and hub for our local efforts to save the San Diego City School District's Visual and Performing Arts Department. … [Read more...] about Finding Your Inner Arts Advocate
An Artist Activist Takes On Globalization
While leaders from the G-20 nations met in Pittsburgh this weekend to further pave the road to globalization, Michelle Obama shared the arts with her fellow spouses, and protesters tried to interrupt the meeting, one artist quietly and clearly detailed the relationship between free markets, democracy, genocide, and middle-class consumerism. If you only know Arundhati Roy … [Read more...] about An Artist Activist Takes On Globalization
Manufacturing Discontent 2
Update: Thanks to Leonard Jacobs for commenting and prompting me to check out his tracking of the anti-NEA campaign at the Clyde Fitch Report. He also links to several other bloggers from the arts world working to unravel the NEA conference call reality. Check out Ian David Moss' Shocking(ly tame) NEA audio and transcript released.CultureGrrl has today's statement from Rocco … [Read more...] about Manufacturing Discontent 2