Arts Education | Common Core: What Are the Possibilities for the Arts?

Tuesday, June 21, 2:00 EDT/ 11:00 PDT [PASSED]
Julie Fry, Program Officer, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Richard Kessler, Executive Director, The Center for Arts Education

Session 5 of the 9-part  2011 Web Conference Series
A recording of this presentation is available here.

Description:

More than two-thirds of the states have adopted the Common Core Standards in English, language arts, and math, establishing clear guidelines for what students need to know and be able to do in order to graduate from high school prepared for college and/or a career. Now that leaders are beginning to ask for shared curriculum guidelines across states, the Common Core standards are poised to change the character of schools (and of instruction well beyond ELA and math) and will be accompanied by new a new curriculum featuring common assessments. But what will the Common Core mean for the arts?

Join Julie Fry and Richard Kessler for an overview of the standards and a frank discussion of their potential impact on arts instruction.

Presenter Bios:

Julie Fry joined the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation with over 20 years of arts and business experience. Most recently, she was associate vice president, Fund Services at The San Diego Foundation, and the first director of The San Diego Foundation's Arts & Culture Program, where she developed strategies to engage more donors and community members to support the arts in San Diego through research, community outreach events, and funding partnerships. Previously, Julie was director of arts & business programs at the San Diego Performing Arts League. There she expanded its Business Volunteers for the Arts and Technology for the Arts programs and established the Lawyers for the Arts, National Arts Marketing Project and OnBoard: Arts Board Development programs. Prior to moving to San Diego, she worked for the Business Arts Council in San Francisco and Business in the Arts: North West in Liverpool England, building arts and business partnerships and providing management consulting services to arts and culture nonprofits. She received her BBA in Economics and French from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and her MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Julie has served on arts boards in the US and UK, and most recently was on the board of San Diego Grantmakers.

Richard Kessler is executive director of The Center for Arts Education (CAE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to stimulating, restoring, and sustaining arts education as an essential part of every child's K-12 education in the New York City public schools. His work in arts education has encompassed teaching, artist training, teacher professional development, program design, advocacy, curriculum development, fundraising, and assessment. From 1997 to 2004, Richard was executive director of the American Music Center and for four years prior he was vice president of Artsvision, an arts education consulting company, where he created and implemented arts and education programs throughout the United States and Canada. He holds two degrees from The Juilliard School and was a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music from 1988 to 1993. Richard is the treasurer of the board of Common Core, the DC-based organization dedicated to a liberal arts education for all K-12 children nationwide, and also serves as a trustee of the American Composers Orchestra, The Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), and Sequitur, a new music presenting organization. His popular arts education blog, Dewey21C, is hosted by Arts Journal.