Arne Duncan on the arts - a critical component of a complete education

"I am greatly honored that the Department is hosting the National PTA's student art exhibit. The students in this show, like many, many others around the country and the world, represent the talent and thoughtful, artistic work that can result from the support of their schools, teachers, and families. The arts are a critical component of a complete education, providing an opportunity to see and think in new ways and to innovate, as this exhibit proves. The theme of this year's exhibit--'I Can Make a Difference by ...', is an inspiration to all of us to engage, as these students have done, in the kind of thinking and efforts that President Obama has asked us to do as citizens of this great nation."

-- Arne Duncan, on occasion of the opening of the National PTA's "Reflections" art exhibit at the Department of Education, Feb. 10, 2009.

This conversation- A debate about arts education

This Conversation

By Douglas McLennan

For decades, as teaching of the arts has been cut back in our public schools, alarms have been raised about the dire consequences for American culture. Artists and arts organizations stepped in to try to... take up some of the slack. Foundations funded programs to take art into the schools. But producers of art aren't primarily in the education business. Schools increasingly focused on meeting basic skills benchmarks have less and less time to make room for study of the arts. And technology has spawned a vast, crowded, and alluring marketplace of creativity competing for attention. New research Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy by RAND and sponsored by The Wallace Foundation suggests that a generation of Americans has not developed the knowledge or skills to engage with our cultural heritage. Without that engagement, the arts as we know them are unsustainable over the long run. Can anything be done?

This Arts Journal blog brought in some key thinkers in the arts to debate about arts education.

http://www.artsjournal.com/artsed/2008/11/this-blog.html