Fine and Performing Arts Links

The links list for TUSD Fine and Performing Arts just keeps getting better and better.  For example, I just found a 2007 Juried Exhibition of American Women Artists with some great pictures in it. There's an amazing picture of Fairy Duster done in colored pencil.

Teaching artist not art teacher

An interesting comment was made in last Monday's Fine Arts meeting. Rick Wamer reported that Bobbi McKean of the University of Arizona had mentioned that most of her drama students wanted to be teaching artists NOT drama teachers. I am wondering how this fits in with other parts of the changing world around us. Is this a trend? Could all elementary education be handled with the classroom teacher as a facilitator collaborating with a succession of teaching artists and other professionals? Years ago one of the writers on public schools (was it John Goodlad?) asserted that classrooms were almost useless and could be profitably replaced with a series of well-planned field trips to assorted real world environments. Is the desire of drama students to be teaching artists rather than drama teachers a indication that the isolated classroom is being replaced with an open learning forum?

Thought for the day

Heard on HGTV's Simply Quilts
"Technique is the servant of intent." Sue Reno, Fiber Artist

Artsmobile opening a big success

The grand opening of Fine Arts new Native American Artsmobile was held this afternoon and was a big success. The Artsmobile represents the two major Native American cultures in the this area, Tohono O'odham and Yaqui (also spelled Hiaki). The Artsmobile was blessed by Ron Felix of the Tohono O'odham and Narciso Bule of the Pascua Yaqui. There were dance performances and wonderful exhibits and calabacitas and tortillas. The only cloud on the opening was that the Artsmobile generator wasn't working so the Artsmobile will down for servicing next week instead starting scheduled visits to schools.

Blogs, what are they good for?

Blogs are continuously running commentary. Some blogs are personal journals. Some are true journalism. This is an experiment to see what we can do with a blog. At it's most basic level, it's like e-mail but less demanding. In combination with this blog, we'll have a wiki. A wiki is a collaborative web space that is easy for anyone to modify. Web publishing is relatively easy but it still is pretty much in the internet arcana category. A wiki takes the web publishing out of the arcana category. Wikipedia is the best know example of a wiki. The TUSD Fine Arts wiki is a Peanut Butter (PB) wiki. The address is http://wikiarts.pbwiki.com It can be used to work on group projects and to provide a central location for shared information. How will this be different from the Fine and Performing Arts official webpage? The official page is like the glossy magazine going to the outside world. The wiki can function like an in-house newletter, not so polished, information can be posted very quickly. The wiki will always be a rough draft, whereas every new version of the official page will be the final product.

Welcome to the TUSD Fine Arts Blog

The TUSD Fine Arts Blog will be a space for conversations about Arts Education, for reflections, for sharing, for learning and for connection to others interesting in Arts Education.