PUTTING A FACE ON ARIZONA'S CREATIVE WORKFORCE

A student at M.C. Cash Elementary school in Phoenix learns how to hold and play a violin with the help of retired symphony musician Gary Fridley. (Photo courtesy of the Arizona Commission on the Arts.)

Many people at some point in their lives have wanted to be an artist. Such dreams -- of being a painter, actor, dancer or musician, for example -- are usually shaped by movies and television. However, young people (and adults, as well) often lack practical information about what these professions involve, and they are unaware of the many other "behind-the-scenes" career opportunities in the creative realm. Curators, costumers, designers, technicians, fundraisers, managers, marketers and hundreds of others bring the arts to people everyday, but frequently go unnoticed.

The Arizona Commission on the Arts (ACA) set out to raise awareness of career opportunities in the arts and humanities by introducing K-12 students to the wide variety of jobs in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors. Using a $170,000 contract to participate in the state's implementation of the federal School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994, the ACA created and executed an arts and humanities partnership for the greater Phoenix area. Through the Maricopa County Arts and Humanities School to Work Partnership, students, teachers and arts businesses gain insight into the cultural economy and its workers, often an overlooked and misunderstood sector that nevertheless is a fundamental component of any state's economic environment.

Putting a "face" on this workforce is one goal of the arts commission's partnership. Among the hundreds of school visits, field trips and projects carried out through the program in the 1998-99 school year were opportunities for students to meet artists like Brian Kunnari, a Phoenix-based composer, who answered questions from seventh- and eighth-grade students about what a composer does. Other students worked with local businesses, such as a video production company that helped the students create a video about their school district.

Students Gain Career Skills

The partnership's activities were designed to teach students new skills and impart information about the nature of work in the arts. This included training for high school students, who learned how to put together an effective portfolio and apply to a gallery to exhibit their work.

Highland Elementary was one of 25 schools that collaborated with nonprofit and commercial arts businesses to conduct the various career awareness, exploration and preparation activities with more than 10,000 students during the first of year of the partnership. The curriculum at Highland covered the three areas of artistic learning required by the new Arizona Arts Standards: art as creation, art as inquiry and art in context.

The subject matter for the semester was ancient Egypt, and artist Brenda Lunsford spent four weeks with sixth graders creating a mural and exhibit that illuminated the country's culture and history. As they began work on the exhibit, the students filled out applications for various jobs in the "Highland Museum," as curators, designers, fabricators, supervisors and advisors, who were in charge of publicizing the exhibit's opening for the entire school. Once students were chosen for the various jobs, they held that position for the entire month of the project and were given specific tasks and a work schedule.

Like an actual art museum, the exhibit had multiple, complex components. Among these were participatory activities for the younger students that included a mock architectural dig, learning how to count using Egyptian numbers, and background materials on ancient Egypt, such as diagrams of the Nile region and the building of the pyramids. When the exhibit was completed, the sixth graders gave tours to community members, administrators and all Highland students. The project culminated with students visiting the Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Web-based technology was used to provide schools with a menu of activities connected to careers in the arts. The database of activities was developed with the program's initial 18 business partners, who are part of the Arts and Sciences Education Network, a group of organizations that provide educational outreach programs to schools. The result was a tool that educators could use to choose activities based on different criteria -- arts discipline, age of audience, cost and duration. Site coordinators chosen by each school oversaw the programming of activities and led the evaluation process that followed. Through the coordinators' creative programming, the number of business and community partners grew from 18 to 100 by the end of the first year.

Due to the partnership's success, the Arizona Department of Commerce has funded the program to go statewide during the 2000-2001 school year, reaching an additional 84 schools throughout Arizona. "The Arts and Humanities Partnership has had a wonderful impact on participating schools, nonprofit arts organizations, artists and the greater business community here in Arizona," says ACA Executive Director Shelley Cohn. "The success of the partnership in recruiting new businesses to participate in our programming efforts demonstrates a growing appreciation by Arizona's commercial business sector of our healthy arts community and the need for strong arts education in our schools."

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Program Overview

During the 1999 fall semester, Arts and Humanities Partnership activities were conducted by 77 businesses and included:

• career-related field trips
• visits to classrooms by arts and humanities professionals
• hands-on career experiences for students

In a survey about the program, all of the teachers at a participating elementary school said that the activities had a positive impact on their students, with:

• 70% seeing increased classroom participation
• 70% seeing heightened interest in classroom activities
• 70% seeing expanded understanding of career opportunities
• 40% seeing improved academic performance

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For More Information

Arizona Commission on the Arts
Phone: 602/255-5882

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The work of NASAA and of state arts agencies is supported and strengthened in many ways through partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.