For years, when teacher Lynn Eisenhauer encountered a struggling
student, she could count on one way to help that kid connect: music. A
former high-school choir teacher, Eisenhauer found that if she could
lure a kid in the door to sing, she could eventually motivate him in
his academics.
Today, as K-12 arts facilitator for Tacoma Public Schools, Eisenhauer
says the emphasis on the WASL has an unintended effect on at-risk kids:
those that fail the exam wind up even more alienated as electives are
cut. "The arts can help a struggling kid rise up," she says. "As a
teacher, I can connect kids with content areas that are also important
to them. The arts become the way to make math matter."
For all kids, supporters say, the arts are critical to development. As
an arts advocate, Eisenhauer sees her role as raising arts education
awareness in a climate of high-stakes testing. "I believe we can do
it," she says. "But someone's got to be going to bat for it."
More and more, parents are that someone, with teachers, nonprofits, and
communities on deck. The time and money allocated to the arts have
shrunk. A 2005 Washington State Arts Commission report found that
throughout the state, each week, 60 percent of schools offer an hour or
less of music instruction. For visual arts, 69 percent of elementary
schools provide less than an hour a week. And across the state and
grade levels, theatre or dance offerings are minimal. A few years ago,
Seattle Public Schools reduced Elementary Instrumental Music, or EIM,
from one full day a week per school to one-half day.
"Washington State is now 42nd out of 50 states in funding education,"
says Sara Liberty-Laylin, Seattle Public Schools' acting program
manager for the arts. "When you have that lack of funding, the first
thing that goes is art and music. It's not just in Seattle, but across
America." Locally, with infusions of money, time, and ingenuity, Puget
Sound-area parents are rallying to keep the arts alive.
License to thrive
At Loyal Heights Elementary School in Ballard, parent Judy Peck wants
the kids to learn to look at the world as an artist does. Once a month,
Peck and 25 other parent-volunteer art docents visit each classroom to
discuss an element of art -- line, form, color, texture. They present
an artist's work, discuss the piece, and lead a related art project.
Peck, the program's co-founder and the mother of girls now 11 and 13,
describes a session: If she brings a Picasso art print to a class of
first-graders, she asks the kids to think about how Picasso used lines
to create the picture. She says, "Tell me what kinds of lines you see.
How would you describe that line in words: crooked lines, zigzags,
wiggly lines?"
Loyal Heights students also benefit from a PTA-funded
artist-in-residence program that has brought Japanese Taiko drummers,
jazz musicians, and Salish artists to the school. In the past, parents
applied for grants with the Washington State Arts Commission, but this
year, its fundraising effort was so successful, the PTA decided to fund
the program itself.
This year's resident artist is poet Laura Gamache, and the program's
theme is "poetic license." When Gamache meets with the students, she
typically begins by playing ice-breaker games, then moves on to read
and study poetry through a variety of classroom exercises.
"Through their work with me and playing with words, they are gaining a
license to participate in the reading and writing of poetry," Gamache
says. "They have access to the language of poetry, they have heard its
beauty; they made it themselves."
Gamache also met with the art docents and discussed ways they might
integrate music and poetry with the art lessons. Carolyn Hostetler,
chair of the Artist-in-Residence Program who has two children at the
school, says the two programs try to coordinate when they can.
Hostetler says, "When we were focusing on Taiko drumming and Japanese
dance, some art docents led art lessons influenced by Japanese
techniques such as origami and sumi painting."
Closing the gap
Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, a public elementary school in
Tacoma, has a part-time art teacher and a part-time dance teacher. The
school has its own dance floor and dance room, arts supplies for visual
arts, and a kiln. There are a number of dance troupes at various grade
levels, and drama productions twice a year. Tacoma is an
open-enrollment school district, and 75 percent of the students attend
Grant from outside the neighborhood. Families want to be part of it.
Justine Tvedt of Tacoma has a third-grade daughter at Grant. As
co-president of the PTA, she believes wholeheartedly in the
arts-specialized environment. The kids have many opportunities to
perform in school productions and participate in after-school
enrichment classes such as guitar and jewelry-making, which are taught
by parents on a volunteer basis. Tvedt says the confidence-building of
being on stage and learning new skills carries over to other academic
areas. "It gives them confidence in math and reading," she says, a
sense of "I can do this, I can achieve."
Grant's student body is diverse, Tvedt says, and parents contribute in
numerous ways. Some who may not have surplus income can contribute
their time or talent, such as designing costumes and sets for the
school's drama productions.
Tvedt says the arts programs at the school are primarily parent- and
community-supported. The school's annual auction raised more than
$20,000 last year, replenishing the school's arts trust fund. The PTA
also paid to send the staff to a training class for Arts Impact, a
grant-funded program of the Puget Sound Educational Service District,
which teaches educators how to integrate the arts into the curriculum.
For example, in a social-studies lesson about an African country and
its animal life, a visual arts instructor might use photos of giraffes
to teach about line, shading, and positive and negative space.
Seattle Public Schools' Liberty-Laylin also supports arts integration.
"Research shows that kids have various learning styles, and when you do
an art integration piece along with a lecture, it seems to close the
achievement gap for some people," Liberty-Laylin says.
In addition, the Grant community chose to use some of its
district-allocated funds toward a part-time visual arts specialist. Art
teachers disappeared from Tacoma schools about 10 years ago. Today,
Eisenhauer says, "Visual arts are expected to be taught by the
classroom teacher. Only one elementary school (in the district) has a
visual arts specialist and that's Grant Elementary. That wouldn't
happen without a strong parent group."
"Grant is fabulous, but it is serving a small amount of kids who are
getting what I believe every child has a right to -- education and
exposure," Eisenhauer says. To expand that sense of possibility, she is
cultivating the arts at Tacoma's McIlvaigh Middle School, where a
growing choir program has given kids a voice. The school has a high
level of free- and reduced-lunch students, kids living in public
housing, and poverty. The choir has grown from fewer than 40 students
four years ago to 110 today. The school recently held a dinner and
auction, which raised $8,000. Eisenhauer wants to fuel the momentum in
a community of parents that is "rallying on such a level in a place
where it's not inherently there."
Labor of love
After 18 years as a corporate finance lawyer, Scott Gelband was ready
for a change. He left his work to spend more time with his family, and
the Wallingford dad of kids now 12 and 15 was thinking about the next
step. "If I could have created a dream job, it would be to take my
lifelong interest in music and combine it with my entrepreneurial itch
and have some beneficial social outcome," Gelband says.
That opportunity came when the new stay-at-home dad learned about the
Leschi Music Partnership, an all-volunteer, low-budget program in which
Garfield High School students and some Washington Middle School
students teach fourth- and fifth-graders at Leschi Elementary School
how to read music, and tutor them in playing their instruments. The
program responds to the small amount of time allocated to music
education. Marnie O'Sullivan, who created the Leschi program six years
ago, says that because lower-income kids are receiving little in-school
music instruction and can't afford to supplement their music education,
they have difficulty participating in bands and orchestras at the
high-school level. Some PTAs pay for added music instruction. "Parents
are picking up the slack by having auctions and providing in-kind
donations," O'Sullivan says. "Schools where parents can do that are
lucky, and schools where parents can't are slipping through the cracks."
With his professional experience, Gelband hopes to help the partnership
flourish and grow, through a new nonprofit entity called Seattle Music
Partners. He hopes to duplicate the tutoring service at more locations,
and widen the tutor volunteer pool. Last year, Gelband says, 70
students were involved in the program: 35 elementary-school students
and 35 tutors. But the tutoring base could widen to college students,
other high schools, or more adults. "There's a lot of self-esteem,
comfort, and belonging that can come from a nourishing relationship,"
Gelband says. "It's not just showing a kid how to pay flute. It's about
investing in a relationship."
In launching Seattle Music Partners, Gelband and O'Sullivan have been
investing in relationships with other music organizations to come up
with the money for their program. "We're not about competing with
what's out there," Gelband says. "We will try to bring together the
people and resources and provide these services as broadly as we can."
Meanwhile, O'Sullivan and Gelband emphasize that there are numerous
paths for a family's involvement. It's O'Sullivan's wish that parents
across the region gain more school-to-school awareness. Perhaps parents
attending an affluent school's auction might raise a paddle to fund a
need at another school, she says, or buy music books, even used ones,
for an under-resourced school across town. And Gelband encourages
parents to check the attic and donate an instrument that a student
could use. "People do not have to be musicians to help this program
flourish," he says. The change agents
In 2000, Lisa Fitzhugh founded the arts-education nonprofit Arts Corps,
targeting underserved communities in King County. At that time, "the
arts were not a vital part of the school day and what was happening
after school was very hit-or-miss," Fitzhugh says. Focusing primarily
on after-school hours and low-income communities, Arts Corps hired
professional teaching artists and started classes at community-based
after-school programs: schools that keep doors open after hours, YMCAs,
Boys and Girls clubs, "places that keep kids engaged from 3 to 6 p.m.,"
Fitzhugh says.
Today, Arts Corps delivers art classes in a variety of disciplines to
2,400 King County youth, from age 3 to 19. The programming includes
African drumming, audio recording, spoken word, hip-hop, ballet,
painting and theatre classes -- at no charge to the kids. Currently,
Arts Corps provides classes in more than 30 locations, offering more
than 50 classes per quarter.
Fitzhugh says the lack of art education at the elementary-school level
is devastating. "That's when kids should be doing all these art forms
all the time," she says. "Developmentally, that's one of the best
opportunities to be working the brain on a variety of levels." Fitzhugh
remains frustrated by the teaching-to-the-test climate and how it
serves kids. She says, "There is no shortage of good data that points
to the value of arts learning for a zillion reasons." One of those
critical values, she says, is self-understanding, helping kids know who
they are and developing their strengths.
Just as other programs want to give kids a voice, Arts Corps wants to
help them make their mark -- with involvement from mom and dad. At a
fundraising auction of student work, Fitzhugh said, "The ultimate goal
is having parents bring creativity back into public education." After
all, she adds, parents are the true arts advocates. "A lot of people
from the outside can push and pull, but things won't change until the
constituency -- the parents -- demand it."
Michelle Feder writes about a wide variety of subjects and has 4- and 1-year-old sons. Resources
Arts Corps
A non-profit youth development program that partners with schools and
community organizations to bring free arts classes to low-income youth.
There are several ways that you can get involved with Arts Corps.
Volunteers are needed to help in the classroom, at Arts Corps'
headquarters, or at events. Donors are needed to contribute to the
kids' classes through financial or in-kind contributions.
Washington State Arts Commission
360-753-3860
WSAC Arts in Education Program
360-586-2418
Arts Impact
Empowers K-5 classroom teachers to become competent and confident
teachers of visual and performing arts. Teachers learn to successfully
guide students in arts learning that meets the Washington State
Essential Academic Learning Requirements in the Arts. http://www.arts-impact.org/
Arts Education Partnership
For news of the Arts Education Partnership and to download their most
recent publication, Critical Links, which summaries 62 research studies
that examine the effects of arts learning on students' social and
academic skills: www.aep-arts.org
ArtsEd Washington
Also known as the Washington Alliance for Arts Education, has a new
strategic plan and website. Learn about their Principals' Workshop, the
ArtsTime Conference, and becoming an ArtsEd Washington member: http://artsedwashington.org
Arts Recognition and Talent Search
Awards for distinguished arts teachers and student scholarships: www.artsawards.org
Emerald City Jazz Ensemble
A multigenerational group of musicians from age 8 to 85. John Yasutake,
206-725-7672 and Michael Yasutake 206-725-7348
Leschi Music Partnership
Garfield students teach Leschi Elementary School students how to read
music and tutor them in playing their instruments. For more information
and volunteer opportunities, contact Marnie O'Sullivan,
or 206-329-2931, or Scott Gelband
, 206-409-2535.
Our Publications 
