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APRIL 30, 2010
Welcome to On Our Minds Twice a month we enjoy sharing what WolfBrown consultants are reading, thinking, and talking about -- what's On Our Minds. It's our way of staying in touch with valued friends and colleagues, and passing along some worthwhile ideas.
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Several of my WolfBrown colleagues have been working tirelessly to promote the understanding that art education, as well as greater focus on math and science, is critical to the creativity and innovation that drive our economic growth and vitality - in other words, the "creative capital" about which so much is written. I was thus astonished to learn, in attending the annual conference of the National Association of Art Educators (NAEA) a couple of weeks ago, how resistant visual art educators remain to mentoring creative process in the classroom. Instead, most apparently prefer to teach the fundamentals of art (meaning line, form, and the color wheel), despite efforts to elevate the purpose and standards of arts education as championed in The Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Art Education study, underwritten by the Wallace Fund and the Arts Education Partnership.
And yet, there is hope: both "creativity" and reform are hot topics among the field's leaders. I attended a session, for example, in which Kerry Freedman, a professor at Northern Illinois University, and three graduate students described their efforts to craft curricula at the district level. Thanks to their efforts, youngsters will now explore the references at work in "visual culture" and how they influence us in both conscious and unconscious ways. Julia Marshall, a professor at San Francisco State and my sister, offered a fascinating case study in which high school students "invented" tools to address chronic social or environmental problems about which they are concerned. Julia's case study, "Thinking Outside and On the Box," was published in the most recent edition of Art Education.** They both offer cause for optimism.
**© 2010 National Art Education Association. Used with permission. |
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Multichannel: The New Reality of Fundraising
by: Laura Mandeles
Anyone trying to sort out the new world of fundraising in the digital age should consider the research and findings of The Next Generation of American Giving: A study on the multichannel preferences and charitable habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers and Matures. It sorts out by age segment how people learn about charities, get involved, and decide to give. The big lessons: "Fundraising is profoundly multichannel," and "The younger the donor, the greater the number of ways they give." To be effective, organizations have to reach out to all generations in multiple ways and provide a variety of paths to involvement and donation, including traditional direct mail, but also encompassing newer social media channels. It also means that organizations have to structure internal fundraising, communications, and technology operations in ways that integrate those functions toward shared goals, and that fundraising database applications have to be able to track all of the different ways organizations are connecting with donors. It gets harder and harder to tell which solicitation a donor is responding to in a multichannel model. Where did they hear about us? What message connected with them? These questions can leave us scratching our heads. But the study also points out the eternal fundraising truth that, "There is not a single tactic or giving channel that is nearly as important as the quality of your message and your ability to inspire, arouse, and engage the hearts and minds of your donors." We live in interesting times. |
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New Measurements for Arts Participation by: Jennifer Novak-LeonardOver the past several months, I have been deconstructing what we, as a field, mean when we talk about "arts participation" in light of what we are discovering about how people actually engage with arts and creative activities in their daily lives. This thinking is inspired partly by our recent work on a forthcoming research monograph for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) about arts participation and creation utilizing data from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts(SPPA). The focus of the work has been to analyze the multiple modes in which a person can participate in the arts using SPPA measurements - attendance, personal arts creation, and media-based participation. How do people participate across and between these modes? What is the relationship between creation and participation? Most importantly, what new measures of arts participation could be effective in advancing policy nationally? Thinking about these types of questions brought me to a recently released report by the Australia Council for the Arts called More Than Bums on Seats: Australian Participation in the Arts. While the SPPA concentrates on measuring arts participation through behavior (e.g.,"Have you attended a ballet performance in the past 12 months?"), More Than Bums on Seats expands its focus to include attitudes towards arts and creative activities (e.g., "The arts should be as much about creating/doing these things yourself as being part of an audience"), and perceived benefits of the arts (e.g., "The arts help me feel part of my local community"). The final result of the study is a community segmentation model based on a combination of attitudes and behaviors towards arts participation. I wonder what kinds of implications for practice and policy would such information yield if a national study of arts participation here in the U.S. were to include such measurements? I'm looking forward to that discussion. We will be sharing more about the NEA monograph in the upcoming months. Expected publication is September 2010. |
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