Media Arts Writing Team

National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   

Contact: Cory Wilkerson, 800-587-6814                             

NCCAS adds media arts writing team to Next Generation Arts Standards Project

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards has agreed to support the writing of national, voluntary media arts standards as part of the Next Generation Arts Standards Project. Recognizing the growing interest and diversity of media arts as a new mode of expression within public education, NCCAS has formed a team of media arts writers and leadership to lead the work. NCCAS is committed to creating re-envisioned voluntary, web-based arts standards that will build on the 1994 National Arts Standards (and the 2005 Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance in the Arts), that have helped guide curriculum designers, pre-professional training programs, funders, and federal and state policy makers in their PreK-12 decision making. NCCAS leadership is relying on the media arts writing team to create a set of standards that will be equal in rigor, breadth, and depth as those of those of dance, music, theatre and visual arts, while simultaneously recognizing that media arts will be embedded within each of the traditional forms as a pathway for knowing and understanding. Currently, media arts standards are included in the state standards of Minnesota, South Carolina, and in the district standards of New York City and Los Angeles. The writing team will use the research report, A Review of Selected State Arts Standards, to help guide them in their work. The report, one of five created in support of the project by NCCAS member the College Board, is available as a PDF at  http://nccas.wikispaces.com/State+and+Media+Arts+Standards.

“Our goal is to write media arts standards that will fully describe expectations for student learning in an art form that has the ability to serve as the nexus between the arts and other subjects in the curriculum,” said Pamela Paulson, senior director of policy at the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Minnesota and one of two new NCCAS leadership members chosen to represent the area of media arts in the coalition of eight arts and education organizations. Richard Burrows, retired director of Los Angeles Unified School District’s nationally recognized arts education effort, and now an independent strategist, will serve as the other media arts leadership member.  He commented, “Media Arts plays a pivotal role in putting a strong, versatile and creative culture at the heart of contemporary learning in today’s education for young minds, and is beautifully positioned to make artistic meaning in bold new ways on behalf of the arts.”

Randy Nelson, the head of the education department of cutting-edge film maker DreamWorks Animation, and John Hughes, president and founder of Rhythm & Hues Studios (a leading producer of computer-generated animation and visual effects) praised the inclusion of media arts as its own subject area within arts education. “This is a visionary and forward thinking path for arts education,” said Nelson. “Artists who get technology, technologists who get art, managers who are creative and creatives who can manage are our future. Fail to include the full spectrum of skills, fail to treat media arts education as anything but a full partner, and get ready to find an explanation even a child can understand about why the rainbow is missing half its colors, and one for business people about why we are losing jobs to more colorful competitors.”

Said Hughes: “Media arts is relevant to today’s students because it reflects our contemporary, global culture. It provides vehicles for all students to find success and enjoyment in learning and promotes critical thinking processes while engaging, real world activities that make the content more meaningful.”

The Media Arts Writing Team Members are:

• Dain Olsen, Chair, ArtLAB High School, Los Angeles Unified School District
• Jay Davis, Ambassador School of Global Leadership, Los Angeles Unified School District
• Steven Goodman, Educational Video Center, New York City
• Scot Hockman, South Carolina Department of Education, Columbia, South Carolina
• Jeremy Holien, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, Minnesota
• Anne Kornfeld, Newcomers High School, Long Island, New York
• Colleen Macklin, Parsons New School for Design, Brooklyn, New York
• Bradley Moss, Maple Mountain High School, Springville, Utah
• Michele Nelson, Los Angeles Unified School District
• Betsy Newman, South Carolina ETV, Columbia, South Carolina
• Martin Rayala, Ph.D, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
• James Reinhard, North Allegheny Schools, Wexford, Pennsylvania
• Evan Tobias, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

NCCAS Leadership and the team chairs met most recently in Reston, Virginia, in the offices of the College Board to finalize work on a learning framework that will guide all five writing teams and to refine the project’s timeline. Writing teams are currently in the first stages of creating drafts. In the coming months, NCCAS will issue a new call for reviewers who will take the first pass over the new standards. For more information about NCCAS and the Next Generation Arts Standards Project, go to http://nccas.wikispaces.com.