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The Iowa Fine Arts Education Leadership Team had their initial meeting on December 4, 2023. The team discussed the internal strengths and challenges facing fine arts education in Iowa as well as the opportunities and roadblocks which exist outside of our direct control.
On February 5, 2024, the team met and discussed how we might turn our internal strengths and external opportunities into action that could support high-quality instructional practices in Iowa’s fine arts classrooms.
The confirmed roster of team members now includes Janice Baker (dance, ISU); Dan Black (music, Council Bluffs); Mary Cohen (music, U of I) Thad Driskell (Iowa High School Music Association); Helen Duranleau-Brennan (AEA); Carla Gonyo (music, Bettendorf); Stacy Hansen (Iowa High School Speech Association); Cindy Herndon (dance, retired); Elizabeth Herrick-Williams (art, Atlantic); Courtney Ihnen (music, West Des Moines); Suzi Jones (theatre, Pella); Nate Jorgensen (theatre, Waukee); Lynn Killpack (AEA); Jennie Knoebel (Iowa Arts Council); Leon Kuehner (Iowa Alliance for Arts Education); Sarah Lehmann (AEA); Jenny McClenahan (music, Highland); Wendy Miller (art, UNI); Jenn Peter (AEA); Kjersten Rathke (music, Sioux City); Morgan Singleton (art, Clarke); Cliff St. Clair (music, Sheldon); Jacque Stephens (art, Red Oak); Christina Svec (music, ISU); Tammy Turner (AEA); Kris VerSteegt (IDOE); and Tom Wood (IDOE).
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On Wednesday, January 31, Kris VerSteegt—fine arts consultant for the Iowa Department of Education—traveled to Council Bluffs to visit Dan Black’s music classroom at Kirn Middle School and Peter Nelson’s guitar class at Abraham Lincoln High School. The purpose of this visit was to uncover what factors have led to a 267% increase in enrollment in Mr. Black’s music courses and the necessary addition of a second staff member to share the load.
While this incredible growth—even through the pandemic—may have stemmed from the Fall 2020 addition of a guitar class at Kirn middle school, Mr. Black’s orchestra program has also grown by 40%.
In addition to the typical band, choir, and orchestra offerings, Kirn Middle School now offers Guitar I and Modern Band, and Abraham Lincoln High School currently offers Piano I, Piano II, and Guitar I, will offer Guitar II, and hopes to meet demand for Modern Band at the high school level in the coming years.
Want to know more about guitar and modern band? Contact dblack@cbcsd.org.
On Friday, February 2, the Iowa Choral Directors Association (ICDA) hosted their first Collegiate Choral Festival on the Ankeny DMACC campus. ICDA welcomed about 100 students to this event including singers from Coe College, Des Moines Area Community College, Graceland University, Iowa Lakes Community College, Morningside College, and Southwestern Community College. Attendees were led by Bridget Sweet (Associate Teaching Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and premiered Adam Orban’s new choral arrangement of the Quaker hymn How Can I Keep from Singing—one commisioned by ICDA and created in honor of the late Everett Johnson (former executive director of the Iowa High School Music Association (1978-2002)). The choir also performed Muusika by Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg as well as Hope Lingers On by Lissa Schneckenburger, arranged by Andrea Ramsey.
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With the goal of providing timely data regarding arts education enrollment statewide, Quadrant Research’s Arts Education Data Project provides enrollment data for Iowa schools as well as for 30 other states. Iowa’s data is current only through the 2020-2021 school year, but Iowa Department of Education employees are working to update Iowa’s dashboard. See future issues of this newsletter for links to current data.
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In September, the Arts Education Partnership, along with the Education Commission of States, expressed a desire to convene state-level teams to discuss creating a technical assistance network with the goal of increasing PK-5 access to STEAM education (STEM + Arts). Iowa’s team was one of only five teams accepted into the network and consists of Kris VerSteegt (Iowa Department of Education), Leon Kuehner (Iowa Alliance for Arts Education), Jennie Knoebel (Iowa Arts Council), and two members of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, Casey Wenstrand (SW region) and Mauree Haage (NC region). The team is currently visioning and building content knowledge around STEAM ecosystems and initiatives and is planning to attend the AEP Annual Convening in Pittsburgh this fall.
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SEADAE is an organization dedicated to achieving comprehensive, sequential, standards-based fine arts education for all Americans, K-20. To that end, they are currently working on creating a repository of web-based instructional resources for teachers called Customized Arts Learning: A Toolkit (CALAT). See future issues of this newsletter for how you and your students can benefit from CALAT’s collection of online tools.
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In the age of rapidly-evolving artificial intelligence (AI), many questions have arisen regarding how to successfully embed AI into classroom praxis while properly citing sources and avoiding appropriating the work of creatives like graphic designers, artists, writers (both academic and creative), and others. If you plan to promote AI in the classroom, consider building your own knowledge—and that of your students--on this important subject before rolling out a plan with your students. By doing so, you can communicate clear expectations in your instructions and syllabi that can promote proper crediting of sources and favor student-created artwork rather than appropriating the work of other creatives without credit or recompense.
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The Smithsonian Learning Lab has a wealth of resources including collections to help you navigate AI, connect you with videos of traditional artists as they create art and explain its cultural significance, introduce you to the vast and important work of Harvard’s Project Zero, and more. To access the tools, create your own free account and then browse or filter 10,000+ collections that can support fine arts and transdisciplinary learning in your classroom.
Ever wondered how Iowa fine arts education metrics compare to those of other states? View an infographic of some of those metrics by opening this pdf.
ART EDUCATORS OF IOWA
AUGUSTANA ORFF
FIRST IOWA ORFF
IOWA ALLIANCE FOR ARTS EDUCATION
IOWA ARTS COUNCIL
IOWA BANDMASTERS ASSOCIATION
IOWA COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION
IOWA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
IOWA HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC ASSOCIATION
IOWA HIGH SCHOOL SPEECH ASSOCIATION
IOWA MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION
IOWA MUSIC TEACHER ASSOCIATION
IOWA STRING TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
IOWA THESPIANS
JAZZ EDUCATORS OF IOWA
KODÁLY EDUCATORS OF IOWA
SIOUX VALLEY ORFF
To ask a question or suggest information to be included in this newsletter, please contact Kris VerSteegt.
Kris VerSteegt, PhD
Education Program Consultant, Fine Arts
Bureau of Learner Strategies and Supports
Iowa Department of Education
Grimes State Office Building
400 E 14th St
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-371-0410
kris.versteegt@iowa.gov
https://educate.iowa.gov
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