Thoughts, Opinions, Rethinking and Proposals #3: The Arts and Public Education

Hello everyone. After a crazy set of set backs in my personal life (one being the loss of this original article from a hard drive failure), I am attempting to retype the post from how I initially planned on presenting it. Should it come off a little more complicated or not flow as easily as the articles on here normally write for the site, I apologize in advance. Moving back to topic, there has been a lot of debate over the past few years over removing the arts from our public education. Sources such as Americans for the Arts and Center for Artistic Activism have been making stands for defending the arts for some time now but they are known for working with the public system. In my opinion and the opinion of many others, one of the greatest assets to saving the arts is making sure they thrive in public education. We as artists need to make sure that these programs are kept alive and thriving for the future of the arts. The benefits are not only beneficial for the artistic part of the mind, but also for the arithmetic portion. The benefits are also known to benefit students with special needs or a physical disability.

Learning to play an instrument at any level of education is also like learning a new language; having to not only understand it, but translate it with perfect diction and precise pronunciations can be a tall order. The thought process behind seeing the "dots" compared to the closest line of the staff is thought in our minds as if you are understanding "the" starts with the letter "t" and it is the 20th letter of the English alphabet. Understanding how a note with multiple flags eventually line up to equal a full measure is processed just like adding 1/16, 2/8 and 3/16 to equals 1/2. This is not even going into the process behind developing an artistic style, or following a periodic style such as making baroque music sound detached or  It all relies on expanding the mind in several dimensions. This has led into research into the possibility of using music as a form of medical treatment for people who were either born with a physical or mental disability or have acquired one. There are pages upon pages of information into the field of music therapy that I wish I could explain to everyone (maybe one day!) but if this interests you then head to the American Music Therapy Association website and look into it. It ranges from helping students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder to develop emotional stability to assiting in building motor control. It is also able to help release emotions that may be left inside from complicated situations revolving around themselves that they may not be able to express otherwise.

It plays a key role in students who want to belong somewhere. It has been reported that artist of any kind are more likely to gain crucial vocal and communication skills from their art. The Atlantic reported about the benefits to using music as a stimulate for students with ASD who lack in communication skills. The article goes into details of technique called "regulation" or changing the tempo or even the feel of the music to make sure the student grows outside cues and repetition. This is merely scratching the surface of this field and it's implications but there is a pattern I'm attempting to create.

Drawing this article back towards a well rounded education, we should look towards research into SAT students. Research posted by Americans for the Arts in 2010 shows arts students scored 91.6 points higher on their SAT compared to non-arts related students between 1999 and 2009. The same group has publicized more information showing that studying an art for four or more years can increase scores by 100 points.

Before I leave this conversation to the comments section of this post, the Facebook page or the Twitter page let me leave you with these 11 facts about the arts as posted by Do Something .Org that I found interesting in my research. Next week will be the last of this series followed by a summary. There will be a surprised with this one, so stay tuned! Also for New Years Day, I will release a special post for those whom want to know the plans of the blog. I have a few announcements I am ready to publicize that I think will bring a new chapter to ASMTB.

Thoughts, Opinions, Rethinking and Proposals #2: The Arts and The Public

After the overwhelming positive reception I received from last week's post, I will continue writing this series through the New Year as originally planned, however I will add a few more ideas than I originally planned. I had originally intended on making this a bi-weekly article from now until Jan. 4, but as I previously mentioned, the response and feedback was amazing. I had thought that everyone would have rejected the idea of wanting to find more artist to help teach the amazingly talented bronies would result in only negative remarks and the loss of followers. This was thankfully not the case, and I thank everyone for not following my head's initial over dramatized reaction. However, things will not be filled with nerd culture so do not fear being spammed with pony info unless you want to explore the "pony-verse". If that is the case, then I suggest following Harmonic Inferno on Twitter. Today's post will be focused more on some ideas of the Union Symphony Youth Orchestra and how they should be used more as a critical tool for arts activism. If you would like to read the previous article, then click here.

For those who do not know me, the Union Symphony Youth Orchestra is my artistic home away from Rock Hill. The Union Symphony Youth Orchestra is a youth symphony managed by the Union Symphony Society, Inc. (USSI) in Monroe, NC. Back in 2009, I was very fortunate to have been led to the formation of said youth symphony and to have been a member of it for three years, the latter two being principle cellist. I was also a member of several smaller ensembles within the symphony; Exposition, which was a cello quartet formed out of the members that commuted from York Co. SC, and Ceilidh (pronounced Cay-lee), which was a string trio with two violinist that played Celtic and Irish folk music. I was playing with them until I graduated high school and moved on to college. I am an intern with the youth orchestra, serving as an assistant cello coach, and assistants to the director of the youth orchestra, and their younger counterpart Prelude. 

The reason I'm bringing this all up is not to show you my history with them, though I am very proud of it, but to give you background information for what I think can be a very vital asset to helping build arts support in a community.

Prelude Junior String Orchestra 2012-2013
Photo by: Midori Johnson

The fact that all arts activist and arts supporters have to come to the conclusion is no matter how much work we do, or how much effort we push into spreading our craft for others, we will never get to everyone. There will always be one person that will have no clue what happens in a specific art, or any of them. Even though this guarantees a need for people who will continuously spread the arts, this conundrum also means we do not have a way to communicate with some group of people. That was the approach symphony societies like the USSI have had to come to terms with. Rather than having to market a traditional method, one of using flyers and word of mouth to communicate their existence to possible patrons, concert viewers and possible future musicians, the USSI decided they should bring the arts to the public, and here is where that information comes to play.

Along with the use of the youth symphony playing their standard concerts, they figured to begin marketing it to people who knew the reputation of the adult symphony one that had formed out of a desire of wanting a symphony in their community. They planned on combined concerts, where the adults would play the concert material with the youth symphony, and use that as a means to attract more people. This is a wonderful starting point for those whom are trying to start off a youth symphony, or start anything really. Work with another group in your community that has a lot of respect in the community. It is as if you are telling the younger audience: "Do YOU want to play with professionals?" It also works well because it shows the adults that the group exists and they will encourage the children to join too.

Union Symphony Youth Orchestra 2012-2013
Photo by: Midori Johnson

This also leads me into my next point, collaborating with local organizations to spread the word. Sometimes the power of two groups will be more powerful than one alone not to mention making each other aware of the other. As stated before, the use of a ballet company combined with a symphony in a public venue causes to bring yourselves to the attention of the unaware public. There is a likely chance an unaware person in the other group who wants to be involved with your group but never knew how or even that you existed. This tends to be a very common problem among various groups of people. There is also the possibility that you could find someone involved with the other group which had no idea yours existed and decided they should be involved with yours.

Another brilliant idea that symphonies can do to advertise to the common person is playing in public. Within the past  few years a video came to light online of an orchestra flash mob that has inspired many others to do the same. That has also been a target that many symphonies like the Union Symphony Youth Orchestra has tried to continuously hit, and what more artists need to hit: Bring the arts to the general public. Just because one has not ever attended a symphony concert does not mean said person will not enjoy it or will not become involved. They need to know that they do exist and are within reach. The more involvement that is created within a local community, attempting to incorporate the people whom are regularly involved with the arts, and the blind public, then the more one can grow.

Live at the mall!
Photo by Adam Sullivan

This idea of community involvement can be achieved in several ways, one of the more common is having smaller ensembles performing in local venues. That was the initial purpose to both Exposition and Ceilidh, someone had an event they wanted live music for or the symphony society needed music for an event they were hosting, so they would call us to play. You could also use the whole symphony to preform in the public, like mentioned above. For example, I had hinted on Facebook and Twitter about this article through sharing a picture of the symphony playing in a mall near Monroe. This has been a venue of theirs for several years now, collaborating with one of the dance studios in the local community and putting on The Nutcracker out in a location most people would be around.

There are many other wonderful ways to bring the arts to the public, but I hope these ideas will work as stepping stones towards inspiring more activist to helping spread the arts to everyone. If you have an idea you would like to share, then feel free to leave it in the comments below, or share it with us through Facebook or Twitter. Don't forget to subscribe for part 3 of the series!