Hanby Art Auction

Hanby Community Arts Auction

Sunday, April 22, 2007
2:00PM - 5:30PM
Hanby Arts Magnet School
56 S State Street
Westerville, Ohio 43081
614-797-7100

Fun for the whole family! Come and enjoy children's activities, a live and silent auction featuring works of local kids and local artists as well as many gift certificates, gift baskets and services donated by area businesses and individuals, kids-only raffle and live musical performances. Preview auction items and events at home.columbus.rr.com/hanbyauction/.

All proceeds to benefit the Hanby Arts Magnet School of Westerville, a school with an art integrated approach that instills in its students an appreciation and love for the arts!

Contact persons - Dr. Jan Fedorenko, Hanby Arts Magnet School Principal at 614-797-7100 or Wendy Johnston, Hanby Community Arts Auction 2007 Event Chair at 614-794-2259.

from Cols Dispatch/ arts vs. sciences

Original article with pictures can be found at this url:
http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/04/08/
classes.ART_ART_04-08-07_C1_1M6AHS6.html

Arts vs. sciences
Schools' increased emphasis on 'core' subjects worries music and theater advocates
Sunday, April 8, 2007 3:37 AM
By Simone Sebastian and Charlie Boss
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Six years ago, the Bexley school district launched an ambitious plan to upgrade its arts program.
The high-school theater received a $3 million face-lift. Advanced art courses were added. School bands and orchestras received new practice spaces.

Today, the district's arts program is stellar.

Its popularity isn't.

The number of Bexley High School students taking art, music or drama has dropped 13 percent since the multimillion-dollar project started.

"We upped our math and science requirements," said Bexley orchestra teacher Sandra Crandall. "When it comes to scheduling, sometimes the arts are the losers."

Across the country, advocates are worried about the future of the arts as state tests and federal mandates force schools to increase their focus on math, science and English.

Many central Ohio districts say they don't know whether those fears have materialized. Others have experienced a change in the number of students taking art, music and drama, though not always in the direction expected.

As in Bexley, Upper Arlington high-school arts classes have attracted fewer students since the 2000-2001 school year. Enrollment has dropped nearly 6 percent, though the student population has grown by 11 percent, according to data provided by the district.

In Dublin, another growing district, enrollment in high-school arts classes is slightly lower than it was five years ago.

But other high-school arts programs, including those in Worthington and Grandview Heights, are blossoming despite shrinking student populations. Educators credit hiring better teachers, offering more classes and requiring basic art and music instruction for middle-school students.

Arts-enrollment data was not available for several districts, including Columbus. Some said they do not keep historic enrollment data. Others said they could not immediately find the data on their antiquated systems.

While there have been reports statewide that schools are swapping art and music classes for math and reading, there aren't numbers to back them up, said Joan Platz, a researcher at the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education.

Nationally, the story is much the same.

At Reynoldsburg Junior High School, students who are struggling academically can replace art, music or wellness classes with extra instruction in math and reading.

"It's unfortunate it has to be a trade-off," said assistant principal Paula Brown. "But in a school day, there are not enough minutes to work with kids, and that's when we have a captive audience."

Students in Franklin County high schools say competition to get into college leaves no time for paintbrushes or voice lessons.

Bexley senior Kristen Stevens dreams of becoming a photographer for National Geographic. But she's not taking art this year because her schedule is packed with pre-calculus and Advanced Placement biology and literature courses.

"I love art, but at school it's always hard to fit art into my schedule," Stevens said.

Instead, she pays for Saturday morning classes at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

Groveport Madison High School junior Quinton Jones has a nine-hour school day to satisfy his musical interests.

He juggles three choir classes and three periods of band along with English, Chinese, chemistry and gym.

Jones says he's luckier than some peers who skip concert band or jazz ensemble to take math or science classes they need to graduate.

"We've lost at least 20 to 30 kids since my freshman year," he said. "That's only out of 190 or so students, but it's a big difference. My worry is that (the music programs) will keep declining at a rate where the programs will be nonexistent."

Ohio's academic requirements for graduation are about to become stiffer. The new Ohio Core curriculum will require students who begin high school in 2010 or later to take an extra year of math, for a total of four years.

Currently, fine-arts classes can be used to satisfy some graduation requirements, but they are not required. Under the Ohio Core, students can earn their fine-arts graduation requirements -- two semesters of art -- during middle school.

Despite the added focus on other subjects, some arts programs are thriving.

Five years ago, Westerville opened an elementary magnet school that teaches academic classes through music, art and drama.

Students study planets by creating papier-mache models of the solar system. They learn the history of the Underground Railroad by writing and performing a play.

"Arts have the ability to bring real life to textbook knowledge," said Jan Fedorenko, principal of Hanby Elementary. "Just the fact that it brings kids to school who can't wait to go to art class, it certainly does make a difference."

ssebastian@dispatch.com

cboss@dispatch.com

"When it comes to scheduling, sometimes the arts are the losers."

Sandra Crandall
orchestra teacher, Bexley High School

From Cols Dispatch/ New Outlook for the Arts.

New outlook for arts?
Columbus must do more to fund and promote its struggling cultural scene, panel says
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 3:35 AM
BY ROBERT VITALE
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

FILE PHOTO

Scorecard for the arts
A City Council-created task force charged with recommending a cultural policy for Columbus graded the existing arts scene on a scale of 1 (low) to 12 (high):
Places to go
Strengths: They're dispersed among neighborhoods.
Weaknesses: There's no plan to do more.
Things to do
Strengths: There's a range of festivals, performances, exhibits -- and a diverse audience.
Weaknesses: Information about them doesn't reach the masses.

Arts organizations
Strengths: There are several "flagship" arts and cultural organizations.
Weaknesses: There's little to nurture artists and creative professionals.
Funding
Strengths: None.
Weaknesses: Anemic efforts to gain corporate donors and public funding.
Leadership
Strengths: None.
Weaknesses: There's no cultural plan and no one guiding city policy.
Visibility
Strengths: None.
Weaknesses: Columbus and its arts community don't promote the city's cultural scene as a selling point.
Facilities
Strengths: There's an abundance of commercial venues.
Weaknesses: None.
Columbus has plenty of theaters and galleries, a few artsy neighborhoods, and a lot of people eager to be enriched and entertained.

It also has financially struggling groups that perform on local stages and other creative ventures that can't get off the ground.
It's time for Columbus to adopt a "cultural policy" that coordinates and guides the arts, ensures adequate funding to help them prosper, and nurtures young artists who otherwise might go elsewhere, a City Council-created panel says.
But those who'd adopt the policy -- Mayor Michael B. Coleman and council members -- are unlikely to entertain an idea some have proposed in the past few years: a tax to pay for it all.
Council aides say there's little if any support for a culture tax among city officials. Coleman spokesman Mike Brown said a tax to boost arts funding in Columbus hasn't been proposed and hasn't been considered.
Wayne Lawson, the retired Ohio Arts Council director who led the 11-month study by a group called the Creative Columbus Steering Committee, said there are other sources, including corporate donations and state and federal grants, that could help out.
The committee issued its final report to council members late Monday.
It calls for Columbus to join cities across the nation that have begun viewing the arts not just as a diversion but as an economic-development tool to attract new businesses and residents.
"I hope this jump-starts a new way of thinking," Lawson said.
Panel members -- business executives, educators and leaders of organizations such as COSI Columbus and the Columbus Museum of Art -- gave middling grades to the local arts scene but said there's a "solid foundation" upon which to build.
The report also was critical of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the agency that doles out millions in city hotel-tax money to arts groups and events.
It called for greater openness at the agency and more public input into its funding deliberations.
"A lot of the recommendations here are no surprise," said GCAC President Bryan Knicely. "It's a matter of how we move down that road."
Overall, the committee's new way of thinking is described as "one that sees the arts, culture and creativity as vital assets of a thriving city, the local economy, and places to live and work -- and thus worthy of serious public support and attention."
Among its 70 recommendations:
• Adopt a strategic plan to guide future development of arts facilities rather than the "uncoordinated and piecemeal efforts" now in place.
• Build the endowments of major arts organizations and create a fund to help others in immediate trouble.
• Develop small performance and exhibition spaces for young artists and create a business-incubator program for artists and arts-related businesses.
• Commission more public art throughout the city.
"We're not talking just about the Short North," Lawson said.
Councilman Kevin L. Boyce said he wants the committee's 13 members to meet with the City Council to discuss how the recommendations should be enacted.
One council member, Priscilla Tyson, served on the panel before she was appointed to the council in January. Tyson is president of Star Arts Limited, which promotes artists and sells their work.
"Our hope is that we will address the creative interests of the city of Columbus," she said.
Other reports also have been critical of local support for the arts.
In 2005, GCAC found Columbus last among seven similarly sized cities in endowments for local organizations.
A report issued this year by the Columbus Partnership found Columbus 15th among 16 cities in the number of arts establishments per 1,000 residents.
rvitale@dispatch.com
Committee members
Members of the Creative Columbus Policy Steering Committee:
• Beverly Bethge, chief
creative officer, Ologie
• David Chesebrough,
president, COSI Columbus
• Mary Jo Green, vice president, Time Warner Cable
• Stephanie Hightower, vice president, Columbus College of Art and Design
• Lisa Hinson, president, Hinson Ltd. Public Relations
• Chad A. Jester, president, Nationwide Foundation
• Wayne Lawson, director emeritus, Ohio Arts Council
• Jeffrey Lyttle, vice president, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director, Columbus Museum of Art
• Robert H. Milbourne, president, Columbus Partnership
• Jerry Saunders, president, Africentric Personal Development Shop
• Priscilla Tyson, Columbus City Council member and president, Star Arts Limited
• Margaret Wyszomirski, art education professor, Ohio State University

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