Another degree... really?

When I was an administrator of an arts integration program in Ohio, the president of the organization that oversaw the program said, "You speak too much educational-ese." I thought it odd that a university professor of theatre would say that. Shouldn't a fellow academic understand institutional structure, educational guidelines and best practices for curriculum development? Of course he did- but they were referred differently in his vernacular.

• "Institutional structure" meant: an "us-vs-them" battle ground between artists who need money to spend on productions, and administrators who can never raise enough money for their needs, and other artists who compete for limited resources. 
• "Educational guideline" meant tenure and promotion, or departmental accreditation.
• "Best practices" are artistic reputation specific to genre, or validated through ticket sales. 

When I was in this position, I frequently referred to the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk.  I even read it a few times. (Actually, it's an annual event) The report fuels my passion to make learning meaningful for all ages; not just K-12.

Consider this: "Why can't the audience come to understand artistic intentions by making connections to their own experiences?" Or even more shocking, "If audience members were encouraged to make their own art, might they find professional artist work that much more awesome?"

The response from some artists is an astounding resistance. I'm sure there are many reasons for this. But I've felt a sense of urgency for the past 20 years of my career to make more substantial changes in the places I am now. Why? In all of my training - over 11 years of high quality training - I never received any structure for thinking about how I could work with school teachers, how I would relate to different audiences, or how I could reach outside my disciplinary boundaries. When I did these things, I was a maverick, a trouble maker, or even a blasphemer. *

I'm pretty good at understanding structure, authority, systems and procedures. I'm a musician, after all. Years of practice trained not only my chops and fingers to master control of the bassoon, but how to listen to others around me, know the big picture (musical score), follow the vision of the conductor, etc. Most importantly, I learned to be prepared, be humble, and be like-able enough so that I would either win the audition, or get a call-back. All of this awareness transfers into what I do now.

I also learned how to develop musical relationships with the other musicians. Much of the relationship was based on understanding where we all needed to go together. It wasn't just about what ink was on the page of the second bassoon part. Being in tune, on time, and blending with the other timbres meant developing a hyper awareness of how I fit in the ensemble.

I've reach a point in my work where I'm hyper aware of a need to be much more strategic with understanding school systems, educational guidelines and best practices for arts integration between schools and arts organizations. I also don't see schools as bounded by a K-12 limited time frame. I see birth- through life opportunities; pre-school, higher education, elderhostle. See, I have this vision of what is possible, and I have about 20 years of practical experience supporting the vision. But in order to make some leaps forward, have anything I publish be legitimized by others in the field, I'm going to boot camp.

I seek coaches who are going to help shape my vision into something acceptable to a field of other practitioners. They will provide readings in new disciplines, identify new areas of research and best practices, offer their experiences for inquiry and reflection and more importantly - KICK MY BUTT into publishing. I officially started a new Masters Degree in Educational Leadership this week.

It's not the degree, or the letters. It's academic legitimacy. As much as I think I know what I'm going; in academia, it's all about semantics.

*I should re-read my doctoral research paper on "The Orchestra is nothing but a Tribute Band if they don't Commission New Work."