November 2, 2009

The 2nd Annual Oregon Arts Education Congress convened delegates of Oregon’s rapidly-growing arts education network, committed to the mission of: “Sustainable improvement to Oregon’s K-12 systems so that the arts play a key role in the education of every child.”

Over 400 members strong, the diverse and passionately motivated network connects once each year face-to-face to re-inspire one another, to learn together and to focus actions stemming from critical, statewide arts education goals.

This year’s Congress was held at the World Forestry Center in Portland. 156 delegates participated. With over 50% of attendees from outside the Portland metro region, the delegates included legislators, business leaders, teaching artists, classroom teachers, school superintendents, team members from Oregon’s Race to the Top team (Chair Vickie Fleming MC’d the Congress), academic deans, university professors and arts leaders from the nonprofit sector.

Congress results

• Affirmed Oregon's need for strong, visible, cross-sector leadership to accomplish the arts education mission.
• Synthesized Congress delegates’ response to Kim Stafford’s Declaration of Creative Rights and created a graphic that represents Oregon’s vision for improving arts education in our state. View the wordcloud here»
• Announced an expanded group of statewide leaders and engaged key education, business and legislative leaders at the Congress podium. Read more»
• Discussed and articulated a single, immediate goal: “to improve the arts-learning based preparation of Oregon’s classroom teachers.”
• Trained delegates on the online Oregon Arts Education Forum (and used it to document the Congress!) to continue the Network dialogue year-round. Sign up for the Forum today»
• Collected eleven arts-based team-building exercises, developed and led by delegates and posted here for your use. Download lesson plans here»
• Documented Hot Topic discussions (led by Marna Stalcup, Tim DuRoche and Greta Pederson), including: arts education program evaluation, arts education advocacy at the PTA level and “what motivates me to create.” Read the Forum discussion threads here»

Video footage of keynote speakers Rep. Jefferson Smith, Susan Mackay of the Opal School, Lewis and Clark Professor Brett Paschal and poet Kim Stafford are now available here.