Champions of Change

Champions of Change Blog

  • Integrating the Arts into School Curricula

    Posted by Kevin Maxwell on July 29, 2011 at 4:55 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

    I was honored to be one of the Champions of Change recognized by the President’s Council on the Arts and the Humanities during a roundtable discussion at the White House on July 19. The conversation an exceptional group of distinguished arts leaders and educators from around the nation had was a critical one, and the fact that it was held at the White House shows the nation the importance the administration places on the issue of arts integration in our schools.

    Clearly, the degree to which we are able to successfully infuse the arts into the education of our nation’s children will go a long way toward the progress we are able to make in competing with nations around the world. As noted author Daniel Pink writes in his work, A Whole New Mind, “The first group of people who develop a whole new mind, who master high-concept and high-touch abilities, will do extremely well. The rest – those who move slowly or not at all – may miss out or, worse, suffer...This new age fairly glitters with opportunity, but it is as unkind to the slow of foot as it is to the rigid of mind.”

    The challenge for all of us, I believe, is to find innovative ways to link our educational curriculum to the real-world experiences of our students. We must foster creativity, develop imagination, and enable students to envision alternative possibilities in problem solving.

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  • Every Child Deserves an Arts-Rich Education

    Posted by Joan Katz Napoli on July 29, 2011 at 8:32 AM EDT

    Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

    This past Tuesday I was honored to be among those selected as arts education Champions of Change and to have the opportunity to talk with Administration officials from the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education about the power of the arts to transform lives and ways to advance arts education.

    Our group included school principals, arts education providers, and television and movie actors from the Creative Coalition, all of whom believe that a child’s education is not complete without the arts. We were greeted by Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, joined by Peter Cunningham, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Dept of Education, and our round table discussion was led by Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Vice Chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. (Don’t miss the 2011 PCAH report (PDF), Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools.)

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  • Making the Case for Arts Education

    Posted by Scott Dawson on July 28, 2011 at 5:27 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

    First and foremost, I would like to thank the ultimate Champion of Change and author of creativity, God, for blessing me with this great honor and opportunity.  Thank you to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and White House staff for being a gracious host and for facilitating this round table discussion on Arts Education in America with the U.S. Department of Education, and thank you to the leadership at Clark State Community College for their support of the arts as a catalyst for change.

    I know the power of the arts firsthand.  It was visual art, music and performance that helped me as a shy, reserved youth learn how to express myself and to gain the confidence to one day make a difference in other lives through the arts.  Graciously dubbed a “Champion of Change” in arts education, I found myself at the White House surrounded by like-minded arts advocates that included fellow “non-profit arts warriors,” celebrity advocates from the Creative Coalition, the Vice Chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

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  • The Arts Fortify Skills Essential to All Areas of Study

    Posted by Gigi Antoni on July 27, 2011 at 7:01 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

    I am so honored to be named a Champion of Change, especially because my organization, Big Thought, works to radically shift the educational status quo. Our mission – to make imagination a part of everyday learning – echoes the emerging consensus that preparing children for success in the 21st century will be largely about creating agile, adaptable minds that are able to tackle problems with ingenuity and innovation.

    Eric Booth, noted author on creativity, once described art as humanity’s birthright. Each of us, regardless of social, economic or geographic differences, possesses a visceral need to create and express, to relate our experiences and understand the world around us. This is especially true for children, for whom the academic and developmental benefits of the arts and creative learning have been studied and validated time and time again. With these things in mind, bringing the arts to everyone – not just those with the means or predisposition to pursue their imagination – becomes an issue of social justice within our educational system.

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  • Giving Every Student a Chance to Succeed in the Future

    Posted by Christine Harrison on July 27, 2011 at 4:27 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

    On July 19, 2011, I was recognized at the White House as a “Champion of Change” by the Obama Administration. This honor included the opportunity for me to participate in a roundtable discussion, concerning arts education, with other fellow colleagues across the country. In addition, a Los Angeles group, known as the Creative Coalition, made up of several movie stars also participated in the discussion of educating children through the arts and expressed ways to keep the arts alive in America’s schools.

    It was a humbling experience to actually sit around a table in the White House, voicing my views on arts education, as well as listening to President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Education, Peter Cunningham, and many others, share their insight into the status of today’s arts education. Further, I was impressed to witness the passion of the President’s Art Committee, led by Dr. Mary Campbell, Dean of the School of the Arts at New York University, as well as several non-profit art education advocates. The education commitment of this administration was strongly felt around the room as discussions continued regarding the positive effects of the arts in the schools. My visit to the White House firmly validated President Obama’s vision to ensure that all schools in America successfully prepare children for lifelong learning and achievement. The round table session included the discussion of ways to reinvest in arts education. The President’s education initiatives, such as, “Race to the Top” and “Educate to Innovate” were pointed out as vehicles for schools to produce students that are not only academically smart, but innovative and have creative minds. We ended the round table discussion brainstorming strategies that will help to sustain arts in education.

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  • Taking a Chance with Solar Energy

    Posted by Ari Matusiak on July 27, 2011 at 1:13 PM EDT

    In the winter of 2007, Ella Jenness was like many Americans. She was looking for a job.

    After four months of unemployment, she joined a company with just six workers in a field almost entirely new to her. Most of her experience was in real estate, and this was a solar energy production firm. It was “a new challenge,” Jenness said.

    Today, that small company, Martifer Solar USA, has grown. The California-based business now has offices in Colorado and Connecticut. Martifer Solar will sub-contract out about 15,000 man-hours of labor. And the number of employees has jumped rather markedly – 983 percent, or 53 others to be precise.

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