The WH Blog: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools and the Arts

Posted by Melody Barnes on May 12, 2011 at 9:34 AM EDT

Over two years ago, when the President and the First Lady first arrived here at the White House they were adamant that they wanted the arts to be alive and well here at the People’s House.

And they started inviting artists to visit and perform - jazz musicians, then country music stars, classical musicians, Latin singers and dancers, Motown greats and, just yesterday, America’s best poets and spoken word artists.

But it’s not all about artists coming here to play for the First Family.

The President and the First Lady believe it’s imperative that the best, the brightest and the most creative should share their talents, their secrets, their successes – their failures -- and teach and inspire the next generation, like Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Kenny Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, and Aimee Mann did yesterday at an afternoon student poetry workshop in the State Dining Room.

The arts are not just for those who go on to become professional artists. Research shows that girls and boys, young men and women who have art classes are more likely to be engaged in their classes, attend school, achieve better test scores, and graduate.

In fact, just last Friday, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities released a stellar report, Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools, which details the powerful role that arts education strategies can play in closing the achievement gap, improving student engagement, and building creativity and nurturing innovative thinking skills.

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Rightardia couldn't agree more. Art and music are essential to the development of the child. There is more to high school than math, English  and American football.


What did the GOP legislature cut in Florida  when the economy went south: music and art? However, the high school football programs were not affected by the budget cuts.


Rightardia has pointed out that football is an expensive sport that is almost completely dominated by male athletes. Most high schools could operate both a boy's and girl's soccer team for less cost than the typical high school football team.


Music helps develop math skills because of the mathematical basis of most music. art is essential to developing a creative spirit, something that is often lacking in the Us business community.


Joy Behar was interviewing Kim Cattrall and asked her a prov active question about UK media.


Rightardia had always though Cattrall was born in Canada, but she was actually born in the UK and her father moved to Canada after WW 2.


Cattrall indicated UK media is better than the US because the industry is subsidized by the government which trains people for acting, set design , lighting, costume design, and so forth.


Canada does this as well with the Canadian Film Board.


In the Us small subsidies to Public Broadcasting such as National Public Radio and CSPAN have been made controversial by the GOP.


How unfortunate. This may explain why many people in the arts consider the US to be a cultural wasteland.


If you ever have been involved in a TV production, you will know how complex it is. In the UK people are trained to make good productions. In the US people learn by trail and error.

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