A Thriving Minds Success Story

At Big Thought, our mission is to make imagination a part of everyday learning, and we do this daily for thousands of Dallas kids through the Thriving Minds After-School program. Giving kids opportunities to imagine possibilities and discover untapped talents is at the heart of this mission.

Prior to coming to the Thriving Minds After-School program at John Ireland Elementary, third-grader Mariyana Hill had never considered herself a dancer. Though the after-school program offered classes, she had never taken formal dance lessons. So when the Thriving Minds site manager asked who would be interested in attending a summer dance camp, Mariyana surprised herself by raising her hand, and soon found herself among hundreds of kids vying for a coveted spot at the Debbie Allen Dance Institute.

Held at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in June, the two-week program was created by famed dancer/choreographer Debbie Allen to introduce participants to a range of dance of styles, including ballet, modern, jazz, hip hop, African and tap. Despite her lack of experience, Mariyana snagged a spot at the camp.

“I was feeling scared, like I wouldn’t be able to pass,” she says of the tryouts. “But it was fun. We practiced the dances, and I pretended like it was my parents in the audience, so I was able to do it.”

Even more surprised was Mariyana’s mother, who had never considered this as an option for her child. But soon, she’d tapped into local resources to get Mariyana ballet and tap shoes and tights. Properly outfitted, Mariyana spent the next two weeks happily learning the difference between a plié and kick ball change.

The best part of the camp, says Mariyana was learning hip-hop dance, and getting to meet other kids from Thriving Minds after-school programs from around the city who had also been accepted into the program.

During the institute’s final performance, Mariyana was excited to perform for her parents. “My sister and uncle were there, too,” she says. “Afterwards they gave me flowers.”

The program, says her mother, has sparked a passion in her daughter that wasn’t there before.

On the first day of the after-school program in August, Mariyana ran up to the Thriving Minds site manager and asked with a big smile, “Mr. Spiller, can I please go to the Debbie Allen Dance Institute again this year?”

Her passion sparked, Mariyana is now continuing her dance lessons through the after-school program and even dreams of one-day attending Booker T. Washington. Imagine that….

Social Media Fire & Brimstone vs. Creative Social Media

Guest-blog by Big Thought President/CEO, Gigi Antoni

I’m somewhat of a newbie at the social media thing, but it seems that when most experts talk about it, they take on the characteristics of a southern preacher. At conferences and in newsletters, techies and marketing gurus scrunch their faces and point their fingers to demand, “You have to be using social media at your organization. You just have to. You’ll be lost in the crowd without it.”

The gist of the social media message has thus far been fire and brimstone. If you don’t have X followers on Twitter and don’t have a large enough Facebook presence (presence sounds so extraterrestrial, doesn’t it?) your organization is doomed to social media limbo, always missing out on would-be donors or volunteer hopefuls.

In this way, social media has become exactly what it never was intended to be; a tool that makes your life harder. For personal use, the purpose of social media was to connect people, provide venues for them to express ideas, thoughts and to share them with the world. With social media came extraordinary videos, fascinating exchange and millions of blogs powered by everyday Joes who wanted to write about life, network TV or any other topic under the sun.

But more importantly, for those of us in the creative world, the arts became something, well … cool, thanks to social media tools like YouTube. Instead of audiences of hundreds who watched a symphony, an unbelievable multitude of millions were wowed by the creativity of bands, dancers, and even string players who became memes of extraordinary popularity by merging innovation with creativity.

As artistic and creative nonprofits, we tout the importance of innovation all the time in connection with the arts. We convince non-arts lovers of its importance in the lives of our young ones because it means that they will be able to thrive in a new world with new challenges. Unfortunately, we can say it until we’re blue in the face but until people see it, hear it, read it or live it, the prospect of creativity falls decidedly short in the minds of our constituency.

This is where social media comes in. Far from being an obligatory process of routine tweets, relationship-less exchanges or a begrudging step into the 21st century, its very existence provides us the opportunity to show the world what creativity can mean. And this doesn’t always mean posting videos of a program or writing newsletters about our work. It could simply be a young virtuoso on the piano. It could be a TED video which would spark conversation. Or it could be tweets from our staff about what instrument they played or creative activity they take part in with their friends or family.

Social media doesn’t have to make our lives harder. It can make our lives incredibly easy. We only have to leverage what people have already shown that they love … creativity and innovation. These are the open doors that will draw people into our work in arts and education. All along, we’ve been focusing on the work itself, and ignoring the work’s inherent ability to amaze people and make them say “That’s so cool!” And voila, the would-be volunteers or arts and creative learning supporters are right in the palm of our hands.

Follow us on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter so that you can share the cool and creative videos, songs, organizations, social media ideas and anything else that you are buzzing about. Together we can show the world what creativity looks like in everyday life!

Gigi Antoni
President/CEO, Big Thought

Super (Bowl) Special Photo Friday!

Check out this awesome short commercial about Slant 45! These will start airing on Fox 4 this weekend - see if you can find one during the ad breaks between your cartoons and favorite family shows.



Kids: to sign up for Slant 45, check out the registration page with a teacher, scout leader or parent. Then get your friends together and start brainstorming about how you can make a change for the better in your community!

Quality: A Meaty Subject

What if I told you that I was gonna fix you a steak dinner, but when you came to my house to eat it the kitchen was infested with ants, the steaks had been sitting out all day and I served 'em on a paper plate? Very quickly, you’d realize that even a steak dinner can be an unenjoyable experience if the quality isn’t there. That’s why Big Thought holds Quality Panels - to make sure what Dallas is serving up in- and out-of-school is grade A, prime-cut teaching and learning…

The eighth triannual panel kicked off last Wednesday with a BANG! Fine arts teachers from Dallas ISD, community arts and culture pros, Big Thought staff and national arts education hotshots came together at the Meyerson Symphony Center (home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra) to dig into arts programs in Dallas.

Our task was to go out into the community to watch teachers teach and children learn and then come together in groups based on discipline (theater, visual arts, music and dance) to talk about what we saw. We talked about strengths - how much better the training and support for arts education is now than when we began this process and what we can do to call attention to that. We talked about weaknesses - what's still not clicking, what we need to do to fix it and how we can share the responsibility.

It was an eye-opening experience for many - even veterans of the Quality Panels saw things that were new and different; and that, after all, is the point. We use this in-the-room research and observation to help us make arts education better both in- and out-of-school. It's not for our benefit...it's for the benefit of our community partners, who've stood with us for the last 20+ years to get fine arts back in the curriculum and in the hearts and minds of the citizens of Dallas. It's for the benefit of the educators, who deserve the support and opportunities to improve their techniques and discover new ways to reach children. Most important of all, it's for the benefit of the children of Dallas, who deserve an unparalleled education that prepares them for success throughout their lives.

Now: who wants that steak dinner?

Our Daily Reading List

At Big Thought, we believe it's important to stay informed about everything that's going on in the arts, education, public policy and the news in general. Our work demands that we be familiar with the trends in our industry and the latest research; to keep our knowledge current, we read several blogs every day.

Our Internal Communications Manager scours the web daily to send the staff and board of Big Thought the "Daily News" - a compendium of education, policy and arts-related articles and blog posts from the likes of Eduwonk, the Dallas Morning News' Dallas ISD Blog and Americans for the Arts' Artsblog, among others. These articles help us stay abreast of everything from TAKS score reports for the Dallas ISD to opportunities for advocacy on the state and national levels to studies on the benefits of charter and early-college schools.

Since our work is so deeply entrenched in the North Texas community, we also find time to read local news blogs like D Magazine's FrontBurner and SweetCharity, KERA's Art & Seek and the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park. In addition, since our work is centered on increasing the number and quality of creative learning experiences for children of all ages, we frequent local "Mommyblogs" like the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Mom2MomDFW and BurbMom to read about what local parents do with their children and what additional educational opportunities they're seeking. These resources keep us in tune with the sentiment of our local community, which is very important for our work.

Finally, we like to indulge our inner nerd every once in awhile with blogs like Imagine That! from Psychology Today and the TED blog. Imagine That! always features great new statistics and scientific evidence for the importance of imagination and creative learning on brain development - topics dear to our hearts, minds and mission. The TED blog brings us inspiration through their coverage of wide-ranging topics from education policy to healthcare to climate change.

If you are a parent, educator or donor interested in staying current like us, check out our brand-spankin'-new Daily Reading List on the right-hand side of the blog. It's still a work in progress, but it features many of the blogs and websites we visit daily to keep ourselves in-the-know. Have ideas/suggestions about other useful blogs? We love to discover new things! Leave us a comment to tell us what you read!

Pulling From Both Sides of the Aisle

Pulling From Both Sides of the Aisle
By Gigi Antoni
(from the December 09 issue of The Big Idea)

There’s a saying that goes “There are two kinds of people in the world— those who put things into two categories, and everybody else.” Here at Big Thought, we’re everybody else. For many in the field of art—or the broader world of creative learning—there is a tendency to divide camps when it comes to ideology.

The first I’d call “art for art’s sakers,” those who evaluate the arts based on its inherent importance. The Wallace Foundation commissioned a RAND report to study how the arts help and change individuals. The study found that exposure to music, dance, theater and visual arts improves cognitive development, offers health benefits (such as increased quality of life) and provides numerous other advantages for individuals in their personal growth.

On the other side of the aisle are those who see the arts as a solid foundation that plays a central role in society; the arts can act as an economic boon or as a mechanism by which we can achieve wide-scale social change. Researchers in this arena focus on how creative endeavors help raise test scores and provide a meaningful opportunity for children to engage in school and in life, among other things.

A 12-year study conducted by James Catterrall, an education professor from the University of California, found that students from low-income families were twice as likely to have low arts involvement, while students from high-income families were twice as likely to have high arts involvement. Catterall found that those with high-arts involvement, regardless of socioeconomic status, showed substantial and significant gains in achievement and life skills. Essentially, when we deprive our low-income students of artistic and creative experiences, we are taking away a sure-fire, statistically-backed method for engaging them. With this information, how can we not reasonably call the work that we do at Big Thought an issue of equity?

It’s hard to ignore the fact that the arts are important all on their own, or as a catalyst for educational and social change. The answer of its value isn’t either/or, it’s all of the above.

We hear comments from students all the time, such as “I never knew I could do anything right before this class.” Other times, a student might simply raise her hand in music class—a monumental feat in the life of a painfully shy wallflower. These are great examples of the inherent value of the arts that we see each and every day in classrooms and communities across Dallas.

But that’s not all we see. We’ve seen partners and communities aligning with one another, coming together around the arts. Through the arts, we continue to grow and serve hundreds of thousands of children and families across Dallas. Our assessment team has shown us that the arts improve scholastic investment and achievement, with results that are truly inspiring.

Big Thought is making differences each day, in big ways and small, in ways that we measure and in immeasurable strides that are changing the way that people see arts education and creative learning. Whether you believe that art is important on its own or for its value in improving education and our community in general, we’re pulling from both sides of the aisle to create a better future for children and families across Dallas.

Get to Know: Library Live!

Library Live! has been a part of our program lineup for 16 years. This free monthly pre-literacy program takes place in every Dallas Public Library branch, where Big Thought artists present interactive, educational and culture-based literacy activities for children and their families through music, dance, storytelling and visual art.

This year, Library Live! is sponsored by Target, a corporation known for its generosity and dedication to community giving. The program is overseen by Ann Symns, Big Thought's Program Operations Manager. Each month, Ann books different artists for each of the 26 branches of the Dallas Public Library. Just in the past month, preschoolers in Dallas have had the chance to make a song with musician Doc Gibbs, practice yoga with Lynn Moon, learn about nursery rhymes with Dorayne Breedlove and much more.

Library Live! is one of our most important programs because it is meant for children at a critical developmental age - and their parents and caregivers. The techniques taught in each program are replicable by parents, so the learning continues long after the families have left the library. Thanks to the generosity of Target and the hard work of our Big Thought artists and staff like Ann, we are able to offer a pre-literacy program to the children of Dallas that will help them develop the critical skills they need to succeed in life.

(Belated) Photo Friday!

Better late than never, eh? Here's a special Photo Friday slideshow of screen grabs from the DaVerse Lounge performance at Backbeat Cafe last Friday. People of all ages showed up to the open-mic spoken word showcase, hosted by Big Thought artist Will Richey and including backup by the band Melody Memory. For more information check out the Daverse Lounge MySpace Music page - and join us at Backbeat the second Friday of December for the next performance!

5 Things We Know About Quality

Quality is perhaps the most important characteristic of a successful arts education and creative learning program. While it is a major accomplishment to increase the raw numbers of creative learning opportunities throughout a city as large as Dallas, the opportunities must also be high-quality to have an impact...thus that is an area on which we've focused our Research & Assessment lens for the last 2 years.

1. Get out your yardstick. Though it may seem too qualitative or subjective, quality of arts education and creative learning MUST be measured. One of the greatest contributions of Thriving Minds' work to date is the design of both a framework for understanding the dimensions of quality teaching and learning and a set of tools that measure it year to year.
   
2. It takes a village. Our effort to examine quality in this rigorous way has been aided by a team of nearly 50 practitioners and researchers, including local teachers, arts organization representatives, Big Thought staff and national experts in various creative learning subjects. It has been based on over one hundred observations followed by discussions and further refinements of the tools. In short, measurement of quality takes the participation and collaboration of many, many people, all committed to securing the best possible education for the city's children.
   
3. The more you know. High-quality learning opportunities require high-quality instruction. In order for today's teachers and instructors to be prepared and capable of teaching at a high level, they need to pursue continuing education and professional development. Data from the quality panels indicate that in-school and community instructors alike need to build more time for creative choice make as well as assessment and reflection into their curriculum. Professional development workshops have been designed to provide strategies to promote more of this type of teaching and learning.
   
4. Take time to make time. Another aspect of quality is in the area of teaching or instructional time. Quality panelists often found that instructors feel pressed for time and often this is why they feel unable to open their lesson to students input and creative choices. Thus, students are limited to always following instructions and never having time to innovate. Armed with this information, the Thriving Minds After-School Program decided to lengthen creative learning from 45- to 90-minutes instructional blocks.
   
5. The results are in. One of the most compelling studies we've done involves the creative work of students involved in ArtsPartners. Student writing was collected and compared before and after participating in community creative learning programs chosen to support classroom curriculum. Community programs strengthened students’ achievement. Here is an example of the change in one student’s writing, as illustrated in our research publication “Enriching Minds, Growing our Future.”

The Case for After-School

Eighteen months ago, Dallas ISD and Big Thought began forming plans for a free after-school program for the elementary and middle schools in the district. Recognizing that it was a great complement to existing Thriving Minds community efforts, Big Thought began developing the logistics of the program and pursuing funding. We received a 21st Century Learning Center grant from the Texas Education Agency in 2008, hired more than 100 new full- and part-time employees and set up shop in 20 elementary and middle school sites all over the city in October 2008. Now in year 2, the Thriving Minds After-School Program offers free after-school care including homework help, academic tutoring and creative enrichment programs from 3-6pm, Monday through Friday, to 2,000 students in Dallas.

There's been a lot of buzz about after-school lately, with the release of the Afterschool Alliance's America After 3pm data. Despite 26% of Texas schoolchildren still being left unsupervised between the hours of 3 and 6pm (up from 24% in 2004 and tied with the national average), Texas still ranks in the top 10 states as far as after-school supply and demand.  However, of those top 10, Texas is one of only 3 not meeting the after-school demand with a statewide program, which places more responsibility on the individual organizations - like the YMCA, Dallas Afterschool Network, and ourselves, with the Thriving Minds After-School Program - to meet the demand. Currently, 51% of Texas schoolchildren not in after-school would be likely to participate if it were available to them; that's well over a million students statewide.

Though an increasing number of parents and students recognize the need for after-school care, cost of the program and transportation issues are consistent barriers to access. And families are not the only ones recognizing this need: David Kunkle, chief of the Dallas Police Department, wrote an Op-Ed article for the Dallas Morning News recently about the benefits of after-school programming. Kunkle sees it as a deterrent for three important issues facing Dallas students: dropout rates, juvenile crime and the participation in risky behaviors such as drugs and gangs. Here are some of the things he pointed out:

• Every $1 spent on after-school saves taxpayers $8 to $12 that would later be spent on crime, welfare and other costs.
• Right now, 100,000 Dallas County children between the ages of 5 and 13 are left unsupervised after school, and those kids are less likely to graduate.
• The students who need after-school the most - in low-income areas - are still the least likely to receive it, due to space issues.

Considering the current state of the economy and the fact that many parents are having to work multiple jobs just to stay afloat, it is more important than ever that our children are receiving proper after-school care and supervision. Thriving Minds After-School is devoted to providing a safe place for students to spend those critical hours between 3 and 6pm, as well as offering new opportunities that enhance their classroom learning. To learn more about our after-school program or any of the others listed here, visit the links above. Also, if you have the time and inclination, look into volunteering to help out at a local program.

Guest Blog - Judy Danielson, Community Site Manager for Mills Elementary

Please welcome Judy Danielson, our Thriving Minds After-School guest blogger! Judy is in her second year as the Community Site Manager for the after-school program at Mills Elementary School in Dallas ISD. We will feature her posts every week or so to keep you apprised of what's going on!

We had another fun week in the Thriving Minds Afterschool program at Mills Elementary. Fourth and Fifth graders talked and wrote about why they love themselves. For some, this task was difficult. We did lots of coaching about positivity and the great assets we all have.

Last week my students finished painting portraits of the person in their lives who makes them laugh. They did some outstanding work. You will be able to see their work displayed in the windows of Barney’s department store at Northpark Mall. The paintings will be on display after Nov. 9. They all worked very hard and I am so proud of them! I got lots of hugs and high fives this week. Also, several new pieces of artwork for my office, magic marker stains on my pants, a shirt damp with tears and runny noses, and one apple. The perks that come with this job are outstanding! And yes, we do use tons of hand sanitizer.

We finally had one sunny afternoon for some of the kids to play outside. Fresh air and outdoor play make all of us – kids and staff – feel so much better. Second and third graders planted some flowers for their room and they will record their growth. They also talked and journaled about ecosystems. Kindergarten and first grade played Alphabet Bingo. It’s a fun sort-of-back-door-way to work on letter recognition and letter sounds. They are happily learning and don’t realize it.

On Thursday night we had a Family Fun Night celebration in recognition of national “Lights On Afterschool” night. Our families had fun eating dinner together and doing some fun art projects. I love the support my parents show me and the thanks I get from them. Many parents know that their children need a safe and nurturing place to go after school. One of my students, Necovia, cried the other day because her mom came to pick her up too early. She wasn’t finished with her painting, was having fun and wasn’t ready to go home yet. Little things like that let me know I’m in the right place.

-Judy Danielson

 Community Site Manager, Mills Elementary

 Thriving Minds After-School Program

Dallas ArtsPartners kicks off the 2009-2010 schoolyear with a BANG!

Big Thought has been coordinating curriculum-enhancing programs for Dallas ISD elementary schools every year since 1998 with Dallas ArtsPartners, an innovative partnership including the City of Dallas, Dallas ISD and dozens of arts & cultural organizations all across North Texas. Through Dallas ArtsPartners (AP), we provide training and manage funding for the programs and help link elementary school teachers to more than 60 arts & cultural partners, in order for them to provide their students with educational arts experiences.

To help all those DISD elementary school teachers, we rely on 15 part-time staffers, mostly retired educators - known as the AP Representatives. This year, all 15 are returning veterans with lots of practice running workshops and fielding questions from the teachers at the schools they represent. Those 15 Reps are backed up in the office by our awesome and oh-so-efficient AP team. These capable folks train the AP Representatives and the 156 Site Coordinators; verify the vouchers for funding - over 1500 so far this schoolyear, with more to go; and confirm the programs with the schools and the arts & cultural providers. WOW!

Since September 2, the AP Reps have been out in the field at the schools they represent, doing full-day workshops to help the teachers finalize their programs and create vouchers for funding. 95 workshops have been done as of right now, with the remainder to come before the beginning of November. This has kept the AP team back at the office busy answering questions and troubleshooting issues, since a day could have as many as 10 different workshops happening all at the same time!

This year also marks the 3rd year of a collaboration between Dallas ArtsPartners and the Fine Arts Department of the Dallas ISD to give every single fourth-grader in the DISD a special educational tour of the Dallas Museum of Art. This is an incredible opportunity - and that program kicks off next week with the first fourth-grade tour.

For more on our programs and partnerships, see Our Programs on the Big Thought website.

New Website Feature: "5 Things"

If you've been to our new website recently, you may have noticed a fun new gadget at the bottom of our homepage. Our staff, board, artists and providers are all residents, parents and students just like you, so we thought we'd get our heads together and try to help you find fun, creative ways to spend your days. Rather than throw ALL that information into one big list, we decided to break it up into smaller lists of "5 Things" - 5 Things to DO, 5 Things to TRY...you get the picture.

Then we decided to take it one step further and add some unique content. To that end, we've had our staff collaborate on a how-to guide for museum visiting; had several Board members help us make a list of ways to advocate for the arts; and created a primer for the new SLANT 45 program. You can check all of those lists out in our Archive.

This week's topic is 5 Things To Do This Weekend in Dallas - including visiting the State Fair (we even found deals to make it cheaper!), riding on the McKinney Streetcars through uptown and checking out programs and classes as well as books at the Dallas Public Library. We're sure you've found plenty of fun (& free!) things to do in Dallas, so we want to open this one up to collaboration from YOU: what are YOUR weekend family plans? Got anything free or low-cost that you're attending? Let us know - and stay tuned for next week's topic: 5 Things To Write, featuring writing activities and exercises used by Big Thought artist Will Richey!

Photo Friday - SLANT 45 Announcement pics!

Former Pres. George Bush, Emmitt Smith, Jordin Sparks and hundreds of DFW Metroplex middle-school students! Enjoy!

Slant 45 kicks off with a BANG!

There's a new DFW service-learning partnership under way - with Big Thought at the helm!
We were chosen by the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee to form an unprecedented yearlong education partnership. Named Slant 45, this project promises to be one of the largest community-wide service-learning programs for children in U.S. history.

We kicked off Slant 45 on September 21st with a press conference at Cowboys Stadium. In attendance were Super Bowl MVPs and famous Cowboys football players like Roger Staubach, Daryl Johnston, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Cliff Harris. The football greats were joined by Former President George Bush and his wife, Laura, NFL Senior Director of Events Frank Supovitz, Richard Holt, President of Bank of America Dallas, North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee CEO Bill Lively and our very own Gigi Antoni, President/CEO of Big Thought - as well as several hundred DFW Metroplex students anxious to learn what this new project is all about (and get some free lunch from Chick-fil-a!). There was even a special guest - American Idol 2007 winner Jordin Sparks sang a few songs and energized the crowd!

More about the project:

• Slant 45 stands for "Service-Learning Adventures in North Texas," in cooperation with Super Bowl 45 - and it's also the term for a popular play used by the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s!
• The purpose of Slant 45 is to inspire local kids to research community service opportunities in their neighborhoods and submit a project. What makes it a service-learning project is the opportunity that those students will have to reflect on what they've accomplished and the impact it's had not only on the community, but also on themselves.
• Big Thought is developing a curriculum and method for researching, choosing and reflecting on projects. It will be available for students and group leaders when the project actually begins in early January 2010.
• Slant 45 is mainly for student groups and classes around grades 3-5, though other age groups are certainly welcome. We hope to affect 20,000+ students all across the DFW Metroplex, inspiring them to commit to upwards of 45,000 hours of community service.

Want to know even MORE? We've collected articles and blog posts about the announcement on our News & Media page, and the Slant 45 website is also available with more information on how to get involved.

Help us help kids to make a BIG difference in their community!

Day 1 of Thriving Minds After-School

The Thriving Minds After-School program kicked off its second year Aug. 31 at 20 Dallas ISD elementary and middle schools. The program offers free after-school care to more than 2,000 students in grades K-8, and was a huge hit last year. Each school is staffed with a Community Site Manage, Assistant Site Manager and Creative Site Guides who provide students with homework help, academic tutoring and fun enrichment activities.

We’ll soon launch an additional Thriving Minds After-School program in South Dallas through generous funding from Chase. Expect to see Thriving Minds After-School programs at every Dallas ISD elementary and middle school over the next several years.

Check out Day 1 of the after-school program at Twain Elementary:

Reflections on the Conference Call with Arne Duncan

It was exciting to participate in the conference call arranged by The NAMM Foundation and the Support Music Coalition on Tuesday, August 18th, with the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

Arts education advocates have become used to hearing leadership at agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Education Partnership or Americans for the Arts speak on the value and critical need for arts education in our country. But I had to pinch myself as I listened to the United States Secretary of Education emphasize the national Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)which defines arts as a core subject, how arts play critical roles in extended day education, and also about how the arts have significant impact in the developmental and learning process for all children.

He reiterated ways that school districts can use funding from the Department of Education to support arts education in many ways. Examples are Title I funds, Title II funds, the Department’s grants for model development and dissemination – and the list goes on. Equally important are the funds that are sent to state governments to support arts education. Secretary Duncan emphasized the importance of advocating to our state agencies; support for arts education must be strong at the state and local level as well.

Big Thought was a sponsor of the second Dallas Arts Advocacy Day event just two days after that phone call with Secretary Duncan. We met and conversed with arts advocates and administrators from all over the city to discuss new and better ways to encourage our patrons and program participants to advocate for the arts in their lives. Economic impact studies done on the arts both nationally and locally make their value plain to see; it’s now up to us to use what we’ve learned to inspire others to take up the charge.

Nancy Webb
Vice President, Organizational Advancement
Big Thought

Supply, Demand & Quality

Supply, demand & quality of creative learning opportunities in the city of Dallas are the focus of much of our research and program assessment & development. We network with families, cultural providers, educators, community organizations and many other partners to determine the following:

1) Supply - what creative learning opportunities are available to the residents in each neighborhood of Dallas?
2) Demand - what creative learning opportunities are the residents in that area asking for?
and
3) Quality - what is the level of quality of the opportunities available?

The Wallace Foundation has a great collection of speeches and presentations on these and related subjects that have been gathered from a organizations nationwide, who, like us, are working to increase the quality and availability of creative learning (and arts education) throughout their cities. You'll find two of our presentations from the annual Americans for the Arts conference among the collection.

Got questions? We're happy to answer 'em - just email us to find out more about what we're learning.

Well HELLO there...

Nice to see you - so glad you're here!

We're Big Thought, an education partnership nonprofit that coordinates creative learning programming in-school, out-of-school and in the community here in Dallas, TX. You may know that we have been hard at work for 20 years reintroducing the arts to schools in Dallas that dropped those subjects from the curriculum well over 40 years ago.

What you may NOT know is that we are now branching out more and more into out-of-school time and programming in the community....and that's where this blog comes in! Here you'll find some more detail about who we are, what we do and why we do it. We'll also give you the lowdown on our research and what we're doing with the things we're learning from you. Got questions? Check out our website for answers - or email us!