Policy Issues in Connecting Music Education with Arts Education

Abstract

Abstract In 1976 Charles Fowler wrote in the College Music Symposium of several national trends in arts education. Indicative of what Fowler called a new arts education, the trends included increased cooperation among arts disciplines, infusion of the arts into academic subjects, and broader representation of all the arts in the curriculum. His thesis was that changes in the field of arts education properly challenged music educators to “broaden our bases, to burst our narrow specialties, to seek a multi-dimensional focus.” In support, he identified two specific programs funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the United States Office of Education (USOE): the Artists-in-Schools (AIS) Program, and Interdisciplinary Model Programs in the Arts for Children and Teachers (IMPACT). Characterizing these efforts as a “developing phenomenon,” Fowler suggested that the policy direction they represented would require of music educators “a new process of transaction-with the other arts, with artists, ... and with the entire community” (p. 24). The purpose of this chapter is to review arts education policy developments over the past 35 years, including the trends Fowler identified, and to consider issues that have affected the relationship between music education and the larger policy arena of arts education. Arts and Humanities Program of the U.S. Office of Education (1965-1974) Federal support for arts education found its first home in the Cultural Affairs Branch of the Division of Library Services and Continuing Education of the USOE. The Cultural Affairs Branch, established in 1962, was later renamed the Arts and Humanities Branch. In 1965 it became the Arts and Humanities Program (AHP). Until its demise in 1974, AHP served as the primary administrative venue for federal support of arts education. Kathryn Bloom, AHP’s director until 1968, also functioned as special adviser on the arts and humanities for the commissioner of education, Francis Keppel.