Independent School Art Education

News from the Independent School Art Education (ISAE) Special Interest Group of the NAEA!

Barbara Nueske-Perez.  Collaboration.  Ink on Paper.  2010

Did you know that we exist?

The ISAE was formed in 2008 for the purposes of promoting art education through professional development, service, advancement of knowledge, and leadership in the independent school setting. This can only be accomplished through communication and relationships built between independent school educators and the NAEA. Many independent school educators are not members of their state art education association or even members of NAEA. The ISAE will serve as a driving force to recruit membership to the state and national level of the NAEA for the continued advancement of our profession. In the independent schools, there can be disparities in what is taught among schools and the standards they follow. By aligning with the NAEA and holding state conferences and national meetings, the ISAE will assess problems unique to independent schools and work to find solutions. In addition, we will bring to light exemplary practices in independent schools and work to share those successes. In particular, the ISAE will examine advocacy for the arts through the independent school sector. Further, the ISAE will work with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) at the state and national level to act as a liaison between the NAIS and the NAEA for the continued advancement of art education in the independent school.

In 2007, the Delegate’s Assembly of the NAEA approved for each state to create an ad-hoc position on each state board for an independent school representative. Do you know who your independent school representative is at the state level?

Since 2008, the ISAE has held annual meetings at the NAEA convention for the purposes of communication, organization, and to discuss issues as they relate to independent school education. We have MANY fantastic independent schools and wonderful independent school art educators across the country. Yet, very few choose to celebrate the creative programming that is happening in their schools. I hope that this will change! Independent school educators have the capacity to lead by example at the national and international level simply by becoming involved.

In conjunction with co-President with Barbara Nueske-Perez of the Tesseract School in Arizona, we have been working hard to gather membership and promote the art education programs in independent schools across the nation. We hope that you will join us! You can find more information about us on the NAEA website at: http://www.arteducators.org/community/committees-issues-groups/isae. On this page, you can subsribe to our listserve and “like” us on Facebook. We also have a .Ning site on the NAIS website at: http://isenet.ning.com/group/independentschoolarteducation

Join today! Promote your school! Promote your excellence in teaching in the classroom! Become an advocate for art education and become a leader in the field by example! All individuals professionally engaged in or actively interested in arts education, art or related fields may become members of the Independent School Art Education Special Interest Group.

-Rebecca Stone-Danahy