Masterpieces by Picasso, van Gogh, and Degas hang in New York City museums; world-renowned ballerinas grace the stage at Lincoln Center, and groundbreaking artists sing in the Apollo Theater. But children growing up in this city won’t have the opportunity to contribute anything to its cultural scene if their schools are artistic wastelands.
That was the message that actress Phylicia Rashad delivered Tuesday at a City Council committee hearing on the state of the arts in city schools.
“What a lot of people don’t get is that music and dance class is what keeps kids in school and wanting to learn,” Rashad told the education committee.
Rashad, who is best known for playing Clair Huxtable on 1980s television sitcom "The Cosby Show," said that even while attending a segregated black school in Texas she checked out music instruments every day after school. “Carrying that clarinet home was a badge of honor,” she said.
Education committee co-chair Domenic Recchia Jr. (D-Brooklyn), asked Rashad why art is important.
“Arts at the very least are humanizing,” said Rashad, who began her acting career on the Broadway stage. “When we hear a beautiful song, we experience the human heart, soul, and mind.”
Last month, the education department released its first annual Arts in Schools Report, which looked at the prevalence of dance, theater, music and visual-arts classes in city schools, as well as the level of student participation in each. It found that while some schools are doing an “outstanding” job in educating students in the arts, others had a long way to go.
For instance, only 4 percent of city elementary schools offer classes in all four art forms in every grade, as required by the state, pointed out Councilwoman Jessica Lappin (D-Manhattan).
Councilwoman Inez Dickens (D-Manhattan), described one elementary school in which the music room contained a sour-sounding piano and a violin with a missing string and bow. And that’s the norm in the city’s public schools, she said.
She and other members of the education committee hurled tough questions about the report at the Department of Educations’ deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, Marcia Lyles, and its arts educator, Sharon Dunn. Members also accused the department of sweetening its statistics, at least a little.
For example, one school reported that it has a full-time dance teacher, but offers no dance classes. Dunn said the dance teacher may be teaching another subject.
Lyles also said that the department’s art standards instruction template, “Blueprint for the Arts,” was adopted as a national model.
Recchia, who is running for Congress in the 13th District, blasted the department for allowing arts programs to quietly die inside the city’s schools. For instance, Dunn said the department claims to have spent an average of $366 per pupil on arts education in middle schools, $295 in high schools, and $292 in elementary schools, said Dunn.
But Recchia’s said his office investigated and found that the schools did not actually spend this much on students’ arts education; rather, some of that money was funneled in other directions.
In Venezuela, every school has a music program, and as a result there are youth orchestras at level, said Councilmember G. Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx). “Certainly Venezuela should not be ahead of New York City, but they are,” he said.
-- Amy Larson