[SML] Colleges and the arts

[Jon Ares]

I'm following this discussion too.... I hadn't really noticed what's going
on in the upper academia... but I can say, here in Oregon, and definitely
in my school district, at the high school level, tremendous effort and
energy has been put into working on the educational outcomes, and the
mental health of students, and one of the many outcomes has been the
addition of more "arts" focused classes, because, well... as we all know....

There has been some great impact on the efforts to include more CTE (Career
and Technical Education) - and we theatre folk have benefitted from this
influx of energy (and money). In addition to the acting classes and film
classes, on the "technical" side we have Tech Theatre 1, Advanced Theatre
Production, Sound for the Stage, Costuming for the Theatre, Dramatic Lit*,
and Playwriting. *Since there's CTE certifications involved in all of
these, which implies one could go out and get a job with this, the Dramatic
Lit has a component of Dramaturgy in it.

We have a "waiting list" of students that want these classes - they are
currently maxed out enrollment-wise. There is definitely a desire from our
high schoolers to take more "hands-on" classes... historically, my school
and district had been "All AP/All the Time" - and they've really been
stepping up the CTE side of things for a while now.

Let's just hope there will still programs in college/university for these
same kids that plan to attend...

 - Jon

On Sun, Sep 24, 2023 at 6:23 AM Bill Conner via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> Was surprised I missed or had not seen discussion here of colleges
> eliminating theatre (and dance, music, and other fine arts) programs and
> the faculty and staff positions associated with it. My undergraduate
> school, with a 40 or so percent decrease in the student body, is
> eliminating theatre and dance and 12 other programs, despite a relatively
> new $50m+ PAC.  Just read of other colleges/universities also eliminating
> theatre (and more) programs along with faculty and staff.  More than just
> theatre education, the de-emphasizing of higher education as a priority
> gives me pause.
>
> Thoughts?
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-- 
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com
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