New York City has long been seen at the front of society in the United States and the world, and much of the city's education system is to this expectation. However, parts are either failing or being removed, such as art programs. Though there are countless reasons why art is being removed, the primary ones mentioned in this paper are the teachers, the government, and the students themselves. There are various organizations and patrons who support art programs in public schools, the Metropolitan Museum of Art being the largest in New York City. Because it cannot be tested or treated like other subjects, art requires a special touch and passionate teachers to ensure its success.
In 1624, New York City was nothing more than a Dutch trading post called New Amsterdam. Now, three hundred and eighty-six years later, it has become the most densely populated city in the United States, housing more than eight million people in 305 square miles (New York City, 2010).
During the Revolutionary War, the city was a pivotal ground, functioning as the British headquarters during the campaign. After the war, devastation in the form of a massive fire swept through the city, leaving twenty-five percent in ruins. In true New York fashion, the city rebuilt on a grand scale, quickly surpassing the United States' one-time largest city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to its rapid growth and success, the city became the obvious choice for the capital of the foundling nation and remained so from 1785-90. As New York City came into the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants came to the city. Driven from their own land by war, prejudice, or famine, the new citizens fueled the fires of war in the mid-1860s and succored shoddy politics that laid a foundation that still remains in present day New York. Tammany Hall, the ascendant political regime, ran the city more like a gang than a democratic party, that is until it was dethroned during the Great Depression (New York City, 2010).
The twentieth century roared into New York City with every stereotype that is commonly associated with the metropolis: rampant crime, high-power corruption, big-time gangs, and ephemeral money. Though attempts were made to control these problems, they generally went unhindered, that is until the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center woke the city from its customary slumber (New York City, 2010).
In addition to being one of the foremost cities in the world--a sister city of Tokyo, Rome, London, and others (New York City, 2010)--New York City also has the largest public school system in the world, which is not surprising considering the population (Education in New York City, 2010). However, New York schools did not start out being the best or the largest or even public. The first schools were mostly for the families who could afford them. Since there were no taxes or funding to pay for the schools, educators relied on either the church or the parents of the attendees for support. Eventually, schools were created for those who were left out: the ethnic groups, minority religions, and women. Many of these establishments are still teaching students today (Ratcitch, 2000).
There are currently over 1,600 public schools in New York City, with over one million students. Now, rather than receiving funding from individual families, the public school system earns its funding from the government, netting over twenty-one billion dollars per year (NYC.gov, 2010). Despite the amounts of money being distributed to schools, the education system is failing. Students lack standard reading and math skills, and standardized test scores are far behind the national average. In addition, on average less than fifty percent of students actually complete high school (Viteritti, 2000). However, all these problems are far from the minds of the eager students visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art today.
Woven through the streets like a serpentine convoy, the long line of yellow buses squeal to a halt at the curb of the ominous, gothic structure perched atop a small mountain of cold, stone steps looming over the street with the weighty presence of a storm cloud. Slowly, children erupt from the train of school buses and pour onto the sidewalk in a chattering puddle of youth and excitement. This is only one of the hundreds of New York City schools that visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year.
After climbing the languid, grey staircase, the children and their teachers pass under furling banners hanging between treelike Ionic columns advertising the current exhibit and enter the main doors facing Central Park across the street. Clattering into the impressive main hall or lobby, the children are counted and organized as the tour guide readies herself. The students' excited whispers echo off the marble façade of the vast room. Then, as the tour begins, all is quiet save for the low voice of the tour guide as she lets the rules be known, before drilling out the history of the museum, generally referred to as the Met.
From unassuming beginnings, the Metropolitan Museum has risen to become one of the best-loved museums and galleries that compose New York City's "Museum Mile." Receiving an Act of Incorporation by the New York State Legislature on April 13, 1870, the museum opened in February of 1872. Originally, the Met was nothing more than a small brick building housing a gallery on Fifth Avenue, the endeavor started by several men with the desire to establish an institution for the arts. Within a year, the collection had outgrown the small building and moved to a manor on West 14th Street. After moving back to Fifth Avenue, the Met has since grown to encompass more than an entire city block. The galleries and halls are neatly filled with over 5000 permanent works and countless, ever-changing others (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.).
Like the Louvre art museum in Paris, France, the cavernous two million square feet that comprise the Met make it impossible to truly see all the works displayed in one day without sprinting though the galleries, so the tour moves along a specific path (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). The first that the school group visits is the American Wing. Recently reopened after being unintentionally segregated for nearly 90 years, the collection of American art has gained new predominance. This kind of attention has not been seen since the 1920's when the works were used as a propaganda parade to reinstate patriotic feelings in patrons during a time that they were combating waves of war horrors and immigration. The collection also houses models of rooms and structures with American ties, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style homes. These have been added to the route leading to the American exhibit, so the children follow through the modern room in awe, learning about history and culture while viewing the architecture (Glanville, 2006).
From the American galleries, the troupe travels to the adjacent Modern Art groupings. This collection includes photographs, paintings, and sculptures by some of the most influential modernists of the twentieth century, housing works by Warhol, Evans, and Sherman along with hundreds of others. These works are usually the best favored or the most hated by everyone who visits the wing. The children are frequently drawn to them because of their colors and simplicity; they can enjoy them without having to know the meaning (Yablonsky, 2009).
After a break for midday meal at one of the nine restaurants housed within the Met (Dining at the Met, 2010), the children continue onward. First on the afternoon's portion of the march through the halls are the galleries that play home to the celebrated collection of art by European artists. The collection holds its fame because of its diversity; the museum has works by nearly all of the great European masters: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, etc. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). Today, the children's attention will be focused on paintings created by the skilled Dutch master's hands. Two of the biggest names that even the children have heard around their homes and neighborhoods are Rembrandt and Rubens. The founding fathers of the museum had no hopes of ever getting their hands upon a fine European painting, but grants grew during the industrial revolution in America, giving the Metropolitan substantial funds and an ever-growing collection of the masters' works (Lopez, 2008).
Like most of the other galleries, the African hall has a cornucopia of styles, eras, and artists composing everything under the large umbrella that is the category for African art. The students notice that these sculptures replicate the smoothness and simplicity of the modern pieces seen in earlier exhibits (LaGamma, 2001). At this point the children learn that all the art is related. They can see similarities between the classic Roman sculptures they passed in the foyer and the Dutch still-life paintings. They notice similarities between the European masters' portraits and the photographic portraits. With only the slight incentive of winning the tour guide's favor, they begin making comparisons of their own, critical thinking at its earliest stages (Mishook & Kornhaber, 2006).
Finally, with critical ways of thinking fresh in their minds, the school group ventures towards the last collection they will view on this tour, the exhibit featuring artwork from public school students all across New York City. This gives them the ultimate goal to aim for having their art displayed in the Met alongside the priceless relics of the art world (Call for student artwork, 2009). This is an event that most celebrated artists would sell their toes for, because getting a piece of art into the Met is one step from impossible (Wong, 2008). Perhaps by giving these children a hope and dream to aim for, they will return to their schools and demand that their waning art programs be returned, demand that their educations be completed.
From a distance, teachers watch over their students, their thoughts entirely unimaginable to the children. While most of them are checking their off-brand watches, sucking their teeth until it is time to leave, there are those who love their job, their students, and the art, and have faith in the future of all three.
But unfortunately, these passionate teachers know that at public schools art is a dying subject. Funding is either being distributed to new sports facilities, or as Audrey Amerin-Beardsley a professor at the College of Teacher Education and Leadership of Arizona State University knows, the funding is being shoveled upon the core subjects covered by standardized tests: math and English. The schools are desperate to do well on these tests to preserve or improve what funding they receive, but little of this funding is then redistributed to the cut art, drama, and music departments that were sacrificed to get the funding in the first place (2009). Being entirely subjective, art is nearly impossible to standardize, and therefore cannot even be added to the tests to bring focus back to the forgotten subject. However, this brings about the unsettling thought that if schools are suffering to the point of downsizing basic educational programs, then the rest of the subjects are probably being watered down as well (Howe, 1995).
Programs are available to help fund the underappreciated subjects, and many times these disciplines get more outside, non-government funding than the others, such as when Giorgio Armani donated one million dollars to art programs for New York City public schools (Hernandez, 2009). There are as many high-power designers, artists, and architects to pour libation into schools for their pet projects as there are scientists and writers supporting their foundational subjects. In addition, art institutes like the Met have also donated tremendous amounts. Two million dollars was donated to the museum for just such a reason by two longtime trustees; they said that the fund was to "restore arts education to all of our public schools" (Grant supports art education, 1997).
Even so, the outside funding might not be enough. The school has made this trip every year, but the teachers wonder how long the tradition will last. Will it be seen as a frivolous waste by parents who are pushing the sports theme? By having a simple art class, or even an advocate from the Metropolitan visit the school would be a start, but it returns to the problem of thinned, baseline classes.
Mark Graham and Alice Sims-Gunzenhauser, both educational arts professionals, have brought another possible option to light. When students reach high school, testing assesses the interest and talent of young artists for an advanced placement studio arts program. Began in 1972, the program reviews portfolios submitted by perspective students rather than standardized testing. Unlike admittance to the Met, the works are based upon usage, confidence, and capability of the students, not style or content. Some of the studio arts programs are actually run by local school boards while others are controlled by art organizations. The program allows serious visual artists to further sharpen their talents while bulking up their high school resume. Being an extremely rigorous syllabus, the students are prepared for life in the real world, having to have their work completed on time and for a select clientele. Teachers know that the desire for a well-rounded student is making a comeback in colleges and universities and wonder how the lack of art will affect the next generation, so most that are for arts are for the program (2009).
While the extermination of art programs is becoming a trend across the United States, New York City was one of the first to cut the elective. The effects of this cancellation on the students are endless. Dr. Marlow Ediger, a professor of education at Truman State University, offers one example. In rural parts of the country, art was not well received when it was included in the curriculum. Students in these areas are mostly children of farmers and have little interest for the classic arts. Drama, fine art, music, philosophy, and foreign language would all be considered pointless subjects by these students and their parents and teachers. They are under the misconception that because great-granddaddy was a farmer, and granddaddy was a farmer, and daddy is a farmer, they have to be farmers as well. If they do break the mold and take another career, it will mostly likely be a laborious, low-paying job, such as plumbing or carpentry, because they believe that they cannot complete or pay for a higher-level education and sequentially employment. This misconception is the way of thinking in most small towns across the American Midwest. In New York City, the removal of these programs unconsciously sends students in a similar direction. The children hailing from financially-challenged homes begin to think that only the rich children in private schools can enjoy and prevail at art. Paired with the already confined material being taught, students are further stunted. This is why art is not an authority in small towns, and why students are losing faith in the arts in big cities like New York City (1999).
Even in rural schools, arts are important, which is why it is necessary to at least have an arts program when an arts facility, like the Met, is not available. A professor of early education, Angela Eckhoff writes in her article on the importance of art in early childhood that while it is pertinent to have art in schools, it is just as vital for young children to be visually stimulated outside of their educations. In this case, the Met would not only provide the necessary intake of art during these children's fieldtrip, but it would also give parents a place to take their children on weekends, after school, or summer vacation if unable to watch their offspring due to work or commitment interferences. The Kalamazoo Institute of Art also offers such programs, as do many art colleges to give their students a chance to gain experience in the teaching field. Eckhoff also points out the need for competent, vehement art educators, like the ones recruited by the Teach for America program, but at an elementary school level (2007).
If an organization with enthusiastic members, such as Teach for America, Metropolitan Museum of Art, or even the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) program, was to develop and run the art departments in public schools, not only would the students benefit from lessons with dedicated, educated teachers, but the classes would be structured and deep. The students would gain respect for the subject by repetitively seeing the same reverence in their teachers. In addition to learning about the art, they would also discover how it is connected to other things, such as architecture and literature. All of these are beliefs stated by Jacob Mishook and Mindy Kornhaber, both holding degrees in educational theory (2006).
The government is another party who is thought to be responsible for the curtailed curriculum in New York City's public schools. Gideon Gartner, founder of the Gartner Group, is one who supports this theory. He says that while it is the job of the students to learn and the teachers to teach, the blame mostly rests on the wiry shoulders of governmental interference. Between unions, wasteful expenditures, and corruption that is prevalent in New York City schools, money is being lost and focus is being turned away from what truly matters: the students and their education. In addition to this, the subject matter that is being taught is subsequently controlled by the government. If the government were to keep its gummy hands out of the public school system save for funding, then the way that the students were taught controversial subjects like history and science would be decided by the school itself (1991).
This does present a problem to parents, because depending on the school and its administration, subjects could easily turn into propaganda for a belief. Art is a subtle way to taint students' minds says Robert Sweeny, assistant professor of art education at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A possible response after showing elementary, middle, and high school students controversial, violent, or politically charged artwork is that they would be influenced by these pieces. In this touchy situation, the ultimate decision as to the content of the art work that the students will view and study should be made by their parents or guardians for as long as the students are considered minors (2007).
Former director of Central Park East schools in New York City, Deborah Meier takes Gartner's side on the issue of whether children, schools, parents, or teachers are at fault for the mediocre educations that students are now receiving. She says that teachers should be brought up to the standards and levels at which they want their students performing. Between unions and conferences, teachers have lost sight of what truly matters. Government is a cruel tyrant over public education, because while it may not even notice, it pushes the main thought of the educators to money and funding rather than education. With the No Child Left Behind act, educations have been simplified and things, like art, have been forgotten (1995).
Most tragedies are unnoticed or quickly forgotten, like the 1995 Chicago heat wave (Klinenberg, 2002), the April 6th earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy in 2009 (McNamee, 2009), and little-known, slow murder of art in public schools. John Holden's article about the way that the government interacts with art and education says that art institutions have recently been shifting into a higher gear where public schooling is concerned by increasing their grant money going to schools. He has found that the reason art is no longer a common, mandated subject is because it was removed during periods of low funding or economic depression and was never reintroduced. After seeing an increase of interest in art, museums have planned and prospered, but schools are still lurking in the dark ages of their funding records (2008).
This research has also brought the question of whether art is still a relevant subject in schools even if it is considered by some to be a necessary one. Children of today are more interested in current trends and vices of gangs and drugs, video games and cell phones. Do they even care that art is suffering a holocaust at their expense? The enigma that retorts from this is like the ancient conundrum: what came first the chicken or the egg? What really happened to art? Did the lack of interest in art bring about a decline in funding, or did the lack of funding bring about a decline in interest? With organizations like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the CAPE program designed to help put art back into public schools, and wealthy sponsors rooting for their success, there are no reasons why arts should ever be an issue.
These are all dreams of the wishful teachers. As they follow their groggy children out of the museum, ushering as people on both ends of the age spectrum must be ushered, the two types of teachers are easily distinguished. The uncaring look tired and distant, but those that are there because they wanted to be there, are tired but enlightened. Yet again, something has sparked the revolutionary in them prompting them to start something bigger than themselves, but their salaries do not pay them to dream.
In every family, there is one member who is not like the rest of his kin; the same is true for the public education family. Art is that odd one out. Needing special testing and a different type of environment, art in public school is truly different. Though the subject is on the endangered species list, it can still be saved by those who are dedicated to the craft. Wealthy benefactors, willing teachers, and art organizations such as the Met can all work together to give students a truly unique and special education.
