Art seems to be the first thing cut from a budget, destroyed in a riot or banned for being misunderstood. It's a scene from a popular movie, but it could happen in any school across the country. \n"If I'm forced to choose between Mozart, reading and long division; I choose long division," said the principal in a line from the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus". \nArts and its funding is a controversial and touchy issue -- now as much as in 1995 when "Mr. Holland's Opus" opened in theaters. It appears that due to legislation, the tide is turning in favor of arts education.\nBut the arts haven't always been protected.\nSherry Rouse, curator of campus art said art plays a very important role on the Bloomington campus.
STOLEN ART\nRouse said Showalter Fountain has always been a campus icon and a center of meetings and movements. However, it is often vandalized, like when students rioted after former basketball coach Bobby Knight was fired.\n"Currently, the fish in the very front of the fountain is a tuna, not the original dolphin," Rouse said. "That dolphin was stolen and has never been returned, so the tuna was put back in its place. We all hope that the dolphin returns someday."\nParts of Showalter Fountain are not the only pieces of art on campus that have been stolen. \n"SOUL," a bronze statue depicting artist William Snapp's idea of world peace and love was ripped from its marble base in the IMU gardens in April of 2002 after the men's basketball team lost to Maryland.\nRouse said the trend of destroying art work at the campus as a result of unpopular events isn't fair to those who appreciate and create it. \n"The reaction I have to any theft or desecration of works of art is anger and sadness at the disrespect shown," Rouse said. "Not only to the piece, but to the people who have come to know and love that piece."
CONTROVERSIES ABOUT \nHISTORICAL ART\nWhile most of the art on campus is known, it is not necessarily loved by all.\n"The Thomas Hart Benton murals in the IU Auditorium, Woodburn Hall and the IU Theatre are probably the largest, single art treasure at IU," Rouse said.\nSince Benton's "The Cultural and Industrial History of Indiana," part of which depicts the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross, was hung in Woodburn Hall in 1941, it has been a subject of controversy. \nThe mural shows an artistic timeline of the history of Indiana, making it a valuable piece of work. \nIn 2002, the Black Student Union questioned the mural's placement in an educational institution. After substantial review, former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm decided to leave the murals in Woodburn 100. She made it a requirement that every class which meets in the room watch a video discussing the mural and explaining its relevance. \nBrehm believed education was the best way to handle the mural and Nancy Webber, a doctoral student in art education, believes it's one of many reasons of why arts education is important in the schools.\n"(The arts) provide the correct balance you need to have a well-rounded understanding of life," Webber said.\nThe government agrees. Listed with reading, science and math as a core academic subject in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the arts. \nCarla Aguilar-Thoele, an associate instructor in the School of Music, admits the law has helped to implement arts into schools, but she feels it is just the first step. \n"Arts education is mandated by the state of Indiana so there has to be arts education because it's the law," Aguilar-Thoele said. "However, the amount of time that's required is extremely minimal." \nBrent Gault, assistant professor of music education, said because of the minimal time requirements, educators need to become savvier than they were in the past in how they use the time they do have.\n"I remember being herded into a cafeteria and singing for 30 minutes from a textbook," Brent said. "Now when I visit schools, I see the teachers having kids sing, move, play instruments and compose music."\nTime isn't the only problem arts educators have to face. Testing is an issue that plagues both staff and students.\n"It's a complicated kind of thing," said Webber. "When our society decided that we only have to look at things in qualitative testable ways of giving worth in subject areas, it put all other subjects at a disadvantage. "
ARTS IN EDUCATION\nJunior Jennifer Shuck is studying to be a junior high school music teacher. She already realizes the control tested subjects have over the budget.\n"Tested subjects are where the money goes," she said. "Schools are pressed to have kids pass tests. So when it comes time to cut funding somewhere, it's not going to be from math or science."\nAguilar-Thoele said she thinks the idea of testing the arts is not a productive one.\n"People, because of the state of American education, are so focused on testing and assessment that they want to test and assess music, and it's really hard to do that because everybody gets something different," she said. "I think they need to think of it more in a music for music's sake sort of way."\nHowever, Shuck has a different view. She said because schools are so focused with testing, art teachers should try to compromise.\n"Find something to test because you have to be proving the kids are learning something," Shuck said. \nAdvocates for art education emphasize that the arts can be integrated into the classroom which could improve testing.\n"There's lots of chants that we use that have to do with counting money with elementary students," Aguilar-Thoele said. "There's a song called '50 Nifty United States' and it goes through all of the different states in alphabetical order and it might be a way that students remember the 50 states."\nEven though the job market is not what it used to be, students like Shuck are not too worried about finding jobs.\n"I think the job market is in desperate need of arts teachers," she said. "No, I'm not worried."\nGault said she shouldn't be. \n"We're fortunate enough to have a very high placement rate," he said. "The Midwest has a tendency for very strong arts programs."\nEnid Zimmerman, a professor in the School of Education, said students in her visual art education program have an almost 100 percent placement rate if they're willing to work outside of Bloomington.\n"Bloomington is overly saturated with the arts," Zimmerman said.\nThe saturation could work toward arts educators' advantage. \nAguilar-Thoele said she believes one way to help arts funding is to make communities comfortable with art in general. She thinks it's important that children get an excellent arts education and the only way to do that is to educate the adults first.\n"If adults had more opportunities to go to orchestra concerts, to attend other live music venues and they felt comfortable with that, they would opt to do that more often than go to the movies or staying home and watching television," she said. \n"I think you really have to educate adults," she said. "It's going to have to start with that. You're still going to have to educate the children, but I think some more top-down education has to happen. More adults need to be educated."\nAguilar-Theole feels people are hesitant about the arts because of the attitude associated with orchestras, opera and theater.\n"Because it's so expensive ... they feel like it's inaccessible because there's such an elitist idea with orchestras and opera and theater that people separate themselves."\nGault said he thinks giving children a strong arts education will help to stabilize the arts in the schools for the future. He said he believes if students grow up learning the importance of art and to value it, they will be more likely to support it in the future.\nShuck said she believes the best way to keep the arts in the school where she will eventually end up teaching is to get involved in the community.\n"Do the best you can at it," she said. "Be passionate about it. Show why your program should be funded and actually teach the kids something."\n- Contact staff writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
