Arts Education Task Force
The Texas Cultural Trust convened the Arts Education Task Force to discuss and clarify what constitutes equitable access in arts education for Texas students. Funded by Houston Endowment and The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts, the Arts Education Task Force is comprised of more than 30 of the state’s top academics, educators, advocates, philanthropists, and leaders from the fields of the arts and arts education, including Dr. Doug Dempster, Dean at The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts; Professor Roxanne Schroder-Arce, Director of the UTeach Fine Arts program in the College of Fine Arts; Dr. Brent Hasty, Executive Director of MINDPOP; Dr. Gary Gibbs, Executive Director of Texas Commission on the Arts; Florence Shapiro, former Texas Senator; Long Chu, Program Officer at Houston Endowment; and Barbara Cargill, member of the State Board of Education.
Monthly meetings between August and October 2018 concluded in the creation of an evaluation tool to be used by campus and district administrators to identify levels of arts access in education. Members of the Task Force have piloted the tool and additional pilot studies are currently being conducted across Texas. Once the rubric has been tested, our hope is the rubric will be used by the Texas Education Agency and district administrators to evaluate levels of arts education access across Texas and support growth and advocacy for equitable arts education.
Arts Education Task Force Members
Christopher Anderson, Arlington ISD
Kris Andrews, Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts
Barbara Cargill, State Board of Education
Sara Chapman, Texas Art Education Association
Cinda Christian, MindPOP
Long Chu, Houston Endowment
Denise Cochran, Texas Dance Educators Association
Doug Dempster, The University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts
Bruce Esterline, The Meadows Foundation
Gary Gibbs, Texas Commission on the Arts
Risa Ginther, Texas Parent Teachers Association
Charles Glover, The Meadows Foundation
Ann Graham, Texans for the Arts
Brent Hasty, MindPOP
Travis James, TXP
JD Janda, Texas Music Administrators Conference, Tomball ISD
Mary Lou Johnson, Texas Dance Educators Association
Paul Kretchmer, Texas Art Educators Association
Linda LaMantia, Texas Cultural Trust
Julie Linn, Shapiro Linn Strategic Consulting
Deborah Lugo, Arts Connect Houston
Mary Curry Mettenbrink, Young Audiences of Houston
Patricia Moreno, Texas Music Administrators Conference
Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, ExcelinED
Judy Robison, Texas Cultural Trust
Wenden Sanders, Houston ISD
Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, The University of Texas at Austin UTeach Fine Arts
Carla Schumann, Texas Educational Theatre Association
Tina Seaman, Texas Council of Women School Executives
Florence Shapiro, Shapiro Linn Strategic Consulting
Michelle Smith, Raise Your Hand Texas
Heidi Marquez Smith, Texas Cultural Trust
David Stevens, University Interscholastic League
Julia Webber, Eanes ISD