Congratulations, Ms. Friedman

Dr. Adams, Principal of the Walnut Street School, passed along information about our elementary art teacher, Gina Friedman. He wrote to inform me that a paper Ms. Friedman completed in conjunction with her graduate school work on school leadership and the arts was accepted to be part of the 2009 International Conference of Arts in Society.

Ms. Friedman will fly to Venice to be one of the speakers at the conference this July. The 2009 Conference will be held in Venice, Italy, 29-31 July 2009, in conjunction with the Venice Biennale.

According to the website for the conference, "the 2009 Arts Conference will address a range of critically important issues and themes relating to the arts in society. Plenary speakers will include leading thinkers and practitioners in the arts, as well as paper, workshop and colloquium presentations by researchers and practitioners in all fields of artistic engagement."


The following is how Ms. Friedman’s paper/session is listed on the website:

Art Education and the Role of School Leadership in a Diverse Society
By: Gina F. Friedman

Educators today face a myriad of challenges and changes as they strive to address the needs of increasingly diverse, ethno-racial communities (Hollinger, 2000). Within these challenges arises an opportunity for the development of a new paradigm for school leadership: one that has much to learn from the arts.

This paper asks many questions, and posits some possible solutions. How can the arts in public schools have a wider influence, helping to close the Achievement Gap? How do we, as artists, educators, and school leaders help to bridge the socio-economic divide in the K-12 American public school system (Payne, 2001) in order to pave the way for the type of change that can address our needs from a global perspective? What role can educational leaders play in raising the status of the arts in their local communities? (Fullan, 2001)

Some underlying issues will be identified, and the parallels between artists and leaders will be explored. (Gardner, 1999) Implications for school superintendents, principals and policy makers will be addressed, specifying what they can do to reduce the inequity of arts access between wealthy and poor school districts.

2009 International Conference of Arts in Society