I recently had the pleasure of speaking with the Executive Director of Office of the Arts and Special Projects at the New York City Department of Education, Paul King. Mr. King has had an interesting journey to arrive at this current position, and is chartering an exciting course toward the future.

NYSAAE: You grew up in Colorado and earned your BA in Theatre from Colorado College. You went on to earn a MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College. Were those experiences back-to-back, and if not what were you doing in the in term?
Paul King (PK): No, there were several years between. I worked for a number of years as a stage manager and assistant director, primarily in opera for a number of different companies including the LA Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. I then came to New York and worked for New York City Opera on the directing staff for seven years. I went on to serve another seven years there as Director of Education. During my time at City Opera, I returned to school for my MFA.
I began my time at the NYC Department of Education as the Director of Theatre programs in 2004. After four years in that position, I was named Interim Acting Executive Director of the Office of the Arts and Special Projects. I became the Executive Director in February of this year.

NYSAAE: For our many readers who are outside on NYC, can you explain the role of the Office of the Arts and Special Projects?
PK: The office is staffed by six people: a full time specialist for each of the four discipline areas and two directors dedicated to supporting our schools with the ArtsCount program. The work of the office is divided into three parts: developing standards and curriculum materials in support of the schools, providing support to teachers and principals through our leadership development programs, and fostering partnerships between public and private sector organizations in support of the arts.
This is no small task—the New York City school district includes nearly 1,600 schools and serves 1.1 million students.

NYSAAE: The NYC DOE ArtsCount initiative is now entering its third year – are there any trends emerging now that the data can be compared over several years?
PK: Now that we are in our third year, a number of interesting trends are becoming evident. Over the past three years we have seen:
- an increase in the number of full time arts specialists hired
- an increase in overall spending on the arts
- a decrease in dollars spent on partnership programs and
- a decrease in dollars spent on materials and supplies
While it is encouraging to see more teachers being hired, we also see that budgets have gotten tighter, and that principals are reducing spending on partnerships and materials. However, in order to truly institutionalize an arts program in a school, there is the need to invest in an arts teacher.

NYSAAE: We have all heard the stories of public schools in New York City who have a brief artist residency working with a cultural partner and that is all that constitutes their arts offerings for the year. In your experience is that occurring?
PK: I think that is something of an urban legend, if for no other reason than that it is cost prohibitive to bring in a teaching artist or cultural partner and attempt to meet the minimum standard requirements on arts instruction time. At the middle and high school level, that is not even an option. The state standards require that teaching be done by a certified professional.
Ideally, we want to see a licensed arts teacher to anchor the program collaborations with classroom teachers and partners from cultural organizations in order to augment arts programming. All of this combined will provide the appropriate scope and sequence and the range of arts learning that every student needs.

NYSAAE: The NYC Blueprint for Teaching the Arts is an incredible tool - how have you seen it being used both in NYC and beyond?
PK: We receive inquires from around the world on the process of formatting and developing our Blueprints and how they address both content and performance and examine what kids need to know, understand, and be able to do. All of the Blueprints for Teaching and Learning in the Arts are available online for free for download.
One-fifth of the blueprint is dedicated to using community resources to build rich experiences with practicing artists both in and out of the classroom. Schools face a real challenge in meeting the state requirement of 20-percent of all instruction time being dedicated to the arts in grades kindergarten through four – the Blueprint offers a resource in meeting the challenge. I believe that schools that fall short do not suffer from a lack of will but rather have multiple demands placed on limited time and resources.

NYSAAE: What projects are you excited about in the Office of Arts and Special Projects?
PK: We are in the second year of our Leadership Institute for Arts Education, funded by the Shubert Foundation. This three-day retreat gives participating principals and their arts in education liaisons the opportunity to envision and develop a plan to bring the arts into their schools.
And just last month we issued the first-in-the-nation Blueprint for the Moving Image. This joins the Blueprints for each of the four arts disciplines as a guideline for developing arts curriculum. We worked with the Tribeca Film Festival as well as the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting on the development of this piece.

NYSAAE: What would you say to those who claim that schools in NYC are not doing enough to enforce the NYS Standards on arts education?
PK: There are 1403 schools that participated in last year’s ArtsCount survey. Each school has an individual arts report that can be used by parents, members of the New York City Council, prospective cultural partners, and representatives of the higher education community to investigate the arts offerings at each school. Part of these individual school reports is a statistics page that breaks down arts instruction time by class, grade, and discipline, as well as by provider (arts specialist, cultural partner or general classroom teacher). Compliance with the state requirements on arts instructional time is also part of the annual principal’s compliance check list, which would draw attention to any deficiencies.

NYSAAE: Where does your office stand on Arts integration into other curriculum areas?
PK: In addition to supporting the arts being connected and taught in conjunction with other disciplines, we know that the arts has its own rich content and practices. Art fosters imagination, creativity, and innovation in a way that few other disciplines can. While some elements and practices in the arts are undoubtedly useful in supporting other subjects, there is discrete content derived from the arts that can only be gained through dedicated arts instruction.
That is not to say there is not a place in the public schools for cultural partners and teaching artists – both are valuable resources that can supplement the work of the classroom teachers and arts specialists to ensure that all students have positive outcomes in the arts.

You can read more about Paul King in an interview posted by the NYC Department of Education - click here.

And learn more about the Office of Arts and Special Projects at the NYS Department of Education - click here.

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