Arts Learning Leadership in Minneapolis

Inquiry Questions

How can an integrated team of classroom and arts specialists, administration and arts partners help develop an arts plus arts integration unified community?

How can meeting weekly with each member of the team to develop, implement, present and discuss an individual action research plan in his/her own specialist area for team review contribute positively to unity in and through the arts for all staff and students?

Project Background

This project focuses on the need to develop the learning leadership of the arts specialists: music, visual arts, Latin American cultural arts, media, dance, movement. The goal of the team is to develop school unity through the arts. The first objective for the team was to develop a professional learning workshop for the entire Ramsey staff. The second objective was to establish an arts study group that would meet weekly.

Partnership Overview

Ramsey has been a Fine Arts Magnet school since 1989. Receiving Annenburg and Arts for Academic Achievement grants since 1994, Ramsey has developed and implemented arts partnerships with all grade levels and various artists and arts organizations in the Twin Cities community. Each year, every grade participates in an arts-integrated residency. With our partners, Ramsey engages in action research to determine the impact of these residencies on student learning, both in the arts and in other academic areas.

Ramsey was originally established 20 years ago as a fine arts magnet in the Minneapolis MN public school distict.  While the focus of MIENC is music plus music integration, Ramsey established an Arts Learning Leadership Team in order to focus on all the arts and arts integration.

Specialists within a school community are often isolated from one another and from classroom teachers due to union negotiations for specialists to provide “prep” time for classroom teachers  and/or spatial location of their classrooms.  In this case, as a result of the positive impact already observed from attending the MLL institute at the University of Maryland, Ramsey applied the model from last summer.  They created a similar group team configuration of arts specialists, classroom teachers and arts partners, directed by the school principal.  This is a brand new paradigm of leadership and collaboration, growing out of the MLL model.