National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE)
Report by Julie Dyson, Chair
The NAAE met in Sydney for its Annual General Meeting on Monday 29 April, where I formally stepped down as Chair as from 1 January 2020.
The Chair-elect is John Nicholas Saunders, the Drama Australia representative on NAAE, an experienced teacher and now Director of Education & Community Partnerships at Sydney Theatre Company. John will be an excellent Chair, and at NAAE’s request, I will continue to work with him as Immediate Past Chair in the coming years. Read on >>
It has been a great privilege to chair the NAAE for the past two decades, especially during the period of intense advocacy and successful lobbying for the inclusion of five art forms in the Australian Curriculum: The Arts.
Dance now stands alone as a separate subject in the curriculum from F–10, and the work of the two Ausdance National reps on the committee, Dr Jeff Meiners and Sue Fox, has been central to this success. Their knowledge, skills and advocacy have ensured that Dance is now recognised throughout Australia as being worthy of study in the curriculum, along with all other subjects.
To celebrate its 30thbirthday, NAAE is also preparing to launch its new website during UNESCO’s International Arts Education Week at the end of May, along with the 2019 revised edition of our seminal publication More Than Words Can Say – a view of literacy through the arts.
First published in 1998, the writers in this edition – including Ralph Buck in his chapter, The Language of Dance – continue to advocate for arts literacy to stand alongside other more traditional forms of literacy as an important part of student learning. As Margaret Barrett says in her Music chapter:
In developing students’ capacity to participate fully in the life of work and the work of life, it is essential that we foster students’ skills, knowledge and understanding in the languages of all art forms.
NAAE will announce plans for the launch of its new website and More Than Words Can Sayin the coming weeks.