Committee Report | October 2011

Cultural Education Committee

October 18, 2011

Time:  10:15 – 10:55 a.m.

Location:  146 EB

REGENTS COMMITTEE ON CULTURAL EDUCATION

Regent Roger Tilles, Chair of the Cultural Education Committee, submitted the following written report.

Your Committee on Cultural Education Committee had its scheduled meeting on October 18, 2011.

In attendance were committee members: Regents Tilles, Dawson, Rosa, Cea, Jackson, Cottrell

Absent was Regent Bendit.

In addition to CE Committee Members, in attendance were:  Chancellor Tisch, Regents Norwood, Phillips and Chapey, Commissioner King and Executive Deputy Commissioner Grey.

ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION

Chair’s Remarks: Regent Tilles welcomed everyone and opened the meeting and distributed a protype of an arts education symposium on Long Island.  Regent Tilles noted that there is a follow-up meeting on November 12.  Regent Tilles suggested that the Board of Regents pursue an arts education summit in Albany, based on the model from Long Island.

Regent Tilles also invited members of the committee to a meeting with the New York State BOCES Arts in Education Network to be held in meeting Rooms 216 A and B immediately following the board meeting.

Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cannell introduced the item for discussion today:

CE (D) 1 – Office of Cultural Education History and Program Priorities

• Resource allocation priorities: legal mandates, collection management, research,  initiatives in support of local institutions, history of cultural education in the department

This Item is a continuation from the September meeting, regarding resource allocation priorities for the Office of Cultural Education including priorities that address the competing obligations of stewardship, public programming and coordination and outreach to cultural institutions statewide.

There was lively discussion about the priorities.  Regent Dawson introduced the concept that collections stewardship also includes use of the collections through research and suggested that the priority reflect the importance of use of the collections to support research.  He encouraged OCE to seek ways to make the collections available to researchers, collaborate with other institutions and foster greater use of the collections outside of SED.  Dawson also suggested that OCE organize a working group to develop strategies for increasing collaboration of institutions in support of collections use.

Commissioner King suggested that the primary objective of the item was to define the areas where “disciplined attention” should be focused and that by focusing on specific objectives and avoiding the diffusion of an increasingly limited set of resources, great things could be accomplished.  The Commissioner cited the success of the recent 9/11 travelling exhibits as a way in which the collections and their use could be leveraged to increase public service, and collaboration with other USNY institutions.

The meeting concluded with a charge from the Commissioner who suggested that the next committee meeting include a discussion of the proposed projects that OCE will pursue over the next 2-3 years that are in alignment with the priorities articulated at this meeting.