Kathryn Bloom.

Kathryn Bloom. In general, history is made up of accounts and analyses that helpus understand who we are and how we have come to where we are.Oftentimes, we speak of "the history of art educators," butthere's no simple narrative that tells the full story. These arehistories. When you come down to it, our history is made up of accountsof people and institutions--their actions and ideas. As the years go by,I frequently pause to think about individuals who've influenced me.These thoughts and memories serve as the basis for this series,"Art Teachers I Have Known."--J.J.H. It was in the early 1950s when I joined the faculty of Ohio StateUniversity. My closest professional associate was Manuel Barkan, whopreviously had worked at the Toledo Museum of Art. Hence, it was noaccident Manny and I visited that museum frequently. On one such visit,we met Kathryn Bloom, who headed the museum's education program. What developed was an instant friendship. Kathy enjoyed pushing thelimits of what could be known about works of art. She was drawn to alarger perspective: how engaging with art could be generalized tounderstanding our encounters with everyday experience. No wonder! She had been a student at the University of Minnesotawhen the Owatonna Art Project was initiated in the 1930s. Funded by aCarnegie Foundation grant, a group of art educators from the Universityof Minnesota took up residence in rural Owatonna, Minn. The project was an organized effort to place the arts into thefabric of everyday living. The project team worked in schools,hospitals, libraries and other community centers. They organizedworkshops, lectures and other public events. The idea was to establish"art as a way of life." Following Toledo, Kathy served as a consultant for the Associationof Junior Leagues. In this position she worked directly in two areas:developing cooperative community relationships for planning andimplementing art education, and securing financial support for theseservices. She was a "community organizer" for the arts. In 1962, she was named the director of the Arts and HumanitiesProgram of the U.S. Office of Education. This was a period of change indeveloping governmental leadership on a national level. August Heckscher(1965) observed that the Office of Education had given scant attentionto the arts. Francis Keppel, then commissioner of education, appointedKathy as director of the Arts and Humanities branch. With Keppel in a position to deal directly with President Kennedy,and Kathy in a position to deal with Keppel (and his successor, HaroldHowe), her influence and that of the branch was great. With the passageof the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it became greaterstill, for Title IV of the act provided about $11 million for researchin art education over the next five years. From the outset, Kathryn Bloom set out to develop comprehensiveplans for instruction in each of the arts disciplines. Major seminarswere organized in music, dance, drama and the visual arts. One suchseminar was the 1965 Seminar in Art Education for Research andCurriculum Development, held at Pennsylvania State University. Itinvolved participants from art education, psychology, sociology, arthistory, art criticism and educational research. The Aesthetic Education Program (CEMREL) is one of the outcomes ofthe Penn State seminar. In later years, the J. Paul Getty Program forfostering discipline-based art education grew from these beginnings. In 1967, Kathy Bloom took on a consulting assignment for John D.Rockefeller 3rd. Her task was to develop several pilot projects thatwould explore ways to make the arts more central in our schools. Thisled to the formation of the JDR 3rd Fund Arts in Education Program,which she directed between 1968 and 1978. What I always found to be so powerful and persuasive about thepositions taken by Kathryn Bloom was her ability to balance a largerview of the arts in education with the very practical needs ofimplementation. She was an art teacher who moved easily in the world ofgovernment and foundations. Perhaps it was her early experiences in Owatonna or the ToledoMuseum of Art; perhaps it was her work in differing levels of operation,namely classroom teaching, meeting with community leaders or working atthe highest levels of government. Kathy Bloom always had that ability tograsp and articulate strategies for getting things done. But alas, life has a way of imposing unanticipated and unwantedevents upon us. John D. Rockefeller III was tragically killed in anautomobile accident. Soon after, in 1978, the JDR 3rd Fund Arts inEducation Program was terminated. Kathryn Bloom retired and moved to asmall and remote rural community in northern Michigan, where she died. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jerome J. Hausman is a visiting professor at The School of The ArtInstitute of Chicago and serves on the Arts & Activities EditorialAdvisory Board.