History – The Founder

For the next three years, Anne led various school wide art projects and put together a business plan for a nonprofit organization. She recruited a Board of Directors and began hiring contract artists as she could afford. As teachers began to work with Anne and became more familiar with the arts, they started requesting regular art instruction for their children. As a result, ArtsNow set out to determine the best way to accommodate these teachers' needs and wants. Providing the art instruction weekly proved ineffective, as teachers received no direct benefit other than a coffee break while someone else helped their students engage in real learning! Asking classroom teachers to provide art activities themselves with no developmental support was also fruitless. The result was the formation of the "Art Hour." This simple method of asking the entire school to engage in some creative activity simultaneously proved extremely successful as teachers became the center of the organization's focus. During this time, Anne visited each classroom and provided art project ideas, encouragement and, at times, art supplies. At after-school faculty meetings, she challenged teachers to try new ideas and stretch their own creative abilities. This has developed into what is now a primary component of our work and the focus of one of our two central programs: teacher development.

Meanwhile, a friend at Leo Burnett Company heard about the St. Joseph painting and inquired about purchasing a smaller student artwork for her office. Other individuals from McDonald's, Winston & Strawn, and Harris Bank soon followed. Corporate executives called in orders and students hand-delivered their artwork to the executives' offices. Beaming with pride, the children were amazed to be taken seriously. The funds they earned went back into the school as art supplies and programs the teachers requested. This process eventually grew into what is now the Corporate Art Program.

Previously, Anne was employed as an Advertising Executive servicing major Fortune 500 clients such as Procter & Gamble, Frito-Lay and Nestle Foods in advertising agencies such as BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi and J. Walter Thompson. She earned a BS in Communications from Georgia State University, a Master of Science in Advertising from Northwestern University in Evanston, and her MFA in Painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

A true leader of Atlanta’s arts in education community, Anne was a recipient of the Martin Luther King Innovation for Change Award given by the Rollins School of Public Health and the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. Most recently, Anne was instrumental in helping to secure full passage of House Bill 291 to create the Georgia Arts Alliance which is a public-private partnership for support of the arts and arts policy in Georgia. Anne is married to Robert and is engaged in bringing up their son Joseph, born 2001. She continues to paint regularly and sells her oil paintings occasionally.

History – The Organization

How did we get here?

We have always been  a “learning organization” adapting our work to the needs of educators; utilizing existing resources and believing that the work of teams is more powerful than the work of individuals to inspire change and produce results.

1992-2002

Creating Pride Mission was to “create stronger learning environments in whole school communities by helping teachers make the arts a regular part of every child's learning. To help school communities (1) utilize the arts as a vehicle for change, (2) institute a weekly, school wide, simultaneous "Art Hour" during which time classroom teachers share an art activity with their students, and (3) identify and develop a school community Art Leader who assists teacher peers in the weekly challenge of incorporating art more regularly throughout the curriculum.

KEY INFLUENCES

Original philosophical underpinnings inspired by business leaders and education change agents:

• Peter Drucker’s concept of “Knowledge worker”- empowering those with specific skills to influence strategic direction.
• Stephanie Pace Marshall, founding Executive Director of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in IL: "Human systems, like most of nature, are not predictable; change is non-linear and learning is dynamic and patterned. Human beings do not follow the logic of cause and effect. We crave connectedness and meaning, we seek lasting and deep relationships, we grow by sharing and not keeping secrets, and we need to trust and be trusted in order to feel safe enough to dare. If we want to create learning communities that continuously renew and re-generate themselves toward higher levels of complexity, we must ground our organizational transformation and leadership in the science of our times and we must create conditions for the purposeful and soulful exchange of people and their work.”
• Max DePree (40 yr CEO/Herman Miller Co.): “Organizations need a new reference point for what caring, purposeful, committed people can be in an institutional setting. Corporations, like people who compose them, are always in a state of becoming.” AND “Beauty and Harmony must become a red thread through an organization and all that it does – products, services, communications, facility, sales strategy, and management.”
• Robert Greenleaf (AT&T): “ Servant Leadership”– To serve first, to withdraw and allow creative ingenuity to develop, able servants with potential to lead must lead.”
• Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline/1990): “ Vision of a learning organization as a group of people who are continually enhancing their capabilities to create what they want to create – a place where people continually expand their capacity to create results they truly desire.”
  

2003-2005

Creating Pride Mission was “Ignite creativity in others through artmaking.” (Teachers and students).

KEY INFLUENCES

• Metro Atlanta Arts Fund 2004 Report: “Stability requires the ability to survive tough economic challenges on tight budgets, to grow wisely, to take advantage of opportunities when they arise and to leverage the talent and expertise of sage advisors and coaches. In short, stability requires a keen understanding of the ‘business’ side of the arts.”
• Phillip Schlechty (40+ year School Reformer): “Inventing Better Schools” – best teachers never give up – like great marketers!
• Met Dr. David Myers/GSU via introduction by National Arts-in-Education leader (Dennie Palmer Wolf) who was introduced by John Bare/Blank Foundation. “Creating Pride is doing work no other group in US is attempting. Keep it up.” (Became 1st Primary Collaborator!)
• Met Pamela Millice/GSU – independent consultant via intro by Dr. David Myers

2006-2007

Creating Pride Mission: To ignite creativity in others through artmaking. We focus our efforts primarily in school communities inspiring teachers to create engaging work for students so our children succeed socially and academically. We also offer corporate executives the opportunity to positively impact school communities and children’s lives.
   

Mission in Action

We utilize existing resources in school communities in order to build capacity, inspire a mindset and create an infrastructure among the full faculty that is self-sustaining. We encourage teachers to lead each other in creating engaging work for students in the classroom, while addressing existing school reform models. We train Art Specialists to become leaders in their own school communities who implement the Creating Pride Model (Art Hour, Art Leader team, Artmaking Workshops for the full faculty and Art Supplies). We engage students in a job experience that mimics real life as they create artworks, hand deliver them to executives and raise funds for art supplies and teacher resources for their school.

2008-2010

ArtsNOW Mission: To improve education by equipping teachers with professional development and resources to bring creativity and the arts into daily classroom instruction so students succeed academically, socially and artistically.

Established Primary Collaborators Partnerships with Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education, Emory University Department of Theater Studies, Georgia State University School of Music, the Savannah College of Art & Design/Atlanta and The National Consortium for Music-in-Education.

ArtsNOW is dedicated to improving education by building the capacity of our teachers with professional development and resources. The professional development starts with a 2.5 day Foundational workshop for school teams training them to become key influencers throughout the school and school system. It continues with follow-up workshops, consultations, planning sessions, model teaching demos and curriculum resources (both print “Ignite Curriculum Guides” and video “Co-Trainer Workshop Videos”). Developed and delivered by Executive Director Pamela Walker Millice with five primary collaborators: The trainer team also includes two Program Directors: Dr. Maribeth Yoder-White and Darby Jones, as well as an additional 20+ other teacher leaders across the US.

In the Press

Click on cover image to download articles.

Atlanta Woman March 2006

Chicago Tribune May 1998