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Musical Merchandise Association of the United States.*

National Association of Colored Women.'

National Association of Musical Merchandise Manufacturers."
National Association of Music Merchants."

National Association of Piano Tuners.

National Board of the YWCA's of the United States of America."
National Bureau for the Advancement of Music.❜

National Child Labor Committee.

National Congress of Parents and Teachers.

National Council of Women of the United States, Inc.'

National Council of the YMCA.'

National Education Association."

National Exchange Clubs.

National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs.
National Federation of Music Clubs.

National Kindergarten Association.
National Recreational Association.*
National School Band Association.'
National School Orchestra Association."
New Jersey State Teachers Association.
New York State Teachers Association.
North Carolina Education Association.
North Central Music Educators Conference.3
Northwest Music Educators Conference.3
Oklahoma Education Association.
Ontario Educational Association.

Pennsylvania State Education Association."

Pennsylvania Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Phi Mu-Alph Sinfonia Fraternity.3

Piano Manufacturers National Association of America."
Rockford Teachers Club.3

Salvation Army.

Southern Conference for Music Education.3

Southwestern Music Educators Conference.'

The Folk Lore Foundation.

Vermont State Music Committee.

Vermont State Teachers Association.

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.3

Western Arts Association.

Wisconsin Teachers Association.

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you very much and thank you for bringing Miss Lawler's report.

I will ask unanimous consent that Miss Lawler's report be included as part of the record and also that these communications in support of the legislation be made part of the record: A telegram from the Texas Art Educators Association; a telegram from Lydia Joel, the editor of Dance magazine; a letter from William Bealmer, president of the Western Arts Association; a letter from Mimi Benzell Gould, of New York; and a letter from the New York Opera Festival. (The documents referred to follow :)

3 Organizations which appointed official and accredited delegates to attend the meeting.

70259 0-61 -4

The Arts in the

Educational Program

In the Soviet Union

VANETT LAWLER

MUSIC EDUCATORS NATIONAL CONFERENCE A Department of the National Education Association

1201 Sixteenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

43

The Arts in the

Educational Program

In the Soviet Union

VANETT LAWLER

A

MISSION dedicated to the arts in education program

of another country is a fortunate assignment. Two broad fields are involved-the arts and the program of education-and, therefore, a period for study and visitation should be provided adequate to encompass the two fields, and, in the case of the Soviet Union, commensurate with the vastness of the country. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics covers an enormous amount of territory-one-sixth of the surface of the worldlarger in territory than the combined geographical areas of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. There are fifteen Republics, the largest and most popu

lous of which is the Republic of Russia. In the Soviet Union more than sixty different languages are spoken.

The mission on the arts in education officially represented the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare and went to the Soviet Union as a functioning part of the 1959 Cultural Agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union and the Department of State of the United States. There were three members of the delegation: Mayo Bryce, Specialist in Fine Arts, United States Office of Education; Ralph Beelke, Executive Secretary, National Art Education Association; Vanett Lawler, Executive Secretary, Music Educators National Conference.

The delegation was assigned the following fields in education on which to develop a report within a period of one month: music, painting, sculpture, dance, theater. While the assignment was primarily directed at the formal program of education in the arts in the schools, the report (by no means intended, as comprehensive for the entire Soviet Union!) must necessarily embrace the entire education program which, in the Soviet Union, is also carried on outside of the formal educational program in the schools. The latter is particularly true as far as the arts are concerned, and, within the field of the arts as well as in the formal education program, the major emphasis in this connection is on music education.

IT IS OBVIOUS that a study or survey in any field in so vast a country over a four-week period could actually touch only a very small portion of the total land or population. However, as the days and the weeks of the monthlong period went by, it was also obvious to the members of the delegation that probably no mission sponsored under the Cultural Agreement had a more pleasant or rewarding assignment than the one devoted to the arts in education. From the day of arrival in Moscow until the day of departure, also from Moscow, as well as in the intervening weeks, there were serious discussions on a high professional plane regarding the arts in education, or education in the arts. To point up this statement, it

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