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In 1981, the Los Angeles Unified School District was planning to open a new school for the arts. The superintendent, assisted by Joan Boyette of the Music Center Education Division of Los Angeles, invited twelve arts school administrators to meet in Los Angeles in April of 1981 to help in the planning. This was the first time these twelve administrators had all met together. They included leaders of the country’s most prestigious arts schools: James Nelson, Alabama School of Fine Arts, Birmingham, Alabama; Daryl Chambers, Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts, Dallas, Texas; William Dickinson, School for Creative and Performing Arts, Cincinnati, Ohio; Gail Thompson, Educational Center for the Arts, New Haven, Connecticut; Maurice Eldridge, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Washington, DC; William Lawrence, English High School of Visual and Performing Arts, Boston, Mass; Mary Martha Lappe, High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Houston, Texas; Karen Carroll, Hope High School, Providence, Rhode Island; Roger Jacobi, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan; Richard Klein, LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, New York, New York; Thomas Tews, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, New Orleans, Louisiana; Jane van Hoven, North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The Los Angeles meeting has become legend within NETWORK. The participants were excited to find one another and, more importantly, to learn that they were not alone in the business of running an arts school. As Jane van Hoven (North Carolina School for the Arts) referred to those early days, "It was a kind of love affair. . . we could not let each other go once we had discovered each other." They knew that they had to continue the conversation, and accepted an invitation from Mary Martha Lappe to meet at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in March of 1982. In Houston, they formed a planning committee that subsequently met at Interlochen later in 1982.
That planning meeting was chaired by Maurice Eldridge (Duke Ellington School of the Arts) and was attended by representatives from 25 schools of the arts that included David Graham from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Thanks to Graham’s participation, the notion of an international organization was born. While the meeting was a success, the need to have a smaller group “create” the new organization became evident. Gene Wenner, then vice president of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) agreed to approach his organization for funds to underwrite the cost of subsequent planning meetings. NFAA did, in fact, provide the funds that helped ensure the initial organization of NETWORK.
A final planning meeting was held in Atlanta, Georgia, in July of 1983 and was the first formal step in creating NETWORK that included a draft of bylaws and the appointment of officers. An ad hoc committee of officers was selected: James Nelson, president, Jane van Hoven, vice president, William Dickinson, second vice president, and Maurice Eldridge, secretary/treasurer.
The first NETWORK conference, held in October 1983,was preceded by nearly three years of planning. James Undercofler and the Educational Center for the Arts hosted the conference in New Haven, Connecticut. Representatives from fifty schools attended, far more than the original planners anticipated. Joan Hickey, the founder of the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, hosted the first NETWORK banquet at her home as a part of the conference.
The conference in New Haven brought formally into existence the NETWORK of Performing and Visual Arts Schools. (It was not until the Toronto 1991 conference that the membership voted to add "International" to the name of the organization.) The participants adopted the constitution and bylaws and voted to make all schools that joined NETWORK during that first year founding members. In addition, participants at that first meeting voted to keep the ad hoc committee of officers in place until the next conference in 1984, keeping James Nelson (Alabama School of the Arts) as the first ad hoc appointee president of NETWORK. At the first official meeting, the NETWORK elected Bruce W. Galbraith of the Interlochen Arts Academy as its first elected President.
Nelsen became the first of an impressive list of NETWORK presidents:
1983 James Nelson (first ad hoc appointee)
Alabama School of the Arts
1984-1985 Bruce Galbraith (first elected)
Interlochen Arts Academy
1986-1987 Maurice Eldridge
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
1988-1989 William Dickinson
School for Creative and Performing Arts
1990-1991 Stephanie Perrin
Walnut Hill School for the Arts
1992-1993 Harry Clark
Pittsburgh High School for Creative and Performing Arts
1994-1995 Cheryl Carter
Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center
1996-1997 John Otis
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
1998-1999 William Lowman
Idyllwild Arts Academy
2000-2001 Mitzi Yates
Duke Ellington School of the Arts
2002-2003 Catherine Thompson
District of Niagara Academy for the Arts
2004-2005 Jackie Cornelius
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
2006-2007 Roy Fluhrer
Fine Arts Center of Greenville
2008-2009 Denise Davis-Cotton
Detroit School of the Arts
2009-10 Ralph Opacic
Orange County High School of the Arts
The twelve administrators who met in Los Angeles in 1981 probably never suspected an organization like NETWORK would develop from their interests in learning more about each other's programs. From those simple beginnings, the International NETWORK of Performing Arts and Visual Arts Schools has developed into an organization addressing the needs of its more than 300 members in countries around the world. Because of their vision NETWORK and its annual conference continue to grow and play a significant role in the success of arts schools everywhere.
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