This report on the role of the arts in progressive and experimental education suggests that, despite certain notable exceptions, alternative schools have traded the old formalism for a new disorder that is unfriendly to some (though not all) elements of successful arts instruction: critical self-consciousness, periodic solitude, and stringent discipline. Although noting that alternative schools have served as catalysts to change in arts education, the report concludes that the arts are withering decisively in secondary, though less irrevocably in elementary, alternative schools. The report also describes four types of out-of-school alternative arts programs: the open studio, the artist as school teacher, the student as apprentice, and the student as teacher. It concludes that these approaches bring a new vitality to the teaching of the arts and that the engagement of working professionals in the education of children is an exceptionally promising practice. (GT)