Arts Education Advocacy Tools

The Wisconsin Arts Board receives many requests each year for information and resources that arts education advocates can use to make their case to school superintendents, school boards, and other education decision-makers.

The following is the Arts Board’s response to one such request. Please feel free to use this information to help craft your own strong case for arts education in the schools of your community.

Arts Education Advocacy Tools

Thank you for writing. I am sorry to hear that your school is experiencing cutbacks in its arts budget… unfortunately, so are many other Wisconsin’s schools. This doesn’t make it right, and it certainly doesn’t excuse it, but I wanted you to know that you are not alone.

Schools are grappling with the unfortunate results of No Child Left Behind and its demand for high-stakes testing as well as ever-tighter school budgets. The sad reality is that if we are not careful, every child will be left behind.

Creativity is the fundamental resource of the global creative economy in which these students will participate. The beauty of this is that creativity is a renewable resource because every person has the capacity to be creative. Cutting the arts at this time is simply counter-intuitive. As our economy needs more creative, talented workers we should be investing more money into teaching creativity, not “downsizing” the very classes our children will need to prepare to compete in the global economy. Academic knowledge will get our students only so far because it is only about what is known. Creativity is necessary to understand, communicate, and shape the many unknowns of the future.

Okay, time to get off my soap box and give you some materials to help make your case.

Here are some resources to look into:

The Arts Education Partnership http://aep-arts.org/
- AEP also has a brochure entitled Making a Case for the Arts.
- A .PDF version may be found here: http://aep-arts.org/files/publications/MakingaCaseforarts.pdf
Americans for the Arts’ Art. Ask for More campaign http://www.artsusa.org/public_awareness/
National Art Education Association http://www.naea-reston.org/research.html
Sir Ken Robinson TED (Technology Education and Design) Talk http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66
Sir Ken Robinson article How Creativity, Education and the Arts Shape a Modern Economy http://music-for-all.org/documents/SirKenInterviewFINAL_000.pdf
Arts and Economic Prosperity 3: Wisconsin http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/static/study/pr061207.htm
Read more about the Creative Economy http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/static/creative_economy_resources.doc

One last thought. The school district didn’t have to move the art teacher out of her room. It was a conscious choice. Respectfully let the decision-makers know that this was a clear signal of the lack of respect given to the art program in the school. With the appropriate leadership, the arts can bring the school to life, increase student achievement and engagement, and prepare kids to compete in the global, creative economy.

Best of luck to you.

George

Updated: October 18, 2007