Wake County Public School System in Raleigh, NC created a successful strategic plan in a rapidly changing political and economic environment. Essential ingredients of the plan include having a broad-based coalition of stakeholders, support from the top, ongoing communications, and consensus-based decision making.

In the eighth article of the series Case-making and Systems Change in Arts and Cultural Education, developed in collaboration with Creative Generation, we explore how the principles of social justice may be applied to arts and cultural education.

In this sixth article in the series Case-making and Systems Change in Arts and Cultural Education, we explore elements that are foundational to changemaking coalitions.

There’s nothing like a crisis to focus the mind.

It becomes clear (as much as anything is clear these days) that focused arts ed advocacy is an important tool to add to the growing list of supports for educators and schools.

Is urgent advocacy action needed for arts education at the local level?

Come about! is a command used in sailing when you want to tack (change direction) when the wind is in front of you.

Regardless of your role in the arts education ecosystem, sustainability is the proverbial grand prize.

What do we want?

Imagine the day… The arts are universally endorsed in public education policy and practice and included without question in school budgets.

Strategic communications is at the heart of advocacy success —the art of communicating effectively with targeted audiences in order to move decision makers through the use of mainstream, social, new and paid media.

Humans are social creatures. Biology, psychology, and sociology tell us so. It would then follow that we need others to help us be our best selves and do our best work. No rocket science here.