What is your point of view in arts education advocacy?

Are you the arts educator, working everyday to advance students’ knowledge and experience in the arts? Or the advocate working on policy levers that will improve quality, equity and access for all students? Can you see the forest for the trees?

The habit of creativity is a muscle we can build. It’s time to demystify creativity and allow students to use their imagination and their whole brain, not only the test-taking part of it. At the heart of creative thinking is the acceptance of failure, the notion of trying and failing and trying again in order to learn something new.

There comes a time for honest reflection in the life of every arts in education program. Whether your organization or project is just finding its footing or is well-established, we all benefit from turning the lens from an outward programmatic focus to an internal review of organizational health.

Data is a powerful tool for arts ed advocates. Quantifiable data helps to answer the question of need. Decision makers want proof that policy is warranted and dollars are needed.*

Effective arts education programs across the country have garnered a mix of public and private funds to enable their success.

Beginnings are hard. In advocacy work (as in life), sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start.

Let’s assume that most of us are not the final arbiters in making big decisions that affect our professional lives– unless you’re Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, and I suspect that even they need to take their shareholders into account. We all need others for input and agreement to advance our vision and ideas. This is especially true in the education arena.