Arts Team Introduction
We live in a nation where the arts are viewed as a frivolous luxury instead of a necessity.
Why is Arts Education important? A strong arts education promotes the skills children need to be successful. Exposure to arts education promotes self-directed learning, improves school attendance and sharpens critical and creative skills. Studies have unequivocally concluded that the creativity and innovation utilized in the artistic process is highly valued by employers in the United States. Teachers are the first to point out how creative arts programs have strongly influenced their students’ self-image and increased their academic success in the areas of math, science and language arts. But sadly, during these difficult economic times, arts programs are the first to be sacrificed. Our nation must realize the importance of designing and maintaining arts education programs that are culturally enriching, stimulate creative expression, build self-esteem and improve academic achievement. We must foster the creativity and imagination of our children and realize that the arts play a vital role in that development. In a nation as diverse as ours, the arts serve as an essential bridge across language and cultural differences –they become the shared link, the glue that shapes our understanding of how we see ourselves, and others. Funding the arts in education is a local, state and national issue.
The Goal
The Creative Coalition will implement a strategic plan leveraging the “voices” of the entertainment community to counteract the wave of political and economic fall-out besieging America’s educational institutions and causing our nation’s states to abandon arts education funding as a means to salvage budgets. At a rapid rate, states are eliminating arts in our public schools. The Arts Team is a volunteer brigade of artists and entertainment industry members who are willing to dedicate their time and passion to alter the current landscape — to make community leaders, school boards, parents and other influentials aware of the vital importance of the arts in our children’s education and growth, in an effort to reverse this dangerous trend.
The Plan
The Creative Coalition will recruit volunteers to participate in this project. Volunteers will agree to commit to a minimum of two consecutive days leading an orchestrated advocacy effort in a selected community. Each participant will commit to covering his/her own travel and lodging; and to securing an appropriate substitute should they be unavailable to fulfill their two day commitment.
The Arts Team will be trained by experts and provided with the information, education, knowledge and messages specific to the state they visit. Depending on the data and political climate in a state, the visit might include meetings with a state’s chief state school officer, state education superintendent, PTA, governor, mayors, etc. They will also meet with parent groups who are ultimately the most influential of all. The plan will be crafted and designed to address the agenda in each particular state.
The Creative Coalition staff will provide all appropriate background and resource material. Members of the Arts Team will be accompanied by The Creative Coalition professional staff during each on-ground state visit. We will create a strategic plan to determine what is necessary to move the needle in a positive direction both on the state and national levels.
Conclusion
It is time to join the battle at the most embroiled local and state levels. The Creative Coalition will truly be leading the nation toward greater arts advocacy. The Arts Team is a symbol of The Creative Coalition: we educate, we motivate, we create.