The Importance of the Arts

I was asked by an ad hoc committee of arts organizations (an Art Summit) in my community to write an open letter in support of the arts generally in our community and alerting citizens to the fact that October is National Arts & Humanities Month.

Here is a super rough draft of a letter. It's late, it really is a first draft, and I really would love your comments. I'm more concerned with tone and approach than anything else, here, but I'll take suggestions on everything! Please? This is anything but polished, and I look to you wordsmiths for good advice.

A few possible questions: Would a more personal approach be better (so coming right from me in the first person, representing the Arts Summit rather than from the Arts Summit?). Do I need stories? More images or specific examples of some kind? I often teach that images inspire and motivate more than data and information, and yet here I've put in lots of information and data in what I really want to be a motivational letter.

Please forgive the local references, but I think you can figure out what's going on.

Thanks,

David




October is National Arts and Humanities Month. For over two decades, this has been so. We have now another excuse, if we need one, to look at the arts again to perceive their value in our schools, in our communities, for our economy, and in our personal lives.

Since the beginning of time, even before we could record our own history, we were creating art. Why then must we even ask the question of whether art is of value to our society or us? Any study of history reveals that art is, as Beverly Sills proclaimed, "the signature of civilization." When we study past cultures and past peoples, it is largely their works of art that we study. Without art, we cannot think completely or as deeply. Without art, we miss the connections to ourselves and our environments that help us understand what it means to be human.

In education, no other fields of study have had to defend themselves as much as the arts have had to do. Nevertheless, scholars, educators, and researchers have risen to this task time and time again and keep finding the same thing: the arts are a basic need in our schools and for our children. With so much research and so much public support, it is puzzling why the arts are the last to be invited into schools and the first to go when funding or other pressures get tight. There have been so many studies by so many respected people and organizations, it is simply beyond question that the study of the arts is critical--even essential—to students of all ages.

In and of itself, visual art, music, theatre and dance—the four main art categories found in the National and Utah State Core Standards of Education—contribute so much to the vital knowledge all humans need to build a sustainable culture and purposeful lives. Beyond that, countless studies show that the arts help other disciplines as well. They help create classroom cultures that thrive and where students enjoy learning. It is also Utah State law that they be taught, and standards have been provided so teachers and school administrators have a basis on which to help learners build knowledge. Is the school that your children are attending complying with the law and teaching the arts as they should be taught? It's time to find out.

If one purpose of education is to promote the continuity of our values from one generation to the next, then why are so many schools avoiding the teaching of the things that bring our young learners closest to the core of their cultural experience? If our nation is spending its resources on a back-to-basics education, why is the tendency so prevalent to ignore something so basic to human development and culture as the study of the arts? Did our school planners and administrators also forget that arts careers abound in our community, state and nation?

In our communities, art serves a vital function. Most of us can appreciate—or at least imagine—the intrinsic benefits of the arts. They are often beautiful. They are full of vision. They can inspire us, soothe us, provoke us and connect us. But when it comes to making tough funding choices, elected officials and business leaders also require strong and credible evidence that demonstrates the economic benefits of the arts in the community. Luckily, a staggering wealth of this evidence exists. A recent study by Americans for the Arts, for instance, demonstrates that the nonprofit arts and culture industry is a strong economic driver in communities—a growth industry that supports jobs, generates government revenue, and is the cornerstone of tourism. The findings from this study—and many others—send a clear and welcome message: "leaders who care about community and economic development can feel good about choosing to invest in the arts."

Cache Valley is lucky to have a plethora of arts organizations in all of the arts disciplines. We are blessed with numerous dance organization and choirs, many of which are nationally recognized. We have one of the largest per capita populations of professional visual artists in the U.S. Our theatre companies consistently garner national attention and national awards for excellence. Thousands of people come to our valley to experience our arts. While they are here, they shop in our stores, eat at our restaurants and stay in our hotels, driving our community with their money.

You should feel good about supporting candidates and leaders in your community who support and embrace the arts. You should feel good about writing your community leaders to support the arts yourself or even to chastise them for neglecting the arts if that's the case.

If we are preaching to the choir here, then this is a call for all choir members to sing out! Sing louder! Sing with more enthusiasm! Let people hear your amazing song! It is time to write to your school administrators and demand the arts for your children as required by state law. It is time to be vocal and thank our leaders for their nurturing of the arts and demand even more support for them in all their various manifestations. Be pleased to pay that miniscule RAPZ tax, which helps to support so many of our vital arts organizations. Perhaps just as important, go to a gallery, enjoy a play, experience a concert or dance performance. Bring your friends and your family with you, for few things connect people with each other better than the arts.

If you need help finding arts events, or if you need assistance finding fun things to do, one valuable resource is the current shared arts calendar, http://www.centerforthearts.us/artsataglance.html, to find a healthy listing of arts events from many of Cache Valley's arts organizations.

The Cache County Art Summit, a conglomeration of the arts organizations in our area, is currently supporting a proclamation that asserts October as National Arts and Humanities Month in Cache County, Utah. Write to your school district, Logan City and Cache County officials to express your support of this measure.

If art "teaches nothing except the significance of life," as the great author Henry Miller stated, then we need more of it. Celebrate art with us during this great month!