Arts Advocacy Day

Get Your Students Involved in Advocacy Day 2017!

Arts students became arts advocates at last year’s Arts Education Advocacy Day.  The Maine Alliance for Arts Education (MAAE) and its community arts organization partners around the state invited arts teachers to send their most enthusiastic students to meet one-on-one with their elected representatives at the Statehouse. Close to 200 students came, representing every arts discipline and over half of the senate and house districts. The legislators were delighted to meet with the students and in some cases brought them right into their offices and Senate and House chambers.

And meeting their legislators was only the beginning. At a dance workshop and performances downstairs in the Hall of Flags the students had an opportunity to meet each other and celebrate the arts together.

The statewide expression of arts education support was also reflected by the exhibit tables in the Hall of Flags, which were organized county by county. Deb Bickford’s Westbrook High School art team provided identifying signs.

At Advocacy Day 2017 on Wednesday, March 8th, we will not only welcome the students again; this year a committee of students from around the state will be helping to plan the day’s activities. We already have some new ideas to help students meet each other, and to make the day even more exciting. The program will begin at 9:30 a.m. and end by 1:00 p.m. Lunch is provided. We’ll be looking for two student advocates (of any age) from each state legislative district (note: that’s legislative, not school district). We hope you as arts educators can help us recruit those students and offer them that opportunity. And if you can come too, so much the better!

To get involved and find out more, contact Susan Potters, MAAE director, at spotters@maineartsed.org. For a full report and more photos of last spring’s Advocacy Day, visit MAAE’s website, www.maineartsed.org.
 At Advocacy Day 2017 on Wednesday, March 8th, we will not only welcome the students again; this year a committee of students from around the state will be helping to plan the day’s activities.  We already have some new ideas to help students meet each other, and to make the day even more exciting.

Thanks to Susan Potters for providing the information for this blog post.