Arts Education is Essential

National organizations come together

It is imperative that all students have access to an equitable delivery of arts education that includes dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts that supports their educational, social, and emotional well-being, taught by certified professional arts educators in partnership with community arts providers.

 

Arts Education is Essential was released; reviewed and endorsed by the national organizations listed below. Find the statement at THIS LINK.

Teaching and learning will never quite be the same in our post-COVID-19 world. However, our commitment to provide rich and varied educational experiences remains unwavering. The arts have played an important role in these tumultuous times and will continue to do so for all students, including the traditionally underrepresented, those with special needs, and from low-income families. Here’s why:

Self-awareness, self-efficacy, self-management and perseverance, social awareness and relationship skills are central to any arts education activity, no matter the age and ability of the student or the environment in which the learning takes place. The arts, with their strong emphasis on team-building and self-reflection are supremely suited to re-ignite students’ interest in learning through collaboration, while simultaneously fostering creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

Celebrating our ability to come together as educators and students is vital to creating a healthy and inclusive school community. The arts, through a rich partnership among certified arts educators, teaching artists, and community arts providers, play a valuable role in helping students and their families build and sustain community and cultural connections.

As defined in ESSA, “music and the arts” are part of a well-rounded education. Every state in the nation recognizes the importance of the arts as reflected in rigorous PreK-12 state arts standards. Forty-six states require an arts credit to receive a high school diploma, and 43 states have instructional requirements in the arts for elementary and secondary schools. As noted in Arts Education for America’s Students: A Shared Endeavor: “An education without the arts is inadequate.”

The healing and unifying power of the arts has been evident as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country. We have seen and heard it play out through works of art on sidewalks, shared musical moments from porches, in plays and dance performances, and every other imaginable iteration of art making. As states and schools work through multiple challenges in the years ahead, arts education must remain central to a well-rounded education and fully funded to support the well- being of all students and the entire school community.

Endorsing Organizations

Afterschool Alliance	Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation
American Choral Directors Association	Music for All
American Composers Forum	Music Teacher National Association
American Orff-Schulwerk Association	NAMM Foundation
Americans for the Arts	National Art Education Association
American String Teachers Association	National Association for Music Education
Barbershop Harmony Society	National Association of Elementary School Principals
Carnegie Hall	National Association of Secondary School Principals
Casio American, Inc.	National Coalition for Core Arts Standards
Chorus America	National Dance Education Association
CMA Foundation	National Education Association
College Band Directors National Association	National Federation of State High School Associations
Conn-Selmer, Inc.	National YoungArts Foundation
D’Addario Foundation	Organization of American Kodaly Educators
Eastern Music Company	Quadrant Research
Education Through Music	QuaverEd
Education Theatre Association	Recoding Academy
Give a Note Foundation	Save The Music Foundation
Hal Leonard	State Education Agency Director of Arts Education
Historically Black College and Universities National Band Directors’ Consortium	The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation
Jazz at Lincoln Center	United Sounds, Inc.
Jazz Education Network	Varsity Performing Arts
KHS America	West Music Company
KORG, USA	WURRLYedu
League of American Orchestras	Yamaha Corporation of America
Little Kids Rock	Young Audiences Arts for Learning
	YOUnison