At this time of year we are moved by delicious sounds of the season, beautifully designed decorations and cards, folk and more formal dances that tell stories with immediacy and grace, & pageantry and storytelling through dramatic interpretations. These gifts: music, art, dance and drama, are also basic human ways of expressing important ideas and connections. It’s ironic that our leaders often celebrate arts products by attending performances or visual art objects without providing support for the on-going process – the arts education that begins at birth, building not only artistic skills and ways of knowing, but the imagination, creativity, problem-solving and cultural treasury that make a society great, build relationships, and give it a moral compass.
Our followers and friends are artists, educators, and consumers of the arts – and some are also the decision-makers who determine whether arts education continues, gains support, or is cut even further in the coming year. During the coming year, we’ll continue to share evidence as we generate it or find it in our colleagues’ work. We will advocate for the arts as powerful tools for living, learning, and communicating, and for arts education as an essential in the core curriculum.
Happy Holidays with artistry, however you celebrate. Wishing you a New Year in which you help keep quality arts education alive for our children – so we can continue to enjoy the benefits of gifts of artistry.