Why are arts important in schools? Watch this video to see our perspective on it!

Why do we need artists?

 We have answers to these questions  and we want to share them with you.  So  we’ve posted our  responses on the Allied Arts website . You’ll see our serious and not-so serious responses.  

And if you’re wondering how these came to be—-here’s the story.  The Washington State Arts Commission has required those arts education programs in the state who have received grant funds for 10 years or more to put some time, effort (and funding) into sharing what we know about arts education and why we think the arts are important. To meet this goal, over the past two years AAEP has been creating a website that will have a prominent web presence. This year we upgraded our site to include individual pages for each teaching artist and an online registration system for the Children’s Art Walk. These have proven to be great additions to our program!

But for the past two years we have also been busy filming our artists in schools where they make their magic teaching arts. With the help of gratis film production from The Clay Foundation with videographer Liz Darrow we were able to film 9 teaching artists, 5 programs and the Children’s Art Walk during the 2008-09 school year. This year the video clips were edited and made ready for our website. Expect to see them appearing on the site in the next couple months. This is a tremendous addition because it allows teachers to see our wonderful teaching artists in action and get a sense of the many benefits they can gain from bringing one of our teaching artists to their school. Another outcome of our video work is a 4.5 minute compilation video that provides a program overview for AAEP—nearly completed! When it is done you can also see that on our website.

 We also took on the task of creating two 30-second Public Service Announcements that address why arts are important and why our children should be provided quality arts education. We hired Eero Johnson of Video One productions for this task. As a past Teaching Artist in the AAEP program, Eero understands why we need arts and the tremendous role artists play in our daily lives. We used our own thoughts as a foundation for these videos as well as the ideas promoted by author Daniel Pink in the landmark book, The Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Pink states that in the coming decades arts and design elements will be primary factors in the advancement of worldwide civilization. He says art will be a key skill in the future—don’t we agree!

After several brainstorm sessions about how to support the value of arts, including one with some of our teaching artists, Eero and Chris settled on two ways to approach the topic. As you will see from these two concise validations of the arts, Eero is an amazingly creative thinker and high-quality video producer. Day-long filming (for a 30-second spot!) ensued and Eero’s attentive production manifested in these two wonderful videos.

How can you help us spread the word?

We invite you to view these PSAs and let us know what you think. And even more—let us know where we might share them! In addition to the website, board member Marisa Papetti is distributing them to local TV stations and theatres. Another use for these is for short presentations to service and community organizations. We are happy to spend 10 minutes or more sharing the importance of the arts with these videos and information about our program. If you are affiliated with a community service organization who would find a presentation about arts in education valuable, please let Chris Brewer know (676-8548 ext 3 or chris@alliedarts.org).  And if you have more ideas about how to share the importance of the arts in a new 30-second video, let us know too! We’d love to continue creating these. All we need are ideas and funding!  Donations for the "Why Arts” campaign can be sent in care of Allied Arts. We hope you enjoy our statements about the importance of the arts.