Americans for the Arts

Laura Perille is an Americans for the Arts member and recipient of the 2016 Arts Education Award. Find out more about the Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Arts Awards.

We all know the narrative: arts education has suffered from years of neglect and decline in our schools to make room for tested subjects and to balance squeezed school budgets. This trend has played out in many communities across the country. The data on arts access, especially for students of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, makes the impact clear.http://www.edvestors.org/news-item/new-report-how-collective-action-revitalized-arts-education-in-boston/

When recently asked how best to advocate for the arts in the current environment, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (NM)—co-chair of the Senate Cultural Caucus and chief sponsor of the CREATE Act—was unequivocal: “Start by telling every one of your Senators about the economic benefits of the arts.” This familiar refrain is one we have heard for decades from city council chambers to governor mansions to the halls of Congress—and it works. Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 does just that. It changes the conversation about the arts from that of a “charity” to one about an “industry” that provides both cultural and economic benefits to the community.

In a lively discussion at AFTACON, one participant shared that a school in her area tells its students the word “Fail” stands for “First Attempt in Learning.” I embrace this interpretation. Failure can be an opportunity to fall back and regroup—and then come back at the challenge with renewed energy, a sharper strategy, and perhaps and a bigger megaphone

Content sponsored by University of Massachusetts Amherst Arts Extension Service.

Advocacy is fundamental to building a vibrant and lasting cultural community. In our chapter on advocacy in “Fundamentals of Arts Management,” published by the UMass Amherst Arts Extension Service, you will learn the ins and outs of arts advocacy from creating strategy, to building alliances, to the details and protocol of conducting a meeting with an elected official. 

Why don't more private foundations fund arts advocacy? Worse, why are we seeing funders across the country moving away from the supporting the arts at all? These were key questions that the leadership of the State Arts Action Network brought with us to Boston for the 2016 Americans for the Arts Convention.

Excerpted from my interview with Xavier Harvey: “What I’ve noticed being an actor and being involved with Actors’ Shakespeare Project is the tools that art gives you is learning more to express yourself. So when you’re hit with a difficult angle at something and you don’t know how to go about it, you learn different ways to conquer those challenges and all those obstacles. And in my way and where I live and the people that I surround myself, I always think about if I was put in that position again, if I had an artist’s way of thinking then I would have taken these challenges different and made better choices in life.”