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The View from the Eye of the Perfect Storm
(The third in a three-part series)
by Robert B. Morrison
Out of Crisis Comes Opportunity
The reason I have set the stage for this last part of my musings with the first two installments was to show that there really is an opportunity now before us. In spite of the reductions to funding and programs, there is a new self-awareness in the field that the arts community must do things differently.
Some signs of hope:
United We Stand. We learned an important lesson in the state of New Jersey. When the governor announced his plan to eliminate all funding for the state arts council in February 2003, it created a rallying point for all of the arts organizations across the state. Arts groups were organized, communication plans were created, and board members of many arts organizations (usually the most prominent citizens in a community) started making calls and writing letters to the members of the state legislature who would be responsible for passing the state budget. We found that a sleeping giant had awakened. The arts community flexed political muscles that had been there, dormant, all along. It became clear that the arts community would hold its elected officials accountable at the polls. Supporters would be rewarded with support, and the converse applied as well.
The result: 90 percent of the funding was restored, and a new dedicated revenue stream has been developed that is providing the state arts council with an increase in funding for the coming fiscal year. The recently proposed budget will raise funding for the arts in New Jersey to an all time high.
By getting—and acting—organized, the New Jersey arts community is now able to weigh in on arts education policy issues and support the state's professional arts education associations when they address arts education policy. This is a resource that had not been harnessed in the past.
Helping People Care Effectively. In California, we learned that there is an army of concerned citizens who care about the arts and are willing to help. What they lacked was a clear way to let their voices be heard. When faced with an 11th-hour attempt to eliminate the funding for the California Arts Council and repeal the legislation authorizing the very existence of the agency, advocates in California were faced with a daunting task of saving an agency targeted for extinction. One legislator made the comment that there was nothing the community could do: the die had been cast. So, how could we effectively mobilize concerned citizens when we only had HOURS to make our case?
The answer was to set-up a website, employing technology that had not been used for arts advocacy before. This move allowed concerned citizens to enter their names, addresses, zipcodes and email addresses. Once this information was entered, the website would generate emails and/or letters to the appropriate representatives in the state legislature, as well as the committee chairman and ranking members and the governor. This made the process very simple for advocates. Concerned arts groups forwarded the website link to their databases of supporters.
The result? Over period of a few days, more than 30,000 emails were generated. The California Arts Council was saved. A minimum level of funding was provided so the council could continue operations. Given the fact the agency was targeted for extinction, this was an important victory and we discovered an effective new tool to engage our supporters.
SO, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
It is time for a different approach. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over in the same way and expecting a different outcome. To create the different outcome we all desire we must change our strategies to achieve our goals
The ways of the past are clearly not the ways for the future.
In Part One of this essay, I described the “Perfect Storm” of circumstances that have put the arts in such peril: Bad Economy + Bad Education Policy = NO PROGRAMS. So what is the view from the eye of the Perfect Storm? Some thoughts on ways to change the environment regarding the arts and arts education in our society:
1. An Arts Advocacy Effort for the 21st Century. I learned a long time ago from one of my mentors in this area that “A POLITICAL PROBLEM DEMANDS A POLITICAL RESONSE.” When it comes to the place of the arts in our schools or in our communities, the challenges we face are largely political. It is clear that when the arts community coalesces around a single issue with a laser-like focus, we can have a tremendous impact on policy makers -- as the New Jersey example illustrates. The problem is, for most of recent history the community has been too fractured to approach these areas with a common vision. Too often, advocacy efforts break down into discipline-based factions: arts education vs. arts presentation, for example, or music vs. visual arts. The reality is that our policy-makers and the general public do not distinguish between these discrete art forms. They see the whole body as “The Arts.” They are somewhat more discerning when it comes to arts education vs. arts presentation, but it is clear when the arts presentation community and the arts education community truly work together toward a common goal and flex our collective clout, very positive things happen as a result.
2. Better Research. Yes, we have lots of evidence about program cutbacks and the elimination of music and arts programs. But there is no hard data for how many programs currently exist. How many schools provide sequential music and arts instruction? Where? How many of them work with non-profit arts groups to enhance this instruction? What are the gains and losses in this area from year to year ? Are we losing programs or gaining? The truth is… we just do not know, and until we do, it will be hard to make a forceful case regarding the true status of access to music and the arts in our public schools.
3. Time to Change the Debate. We have been arguing the virtues of the arts (and particularly arts education) based on the impact the arts have on student performance. There have been pitched battles over the intrinsic value versus the extrinsic values of the arts. There has been research documenting the impact of the arts (particularly music) and brain development—as well as efforts attempting to discredit some of the research. Many of our arguments are falling on deaf policy ears because of long held default positions on the arts. When you mention support for the arts, different people have different reactions based on their own experiences.
Some hear the cry to support the arts and they see it as something nice to do... but only if there are resources available. The thinking goes “Our kids have to know how to read and write before we give them the arts.” This is a false dichotomy. It is not ARTS or READING. It is not ARTS or MATH. But, unfortunately, this is how the debate... to this point, has been structured. Arts vs. literacy and numeracy -- as if these pursuits are somehow not related!
Other people hear the call to support the arts and they reflexively recoil as memories of Mapplethorpe and Cerrano fill their heads (just look at the responses to the recent announcement of new NEA programs!). For these people, the arts have a very NEGATIVE connotation. A predisposition against the arts that is often difficult, if not impossible, to overcome.
Based on this reality check, this is why we need to change the debate.
Some critical questions to ask: What kind of citizens do we need? What are the economic implications of citizens who are academically educated (and damn good test takers!) but are creatively impaired?
Why do our businesses today invest billions of dollars in employee retraining to develop creative skills? Is it because creative people are nicer to be around? No... it is because in an information and technology economy, people are not the most important aspect of the success of a company… CREATIVE people are.
Our businesses are not screaming to have world-class test takers... but they are, in an increasingly competitive global market, screaming for people who are CREATIVE. Unleash the creativity of the individuals in a business and you unleash the CREATIVE POWER of that business.
So what is one of the best ways to tap into people's creative abilities?
The arts!
This is not some brilliant conclusion I have come to on my own. This argument is well document and forcefully made by Sir Ken Robinson in his book Out of Our Minds . If you have not read it... you should. He makes an extraordinarily compelling case for educational changed based on the needs of the economy and citizenry of the 21st century.
In short, I propose we change the debate -- and adopt a strategy of advocating for the arts by not advocating for the arts. Instead of simply crying out when arts programs are endangered, we must begin to widen our focus, and address the importance of creative skills in education and their impact on business. This will provide a broader base for us to stand on based on the needs of our economy and not the needs of our individual areas of interest.
Our Call to Action
To put all of this into a nice neat package with a bow on it, we propose the following for the arts community:
1. Play Nice in the Sand Box – Work together to identify the most important, strategic issues we face as a community and then collectively apply the resources to these issues to create change.
2. Help People Care Effectively – Unify the field around a common set of tools and technologies that can be employed by states and communities to advocate effectively.
3. Create a Force to Be Reckoned With – Learn the lessons from New Jersey and California, and create a political force equal to the role we play in our society.
4. Change the Debate – Recognize that we need to make a better argument... and then make it!
This is not to say this is an end all or be all list of what we must accomplish. This is meant to be a point of departure to begin the dialogue of how we end the cycle of insanity that has lead to the erosion of the arts in our schools and our communities.
Let the debate begin!
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Have a comment? Email me at: bob@music-for-all.org .
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