Oregon Children's Theatre Announces The Local Launch Of #ArtsAreMySuperpower

Oregon Children's Theatre joins a coalition of Youth Arts Organizations around the country in launching #ArtsAreMySuperpower, a nationwide letter writing effort to galvanize the more than 6 million youth directly impacted by the coalition's work.

The campaign seeks to educate and inspire young people to use their voices and compel our government to save their future in the arts and culture sector of our country. Oregon Children's Theatre will supply families and educators with free letter-writing and art-creating templates to express their love of the arts and demonstrate its significant contribution to our nation, offering kids a chance to participate in civic engagement, perhaps for the first time.

The #ArtsAreMySuperpower initiative, taking place throughout the month of October, advocates for Congress to support the DAWN Act (Defend Arts Workers Now), urging the U.S. Government to pass a comprehensive arts relief package in recognition of the Arts and Culture sector's $877 billion value added contribution to the national economy (which is 4.5% of GDP), employing 5.1 million Arts Workers.

"Without massive, immediate Federal relief to the Arts & Culture sector, we will lose an entire generation who would have otherwise joined the labor force of the Creative economy, not to mention consumers of Arts and Culture," said the founders of Be An #ArtsHero. "The fine and performing arts economies are estimated to lose 50% of all jobs, due to COVID-related unemployment. This is nothing short of an economic depression. We need proportionate relief from Congress in order to sustain and rebuild our sector and the communities in which we are economic drivers. Without it, our youths may be forced to divert their dreams, our social fabric will tear, and our economy will suffer catastrophic results locally and nationally."

"We are fortunate in Oregon to have two senators that strongly support small businesses and arts organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond," added Michael Hammerstrom, Director of Marketing & Development at Oregon Children's Theatre. "However, we know that's not enough, in the current makeup of the senate, for the arts to stay alive. By having children and youth reach out directly, the collective impact across the country may be the thing that's needed to sway the majority in our direction. At Oregon Children's Theatre, we also see this as a perfect example of how we can engage our families locally in the type of activism that is crucial in order to make change; and that aligns with the values we teach our students every day."

"Young people have a right to access the arts as a central part of their lives and their education. Our children deserve a future that prioritizes the arts and a government that recognizes the importance that the arts play in their development," says Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, Executive Director of Theater for Young Audiences USA (TYA/USA), one of the national coalition partners. "The pandemic has compromised the sustainability of the entire arts ecosystem, including the artists, arts educators, and arts organizations that serve children and young people every day. It's time to see and hear what the next generation has to say."

Research conducted by the New Victory Theater in New York City and research firm WolfBrown demonstrate the benefit of the arts towards young people's social-emotional growth and their ability to imagine the future. In the only longitudinal study of its kind, New Victory joined with under-resourced school communities with no arts programming and found that children exposed to the arts are much more able to imagine the lives of others who are different from them and much more likely to continue seeing and participating in the arts as they grow, further indicating that investment in youth engagement with the arts will benefit the U.S. economy for years to come.

BE AN #ARTSHERO is a national, non-partisan grassroots movement that emphasizes Arts & Culture's contribution to the economy, urging Congress for immediate, proportionate relief. We are a united, intersectional, sector-wide coalition and have been covered by The Washington Post, Forbes, MSNBC's Morning Joe, CBS New York, TODAY, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and more; our viral detailed OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. SENATE has been signed over 15K times by the leaders of every major Arts organization; Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy and TONY winners; rank and file, blue collar Arts workers; and countless prominent figures including Rosario Dawson, Cher, Mark Hamill, Glenn Close, Bette Midler, Lewis Black, Rainn Wilson, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Tony Goldwyn, Bebe Neuwirth, Cyndi Lauper, Carla Gugino, Ted Danson, Jane Fonda, Billy Porter, Julianna Margulies, Jane Krakowski, et al.

BeAnArtsHero.com.

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