Student Blog: Arts Advocacy!

Imagine a world where the arts didn't exist… yeah, it would be pretty interesting. The arts surround us every day and you might not even notice it. Art forms such as theatre, dance, music, design, etc, are all extremely essential to our society today. The arts tell stories, convey messages, and allow people to escape from the chaos of reality. Often in our world today, the arts are a key component in helping people become more aware of current matters. Art gives artists an environment where they can be free to create without feeling the constant criticism of our society. Today, it can be quite hard to sustain access to the arts in many areas, especially in schools. Personally, my school has great theatre, dance, music, film, and visual arts departments, but it can be hard to provide for all of them when the majority of the students participate in sports on campus.

Arts education at school is something that I really like to advocate for. I have been taking part in theatre arts outside of school from a young age to now still participating in my high school’s theatre department. There was never an established theatre program in my elementary school or middle school, but I worked with what was available to stay involved with the arts. Now that I am in high school, there are actions being taken to create theatre programs in middle and elementary schools in my school district. There is this annual event that my school district puts on called the “Arts Under The Stars” where students are able to perform and display their visual and performing arts that they have been working on all year long. After partaking in this event from a young age, this past May I had the incredible opportunity to host the event alongside the superintendent of my school district. It was a great night to celebrate these art students and talk about the importance of arts education with the public. After reflecting on this night, it gave me a sense of hope that these K-12 students have the opportunity to express themselves in a creative environment at their schools.

Now that I am in high school, I have really understood the importance of arts education because, looking back thus far, I can't visualize my high school experience without a theatre arts department at my school. It's a place where I can express my creativity without being judged, escape from reality, and a place to learn and grow as an artist. The arts can sometimes be overlooked as something that is a “not a traditional career path”, but there are so many fields that require an artistic vision and the skills you acquire when taking part in the arts. This can include problem-solving, working as an ensemble/collaboration, taking direction, and so much more. 

This year, I am a Vice President of our theatre department at my school. This past month our student officers were given the opportunity to attend the California State Thespian Leadership and Technical Conference. I didn't know what to expect as this was my first time attending, but I actually learned a ton about advocating for arts in our schools. It was a really informative conference and I enjoyed learning from the other student officers' perspectives of what they do to support the arts at their school. One big takeaway from a student that I felt really inspired by was talking to your local city council. They said that the city council meetings are always open for discussion and are willing to help the community, especially when it comes to student advocacy. I am now planning to take action sometime soon to talk to my city council members discussing possible funding to provide for the arts at our school for show budgets along with helping students have more access to attending competitions or conferences/festivals who maybe can't attend currently.

The arts may not be for everyone, but we want them to be accessible to everyone. Even if you don't take part in the arts, there are always simple ways to show your support: Attend a local school's play or musical, show up to local choir shows, take part in a local art gallery viewing, use your voice to advocate for more access to the arts, and much more. The arts have so much practicality to them, for instance, a few months back, we had a person that came into my theatre arts class who worked as an arts therapist. I had no idea this was a career nor an actual branch of therapy. She told us that this form of therapy is actually one of the most progressive types of therapy and after some research, a large percentage of people who take part in art therapy talk about how it helped them reflect while being able to escape from reality. This really made me think about how many careers there actually are in the arts and there are so many ways to stay involved while also being able to find success. 

Overall, the arts are something that our world needs more than ever today and like I listed earlier, there are so many ways to stay involved or help support sustainability and access to the arts. The arts is also something very meaningful to me, as it is a safe space for me to create and to be who I am, which pushes me to continue to be a part of evolving the arts and using my voice to shape a future where young students have the access to this environment where they can be the next generation to create art in our world.