Fine Arts Needs a Seat at the Table. Here’s How We Get It.

Fine Arts Needs a Seat at the Table. Here’s How We Get It.

Whatever your take on last week’s election, there’s a lot of energy right now, especially here in Texas, around fixing the problems in education. That’s a good thing. But it’s also exactly when fine arts advocates can’t afford to sit back and assume someone else has it covered.

As education’s priorities and its role in our communities get reexamined, every program will be competing for attention and funding. And the conversation is going to turn to the skills students need for a future none of us can fully predict. Communication. Collaboration. Creativity. The grit to keep going when things don’t go as planned.

That’s our moment.

Many of the leaders who will shape education in the coming years grew up in band halls, choir rooms, art studios, and on theater stages. They know what those programs built in them. Our job is to make sure they remember it when the budget decisions get made.

We’ve been doing this all along

Fine arts classrooms have been building these skills for generations. Every rehearsal, every critique, every performance teaches students to work as a team, take feedback, adjust on the fly, and deliver in one shot. Employers have been asking for these skills for years. Ten years ago, The Conference Board found that 72% of employers ranked creativity as a top hiring priority, yet 85% couldn’t find enough creative applicants. That gap hasn’t closed. AI has only made it more urgent.

So when someone proposes a shiny new program to build “human skills,” we need to be in the room saying: it already exists. It’s in your music halls, art rooms, dance studios, and theaters. Fund what’s already working.

The missing voices

Here’s the part that worries me. Fine arts programs don’t survive on their own merit. They survive on community will. And right now, the case for fine arts is mostly being made by arts teachers and arts professionals. They’re right, and they’re passionate, but when budgets get tight, it’s easy to dismiss. Of course the band director thinks band matters.

What can’t be dismissed is when the parent says it. When the student says it. When the alumna who’s now an engineer, a nurse, or a CFO says it. Those are the missing voices in arts education advocacy. They have nothing to gain by speaking up, which is exactly why decision makers listen.

They’re everywhere, in every booster club, every audience, every workplace. Most of them have just never been asked. That’s what we need to change, and we need to do it now, not after the budget decisions are made.

How we bring them in

The good news is we don’t have to start from scratch. The tools to engage the missing voices are ready to go:

• The TEDx talk gives them the language. “AI Can’t Replace This: Why Arts Education Matters” makes the case in under ten minutes. Share it with a parent, a school board member, or an alum who has never connected the dots between what the arts gave them and where they are today. https://youtu.be/4cF_HBMz8-k?si=_4CMWK7-WTZWzTgu

• Stickers, buttons, and t-shirts make them visible. When a parent wears Fine Arts Builds Human Skills to a football game or a school board meeting, they become a messenger without having to give a speech. Every time someone asks about it, that’s a conversation. https://rileyodesigns.com/collections/all

• The Human Skills Advantage Data Project gets them counted. Advocating can feel intimidating, but writing one word on a sticky note doesn’t. Run the One Word project at your next concert, banquet, or booster meeting and capture dozens of parent and student voices in a few minutes. [data project link]

• The Human Skills Advantage podcast will tell their full stories. Some voices deserve more than one word. Our podcast is in development now, with a launch planned for the new year. Each episode will feature arts alumni from every industry, from medicine and engineering to business and tech, talking about how their fine arts experience shaped the way they lead, solve problems, and show up today. Know someone with a story like that? Maybe it’s you. I’d love to hear from you at tmartin@paetx.org.

Whether it’s one word on a sticky note or a full conversation on the podcast, every voice we add makes the case harder to ignore.

Two ways to help this season

Give a teacher something that says it all. Looking for a holiday gift for your favorite fine arts teacher? A Fine Arts Builds Human Skills tote lets them carry the message everywhere they go, and it lets them know you see what they’re building in your kids. [store link]

Make a gift on Giving Tuesday, December 1. Every donation helps us put free Fine Arts Builds Human Skills stickers and buttons into the hands of parents and students at concerts, games, and community events. Each one starts a conversation, and every conversation brings in another voice. [donate link]

The conversation is happening now. Let’s make sure fine arts is part of it, with one clear message.

Fine Arts Builds Human Skills.