Courtney Duffy, our Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy fellow, has the lowdown on education legislation which includes several arts-related provisions and was signed into law by President Obama last week. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to drop her a line by email (Courtney Duffy@fracturedatlas.org), on Twitter @cduffy90, or in the post’s comment section.
While some people discover their creative passion in adulthood, many of us, when asked about our early days as artists, recall childhood. Perhaps a school trip to a museum sparked an interest in the visual arts, or a particular theater teacher helped us discover our inner thespian.
Although arts education is not a direct focus of Fractured Atlas, it is undeniably important to the future of our field — the base of the pyramid, if you will. If we fail to cultivate artists from the cradle through adulthood, the cultural sector will eventually cease to exist.
For these reasons and many more, we were thrilled by President Obama’s signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act last Thursday, which includes several important arts education provisions. Congress has attempted unsuccessfully for several years to reauthorize the Elementary & Secondary Education Act, otherwise recognized as No Child Left Behind, which was enacted in 2001.
Read the full article on Medium.