State legislative bodies pass laws like Congress, but state policies are customized to each state’s needs and their impact is more direct. Take the time to research how state policy is made because this information is critical to effective advocacy.
Friday, October 27, 2017
How are the arts doing in the US and what can YOU do?
State legislative bodies pass laws like Congress, but state policies are customized to each state’s needs and their impact is more direct. Take the time to research how state policy is made because this information is critical to effective advocacy.
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9 comments:
This is a great reminder that state government needs more attention.
It’s hard not to be pulled in by the drama and high-profile of federal law-making, but as the article mentions state (and city) lawmaking can often have a more direct affect on people’s lives. Not only that, but is also offers more of an opportunity for direct lawmaker / citizen engagement. It’s much easier for you to communicate in a meaningful way with your representative in the state legislature or your city councilman than it is your federal congressmen or senators. State legislators (usually) are more likely to care what happens in your corner of the world and about whether they will win your vote.
The links this article offers to the States Arts Agency Directory and the Pennsylvania General Assembly Directory are a great start. Working with advocacy groups and influencing local politics can make a real difference… in dollar signs.
Whenever I see funding numbers or the lack of government support of the arts my heart sags a little bit. I think this article is a good call to action. It states: "Overall, advocacy can be accomplished based on an individual or an organization’s effort. An individual’s perspective provides legislators an opportunity to learn about how the arts impact their constituent’s lives through personal stories. Organizations have the advantage because they have access to data and success stories of how they impact their communities. According to Thomas Birch, long-time legislative counsel to NASAA, nonprofit organizations have valuable research useful for lobbying. Stories and data move people to take action, which are both important to present legislators to act and make an impact." I think by seeing the actual numbers and the infographic of this article brings to light how far the arts truly have to go. We need the support of not only the public, but the U.S. government as well if the arts are going to survive.
I was unimpressed with this article. While I think its important that we become aware of legislation the effects the arts, but this article was some how too general? Instead of talking about some of the legislation directed toward the arts, but this article was not encouraging. I wish it talked about all the different kinds of legislation around the United States. Having that information plus which states have said laws would have been more information and helped us understand how the arts are actually doing. With all that being said, we really do need more talks about the arts and the laws that protect its importance. I would like to see more articles on specific legislation in the future. As it is I don’t know enough about the different kinds of laws in place right now to protect the arts for our future.
I feel like the more important part is actually the actual text part that’s in tiny font size. The illustration that will draw all the attention from the readers actually say very little about what you can do. As the article states in the beginning, people are having heated discussion on what impact federal laws would have on arts advocacy when in reality the state level is where one can really make a difference by taking actions like contacting state legislators and tell them why art is important and how you would like to see the state do to promote arts education or to support local artists. This is the most critical message and yet while the illustration pulls all the attention it actually has very limited and pretty broad and general information on it, which is why many may feel very unimpressed and would probably lose interest to real through the article.
This just makes me sad more than anything else. In my undergrad I wrote a paper and studied the arts in schools and the arts in schools are constantly under attack and in many states it just continues to get worse and fewer students are being exposed to the arts as they used to be even when I was a kid. Out of all of the 50 states there are only a handful that are doing anything about this which leads me to believe e that not enough people are talking about this. It's hard to push for a governmental change in the arts when there are so many greater things that we need to be fighting for as a society, especially as the federal government itself has attackd funding and support for the arts. I think the largest way we can make a difference is where we are and then by getting others to help the state legislature hear the importance of the arts to our communities.
Arts advocacy, especially in elementary, middle, and/or secondary school is something that I believe every state needs to be striving for. Providing an arts program for ages 5 to 14 can completely shape those kids development and possible career path in life. I know I fell in love with art from a very young age, looking forward to painting and drawing in 4th and 5th grade. If legislation in every state could pass through that state’s government, I believe more kids would become interested in the arts and eventually pursue it as a career. This would not only broaden the field of designers and artists putting work into the world, but also help relieve some of the competitiveness of career paths that are too flooded, such as educators, pharmacists, et cetera. The US needs to make going into the arts a less taboo option for young adults entering the professional world from the beginning.
I think one of the major problems our society encounters is the lack of balance in the early educational years. Throughout my education the STEM fields have not only been encouraged, but absolutely mandated. I am sure many of my peers encountered mandatory computer science classes and applied sciences, but arts were considered an “option” to be pursued, if your schedule permit it. I think it is such a detrimental thing to our society to not teach the value of interdisciplinary relationships. It is beyond apparent that when artists and business people and engineers are collaborating, the result is far greater than any one group working on their own. Giving students the ability to learn the foundation of each of the major disciplines is essential to fostering that collaboration in the future, so, when I see things like the lack of funding in arts, it is frustrating to me that the artistic disciplines, which hold a lot of value and importance to my peers and myself, are being neglected.
This article serves as a great reminder of what we can do to help the advocates for funding and the overall legislative process of the arts. I do however think that this is a somewhat lackluster article about the topic. This fairly flatly presents information with no real called yet to action of what to do to impact the change. Seeing more pointed examples and more substantial set of meta-data I think would’ve helped to sway the reader into digging further into this. There is already a lot of arts-related bills out there it’s just a process of getting it into the public knowledge that seems hard it at times. People tend to rally alongside a specific issue not such a broad topic as overall arts. This I think goes along with why this article does not have a strong of an impact.
Given the nature of our corporate media in America there is undue focus placed upon the Federal Government, oftentimes at the expense of state governments. While understanding what goes on in Congress and the Presidency in Washington D.C. is important, America’s Federal system means that state governments have a substantial ability to impact our lives. If you care about arts funding and support, understanding what your state government is doing can be a crucial. Additionally advocating and lobbying state officials to support arts education and funding is critical to ensuring that arts education is advanced in your state. Grade school is where most people come to learn about and love the arts, but primary school education is controlled by state governments, and as such it is important that you advocate for schools to provide students with funding opportunities in the arts.
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