ADVOCACY TIPS YOU CAN DO NOW
- Get parental support by inviting parents to participate in your classes
- Make positive phone calls home
- Attend PTA meetings and take time to showcase your program
- Invite your colleagues/parents/principals to arts events
- Integrate with classroom or other specialty teachers
- Work with classroom teachers to organize field trips to arts sites
- Honor a community member for their support in the arts
- Take advantage of bus duty by talking about what students learned
- Submit articles to school newspapers or community letters
- Display photos of students in action and describe what is taking place
- Add your state senator, representatives and school board members to your newsletter and event mailing list
- Get your principal/administrators to participate in your class
- Attend your school board meetings to be informed and to inform
- Ask parents to speak in support of the arts at school board meetings
- Be aware of current research that supports your discipline (brain-based research, differentiated instruction) and share this research with administrators, school board members, and policymakers
- Know your State standards and Assessment Anchors (PSSA concepts)
- Become a member of your Association and it’s listserv
- Become a member of The Citizens for the Arts (www.citizensfortheinpa.org) which provides a citizen’s guide to arts advocacy or Americans for the Arts (www.americansforthearts.org) which sends email alerts about arts-related legislation
- Attend Town Hall meetings and ask for arts education support
- Collaborate with your local museums, theaters and symphony
- Encourage participation at arts events by offering free or discounted admission
- Send home or post information about arts events in the community
- Establish relationships with local universities with arts programs
- Bring in arts professionals to model that there are many arts careers
- Make bumper stickers, t-shirts or pins with a student-designed logo
- Showcase your program on district websites (get photo consent)
- Celebrate National Arts & Humanities Month (October) and Youth Arts Month (March)
- Participate in Arts-in-Education day in Harrisburg (March/April)
- Use the PAEA slogan “Art Leaves No Child Behind” TM
- Follow up with “thank-you” notes that feature artwork
LONG TERM ADVOCACY TIPS
- Look in to art grants for things such as artist-in-residences or arts-related field trips
- Hold an arts-based fundraiser
- Put up a billboard or place an ad in a local paper about arts education
- Contact local radio or television about arts education
- Exhibit or perform at school board meetings, local businesses (e.g. Barnes & Noble), Senior Centers or Community Centers
- Invite former arts students to exhibit or perform for your students
- Exhibit art work created by arts teachers
- Create an art gallery in your school or administration building
- Give framed student art work to principals, administrators, school board members or policymakers
- Purchase arts-related books for administrators/school board members (e.g. Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”)
- Meet with your local policymakers to discuss arts in education
- Host a Family Fun day/night that centers around the arts
- Establish an arts-related scholarship
- Start a letter writing campaign (*contact Heide Sheetz/Wendy Milne for more information on starting a letter writing campaign in your community
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REMEMBER ---KEEP IT POSITIVE AND MAKE IT ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS WHO DESERVE A QUALITY EDUCATION
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