Courtesy of Meredith Badler
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The arts are often overlooked — and the first area to get cut from schools and budgets across the United States. But now arts education is getting some well-deserved recognition in the Centennial State: The Colorado Senate has just designated all of March as “Arts Education Month” across the state.
The resolution, co-sponsored by senators Marc Snyder and Mark Baisley and led by two nonprofit organizations, Colorado Business Committee for the Arts and Think 360 Arts for Learning, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support on Monday, March 2.
Going forward, the goal is to pass a resolution every March at the Colorado General Assembly and grow the recognition each year, according to Think 360 and the CBCA.
Not every state recognizes officially arts education, but the idea struck a chord after a policy briefing paper on the state of arts education in Colorado public schools by the CBCA and Think 360 was published at the end of last year. One of the first policy recommendations was to “recognize the value of arts education as a core subject.”
While the resolution validates the benefits of visual and performing arts such as dance, media arts, music and theater in schools, it also notes that “standards for dance, drama & theatre arts, music, and visual arts have been fully embedded in the Colorado academic standards and are updated every six years, but there is no statewide instructional requirement for elementary schools, middle schools, or high schools.”
The policy briefing paper and Senate resolution emphasize that Colorado is one of only two states that do not collect and aggregate data on course-level offerings in the arts across all districts, or any data on student participation in the arts, according to CBCA and Think 360.
The two organizations have prepared a resource tool kit for Colorado teachers, schools, districts and community organizations to participate in Arts Education Month.
“It is exciting to have a full month to uplift the value and importance of arts education for Colorado students and our communities,” says Snyder. “Not only does instruction in the arts improve overall academic performance for youth, but it also strengthens our future workforce through innovation, creativity and collaboration.”
