State Arts Leaders Present Tool Kit for Arts Advocates
Whether you are writing a proposal to fund a new arts program, convincing your local school board that strong arts education is essential or advising students about course selections, you now have access to a well-organized collection of information that will help you make a case for the arts.
It's the Research-Based Communication Tool Kit, available online through the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA). Agency heads from four states, including Ohio's Mary Campbell-Zopf, authored the document to help you strengthen your message. Each section of the document focuses on an important benefit of arts learning:
- The Arts and the Creative Workforce
- The Arts and Literacy Development
- Assessing the context of the planning process.
- The Arts, Cognition and Social Development
In each section, you will find a concise information sheet that states benefits of arts learning and cites the research findings supporting those statements. You can delve deeper by reading sources cited in the annotated bibliographies that follow. Finally you can spring into action by using or adapting the sample arts advocacy materials provided in each section.
Select Search Databases, then Cultural Planning Resources to access annotated bibliography entries for the resources cited in Focusing the Light and more. This database will be updated as new publications and resources emerge.
The materials include brief newsletter articles and longer features that can be reprinted in your publications, as well as letters that can serve as examples for your own communications. Finally, you can be better prepared to seize advocacy opportunities on the fly with Art Facts To Go—wallet-sized cards you can download to print and share with colleagues.
Read about Focusing the Light: The Art and Practice of Planning. Volume 1 focuses on advocacy, and the remaining six volumes will assist in the various stages of planning, implementing and evaluating your program.
Scan articles in The Art of Improvement. They address some of the topics found in the toolkit and Focusing the Light.
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