The Arts in School

What are the Arts and why do they matter?

As many readers likely know, the Arts are a collection of activities in the creative fields such as theater, music, painting, etc. In schools, the Arts are experienced through classes such as drama, art, band, and choir, or through extracurricular activities like film clubs, dance classes, and more. They appear as the topic of this post for a simple reason: many schools do not give students enough opportunity to study them. The organization Americans for the Arts was founded on the belief that all students should have access to Arts education. Their Arts Education Navigator e-book is a concise and easy-to-follow explanation of the Arts and their importance in schools. They explain that the Arts provide new ways to connect with students who may not be otherwise engaged in school or with their teachers. The Arts are consistently underfunded and understaffed, especially in rural or low-income areas, depriving those students of the chance to connect with their teachers and their peers.

My experience with the Arts

A beige mobile home

My own personal experience with the Arts is extensive because I have participated in them for the vast majority of my life, especially in music performance. I have always been extremely invested in my experience in the Arts, and they were incredibly important to me. There were times when I felt like the only place in school where I belonged was in my Arts classes. I grew up in a low-income, rural area in Tennessee, so my experience with the Arts may be very different from others, but it always felt to me like the Arts were the last priority. None of the programs I participated in received any funding from our school. Any money we needed for anything (music, instrument repair, transportation, etc.) was raised by us and all of our finances were managed by our teachers or parent volunteers. A consistent problem I experienced across four different programs was finding somewhere to rehearse. When I joined my elementary school chorus group, my music teacher's classroom was a mobile home that had been parked outside of the main school building. Our school had two of these mobile homes, and the other one housed the art teacher's classes. Both of the buildings were old and run down, and it was a legitimate worry that having too large of a group inside might cause the floor to collapse. When both mobile homes were finally removed due to having extensive and dangerous mold problems, my music and art teachers had to put all of their teaching materials on rolling carts and wheel them to whatever classroom was not currently in use. When I joined my middle school band, our rehearsal space was a collection of metal folding chairs and music stands set up in the lobby of the gym. All of our equipment was stored in a small closet, and the most unfortunate part of the location was that the only restrooms in the gym were located on either side of us, so students in gym class would constantly come in and out while we practiced. We had to pack up all of our chairs and stands at the end of class because we were set up in front of the concession stand. High school was slightly better at accommodating our Arts programs, as we did have a permanent rehearsal space, but there were still problems. Our band room was simply not big enough. Both the choir and the band constantly found ourselves needing more space to accommodate the many students who wanted to participate. The marching band frequently had problems with our rehearsal space outside. We were allotted a large grass plot in front of the building to rehearse on, but administration constantly complained about us using it because marching over the same spots over and over again to learn our show made the grass die in strange patches. I never once felt like my school wanted me to participate in the Arts, but they were the place I felt the most comfortable. I always had trouble making friends in school, but the Arts programs helped me to connect with my peers, and I still have lasting friends to this day that I met in high school band. What strikes me most about my story about the Arts is that even through the difficulties I have listed here, students still participated in the Arts en masse. Our elementary school and high school choirs were huge, especially considering our relatively small school sizes, and students were extremely passionate about all of the programs. I was constantly selling something, volunteering to stand outside by the road and raise donations at our roadblocks, serving food at our various fundraising dinners, and even working twelve hours straight at a long event we hosted at our high school. Students care about the Arts!