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It's Showtime

You've done your homework. You've mobilized your advocacy team. You've memorized your script. Now it's time to hit the stage and make your voice heard.

Here are 5 things you can do:

1. Make arts a strategic solution
2. Involve the board in arts activities
3. Get on the agenda
4. Insert the arts into other activities
5. If you can't beat them, join them

1. Make arts a strategic solution: Request a copy of the district's strategic plan or locate it on the school district's Web site. Then, illustrate how arts learning addresses each goal or supports each strategy.

• In Minneapolis, advocates devised a unique way to insert themselves into their district's strategic plan. Check out their solution.

2. Involve the board in arts activities:

• Ask board members to make opening remarks at arts events. Invite the press and encourage reporters to quote board members in their articles; getting supportive attributions by board members "on the record."
• Set up a tour for board members to participate in arts learning programs throughout the district. This will provide a unique opportunity to see students benefiting from arts learning activities.
• Document arts learning in classrooms, at rehearsals and performances. Share photos, audio and video on the Web, via e-mail blasts, and present them at board meetings.
  • View the Logan-Rogersville Show Me Arts Committee participating in Fine Arts Education Day in Missouri.

3. Get on the agenda: Present at board, school and Parent/Teacher association meetings. Encourage advocates to be in attendance wearing or carrying arts supporter gear. Advocates should be prepared to share their personal views and stories to highlight how arts learning has affected their lives and impacted the community.

• Hear it for yourself. St. Louis Public Schools Board Member, Melanie Adams tells us how advocates should prepare board meeting presentations.

4. Insert the arts into other high profile activities: Every school has its own high profile activity (i.e. football, debate, marching band). Special interest supporters such as athletic booster clubs who may already have strong influence on the school board are a key audience to win over. It is essential to reach out to these groups and to help them connect the dots between arts learning and their activity -- enabling them to include arts learning into their advocacy efforts.

5. If you can’t beat them, join them: If your current school board is not supportive of the arts in any way, be proactive and lobby to get an arts advocate on the school board. 

Back to Orchestrating Your Action Plan

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