Panelists Call for Protection of Art Education Programs in Public Schools

Panelists passionate about arts education gathered recently to discuss the importance of protecting the arts for youth at the LEAP All Stars Project during National Arts in Education Week.

“There’s not a day that goes by that you don’t hear music, where you don’t see some aspect of art, and that doesn’t happen by circumstance. It’s strategic and that is developed and nourished to the point where art education can do that,” said former LEAP student and teaching artist Tyrik Iman-Washington Jr. “You learn your ABCs by singing them. It’s a key tool that needs to be protected.”

Founded in 1977, Learning through an Expanded Arts Program (LEAP) started as a grassroots movement teaching the arts in just four schools. Today, the teaching artists serve 20,000 kids in 140 schools across all five boroughs of the city.

“We ensure youth are not only at the table, but leading the conversation so they can be heard and seen as innovative problem-solvers preparing to lead in a thriving creative economy,” according to the LEAP web site.

But despite a welcome $4 million increase by the city in arts spending at 239 public schools this fiscal year, Department of Education has been forced to reduce spending on the arts steadily since 2010. Between 2020 and 2023, public schools across the five boroughs lost 425 full-time certified arts teachers.

The event on Sept. 17 brought together five panelists: Audrey St. Clair, Kimberly Olsen, Shadae McDaniel, S. Brian Jones, and Tyrik Iman-Washington Jr. as they shared how art has an impact on lives and why art education funding is needed and has benefits far beyond art classes.

“Arts really exposed students to so many wonderful life skills, sharing, communication, confidence, how to be a part of a group, how to say yes,” said Jones, an assistant dean of Operations and Community Engagement at Pace University

He also dived into how the arts can connect people in different ways.

“You might be a science person and they might be working on a script about science. You can offer your expertise. There are more ways people can come in and meet.”

Events talking about the funding in Art Education are important, Senior Vice President for the All Stars Project Shadae McDaniel shared.

“Right now, in a world where we feel so disconnected and so disenfranchised, I’m so incredibly hopeful for work like this that we’re doing today.

“I’m excited for our future, people that we bring together to create environments that really have the power to change the world, especially in moments when things feel so disconnected.”

Dreana Henry, a student in theater and media, believes that youth need a way to express themselves, and the arts give them that.

“A lot of our youth right now need art as a way of self-expression,” she said. “It’s important for young people nowadays to have communities that want them to be artistic and creative.”

The executive director of LEAP, Rich Souto, mentioned how arts funding in education is ranked lower in budgeting in comparison to other studies.

Souto said that the problem is that the federal government does not see the importance of adding funding to arts education.

“One of the things we can do to protect access to funding for the arts is that we can make sure that we’re clear on why they’re so important, to make sure that folks understand that the arts are an opportunity for young people to learn empathy, to learn communication and collaboration with their peers,” he said. “We have to make everyone know why they’re important.”

The All Stars Talent Show Network began in 1981 and has since been giving the communities a place to transform lives through the power of performance. A donator of All Stars, Joseph Phillips, mentioned how the All-Stars Network has given a place for kids to sing, dance, rap, and slam poetry “in order to help them connect with faces outside of their neighborhood.

“They don’t have too many adult interactions outside of their own immediate family and schools, but acting is a way to learn how to interact with other people from other neighborhoods, other races, other ages,” he said. “It’s an important skill to learn.”