Today, April 9, is National Arts Advocacy Day, the time for "speaking up in support of the arts." It is a special day of united advocacy, to contact legislators and government leaders, urging them to support the arts in words and deed.
The League of American Orchestras is one of the participants in the effort, as member of the Performing Arts Alliance. That organization is a coalition of national performing arts service organizations advocating for national policies to foster the contributions the performing arts make to America.
On Monday and Tuesday, Americans for the Arts convenes artists and arts advocates in Washington, DC for the 26th annual National Arts Advocacy Day.
Read Yo-Yo Ma's Nancy Hanks Lecture on the occasion, "Art for Life's Sake: A Roadmap from One Citizen Musician," which he summarized this way:
1. Societies are powered by three engines: politics, economics, and culture. A vibrant society exists when all three engines are firing and intersecting resulting in a populace thatis energized, engaged, and fulfilled.2. Our collective work in the arts is not just relevant but essential to strengthening our culture and positively influencing society. Thus "Art for Life's Sake."
3. The arts are the way to foster the four critical skills necessary for our children to succeed in the 21st century workforce: collaboration, flexibility, imagination, innovation.
So, how do we make these ideas reality? I submit that each one of us can and will make a difference if:
* We work at the "edge" where creativity and innovation flourish,
* We work to integrate the arts into our educational process in order to prepare our kids for the future, and
* We work for something greater than ourselves.