Welcome to Youth Arts Month

Kristen Engebretsen

March 1 kicks off a month-long celebration of youth participation and learning in the arts. Many states, cities, and organizations have their own way of celebrating.

Here is just a random sampling of ideas I’ve seen from around the web:

1. National Young Audiences Arts for Learning Week, March 24–30

2. March is Music In Our Schools Month

3. Youth Art Month

4. March for the Arts in Education Month: Empowering Youth through the Arts

5. Theatre in Our Schools Month

At Americans for the Arts, we’ll be hosting a Blog Salon about early childhood education later this month (March 18–22), but for today’s kickoff of Youth Arts Month, we wanted to share something special.

Today we are releasing the first part of a new Arts Education Navigator series of e-books designed to help educators, students, and advocates navigate the complex field of arts education.

Part of our partnership with Vans Custom Culture, each e-book in the series will cover a specific topic, ensuring arts education supporters like you are equipped with the knowledge, statistics, and case-making techniques needed to effectively communicate with decision-makers. 

Our new e-book series kicks off with Facts & Figures.

The first e-book in the series, Facts & Figures, provides you with all of the data you need to convince someone of the benefits of arts education, as well as the urgent need to prevent the decline of arts education.

Facts & Figures draws on classic arts education research such as Champions of Change, as well as new reports like Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation.

Presented in an easy-to-read format, this e-book highlights key data points every advocate needs when discussing the importance of arts education.

I hope that during this month you will use Facts & Figures, particularly as March is often the month when school boards hold hearings to make budget decisions for next year. (For more about that, check out a blog Joshua Miller wrote last March about resources for school board advocacy.)

The five e-books in the Navigator series will roll out during 2013, in both English and Spanish. We’ll be sure to update everyone often with new additions!

Happy reading and Happy Youth Arts Month!