I am excited to be the NAEA Elementary Division Monthly Mentor for November.  I have been teaching for over 20 years, currently I teach K- 5th grade at Mount Prospect School in Central NJ.  I am a Past President of the Art Educators of NJ (AENJ) and have spent lots of time working with NAEA as well.  This month the conversation is going to center around advocacy.

ad·vo·ca·cy/ˈadvəkəsē/

Noun:
Public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.
The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy; active support.


Advocacy, in the arts and art education, happens at every level - national, state, local and right in your own classroom.  I did a quick google search and here is what I found.

National - Americans for the Arts
http://www.artsusa.org/

National Art Education Association
http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy

The Council for Art Education, Inc. - the sponsor of Youth Art Month
http://www.acminet.org/youth_art_month.htm

State (NJ) - Art Pride NJ
http://www.artpridenj.com/

State (NJ) - Art Educators of NJ
http://www.aenj.org/pages/Advocacy_101

Local (Somerset County, NJ) - Center for Contemporary Arts
http://ccabedminster.org/

Local (Somerset County, NJ) - Somerset County Cultural and Heritage Commission
http://www.co.somerset.nj.us/publicworks/cultural/

To find the sites above I simply used the search term, “art advocacy” then “NJ art advocacy”, then “Somerset County NJ art advocacy”.  You can do the same to find out who is advocating for the arts and art education in YOUR community.  These are all amazing resources and I am certain you will find helpful information on each of these sites.

A more important questions is, “How are you advocating for the arts and art education, to the students, parents, administrators and other community members, in your school district?” Advocacy at the school-wide level means getting the word out about what students are doing in YOUR art program (I was going to say art classroom - but I know there are plenty of you out there teaching “Art on A Cart” with no classroom at all).  Of course, there are so many ways to advocate -  hanging student artwork around the school, art exhibits, open house nights, conferences, Youth Art Month, newsletters, contests, blog posts, publishing art work to an online gallery, videos and e-mails to administrators.

Throughout the month of November I will share with you some of the ways that I advocate for art education in my school community but for now - let’s hear what YOU are doing, get the conversation started!

Join the discussion