An alliance of arts leaders and policymakers in San Francisco convened
in early December to launch a National Campaign to promote the use of
federal job stimulus funds to employ artists to work in public schools
and community centers. The concept has been presented to the Obama-
Biden Transition Team and to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for consideration
under the new Administration’s prodigious Jobs and Growth stimulus
package.

As the President-Elect seeks a potent formula to give the economy a
serious jolt in the current recession, artists of all stripes
represent a cost-effective investment to bring their performing,
visual, and technical talents to a variety of school, neighborhood,
housing, health, corrections and community development settings.

The National Campaign’s proposal draws on the historical precedents of
Roosevelt’s WPA jobs program and the national CETA Arts Program of the
Ford-Carter years. The CETA Arts program was launched in San
Francisco in 1975 and then rapidly spread across the country with the
encouragement of the US Department of Labor, the National Endowment
for the Arts, and many state and local arts agencies.

Particular leverage can be achieved by placing trained artists in
public schools where the President-Elect’s priority for educational
improvement can be advanced while putting more people to work. As
such, hiring artists can be a critical infrastructural investment that
also contributes to social reform. Art forms like music, theater,
dance, mural painting and poetry have demonstrated their ability to
inspire students to delight in learning, and bring children of diverse
economic and racial backgrounds onto collaborative common ground.

The Campaign embraces the concept of a National Green Arts Corps to
provide neighborhoods and community-based artists with the resources,
training and skills to use the arts to help communities express
identity, build community life and create green jobs. As we put
America back to work, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, artists
have a great deal to contribute to the design, building and animation
of community projects. For example, artists can help to design and
animate elements of community infrastructures such as parks, plazas
and public buildings; offer classes and workshops; collaboratively
create works of public art; and assist in the development of green
businesses.

Community artists are invariably employed in America’s large nonprofit
independent sector, government’s indispensable ally in providing
critical services through childcare centers, soup kitchens,
environmental and civil rights groups, hospitals, schools, prisons,
cultural centers, and faith-based organizations.

A public service employment program for artists can reach into the
major urban centers and rural areas in all 50 states, promote local
cultural activities and craft industries, invigorate educational
reform, and pass the wisdom and talents of an older generation of
artists to a new one eager to learn and participate in the economic
revival of their home communities. The CETA Arts Program demonstrated
success in transitioning many of these artists into full-time private
sector employment in the theater, fashion, graphic design, film,
animation and entertainment industries.

Arts education also contributes to the economy as high school and
college graduates find employment in arts and entertainment. The
program will also cultivate new and enthusiastic audiences through
participation and attendance at performances and exhibits.

Students will also learn to combine their creative skills with
technology, harnessing the power of the internet and the new Web 2.0
modalities of blogs, video, wikis and the social networks to develop
collaborative learning projects and hone professional marketable skills.

A recent study by the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
found that “integrating art in the literacy curriculum not only
affected student learning, but also improved classroom dynamics and
student behavior.” The CAPE model demonstrates how schools can
improve significantly through arts integration, teacher professional
development, and teacher/artist collaboration. Similar programs
across the country have produced similar results using professional
artists in the schools, community centers and a variety of social
institutions.

In the coming weeks, the National Campaign will be engaging artists
and arts advocates in all 50 states in the elaboration of this
proposal and building a broad-based constituency to promote its
adoption by the new Administration and Congress.

HOW CAN I HELP?

Enthuse your local arts agency and Member of Congress that this is a
splendid economic and educational us of the federal jobs stimulus
funds. Reach them when they’re home in the district.

Join the Facebook or LinkedIn Groups for the “National Campaign to
Hire Artists to Work in Schools”, join in the lively discussion and
encourage other artists, arts educators and advocates to join as well.

Monitor policy developments, Cabinet and federal agency appointments
by the new Obama Administration. See whom you may know on the House
Education & Labor Committee or the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
Pensions (HELP) Committees..

Consider joining a delegation in Washington to visit the Obama
Transition Team and Congress in January to express our point of view.

Vote for our Campaign in the Idea contest for change.org, using button
to your left.

Learn how you can contribute financially to the Campaign. Write or
call Michael Nolan
at mikeydavy@gmail.com or 415-282-9043″