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"We celebrate the creativity of America's young people and the willingness of our cultural community to invest in making every child's life a work of art." ~ First Lady Laura Bush, Honorary Chair, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Coming Up Taller Awards 2001  

The Arts:

• Teach learners to be more tolerant and open.
• Allow learners to express themselves creatively.
• Promote individuality, bolster self-confidence, and improve overall academic performance.
• Help troubled youth, providing an alternative to delinquent behavior and truancy while providing an improved attitude towards school.
• Help all students develop more appreciation and understanding of the world around them.
• Help students develop a sense of craftsmanship, quality task performance, and goal-setting—skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
• Strengthens student problem-solving and critical thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success.
• Help students develop a positive work ethic and pride in a job well done. (original source of this is no longer on line)

Is your program meeting these goal? Reflect on what you do. Find out more about Art Advocacy from these links.

• "Ten Lessons the Arts Teach"  by Elliot Eisner. On NAEA web site. These lessons will make a nice poster. Be sure to cite your source.

• Americans for the Arts- The arts are much more than just fun "extra" activities for kids. Participation in the arts opens up children's worlds and minds, and offers them the skills they need for a bright future. "Growing Attention to Helping Our Children Read: The Arts Can Play a Critical Role" Read the facts on how arts education helps kids do better. See Public Awareness Campaign   (Alternate URL for American for the Arts).

• Art Advocacy Check List Be your own best advocate! See what YOU can do to promote your program -  advocacy checklist (pdf file) that is posted to the Texas Art Education Association website - collected from November conference.
  
  
• Art Education Associations - links page to state and national art education associations.
  
  
• Art Education Online Resource Center - Learn about how you can secure a place for the arts in your district.

• Arts Education Partnership- "Learning Partnerships: Improving Learning in Schools with Arts Partners in the Community" (plus local and state reports are available)
  
  
• Arts Education Resources and Consultations - arts education advocacy, pedagogy, and teaching support. Site created by Paul Syme for Annapolis Valley Regional School Board, Nova Scotia. Links to articles of arts advocacy and more.

• Arts Included as Core Academic Subjects in 2001 Education Act from PNN Online.

• Arts in Education - New Horizons for Learning Arts advocacy articles and resources. You might be interested in checking out some of the other topics in Teaching and Learning Strategies  New Horizons for Learning home page.

• Arts on the Line: Tools for the Arts Advocate Articles and resources,  speeches, advocacy links. The aim of AOTL is to give surfers quick and easy access to the best of this information as well as access to original materials that might help in making the case for stronger and more vibrant arts communities.
  
  
• ASCD: for the Success of All Learners , "Visual Arts For All Students: Making Connections Between Art and Life" for the Success of all Learners" Article by Karen Rusmussen. Type in "art education" in the search box for more articles.
  
  
• Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development- "Picture This: An Arts-Based Literacy Program" (from Educational Leadership)
  
  
• Crayola® Arts Advocacy "ART is an educational necessity for a nation that hopes to pass on its most valuable legacy, the creative spirit, to future generations."
  
  
• Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement - available from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the Arts Education Partnership. It can be ordered in the hard copy form or viewed as a PDF file

• Dana Press Publications - Arts Education Newsletter and books.
  

• Importance of Art Education in our Schools By Kevan Nitzberg 
  

• Jason Ohler - Art is the Fourth R The Three R's are becoming the 4 Rs: Reading, wRiting,  aRithmetic and aRt. 
  

• Kids Smart.org - Why Arts Instruction?- Studies show that art education greatly improves a student's ability to perform in other areas of study. See-- The Life Skills Inherent in an Education in the Arts - from "Educating for Tomorrow's Jobs and Life Skills", by Eliot Eisner, Arts Education for Life and Work, The Getty Education Institute for the Arts.
  
  
• Kennedy Center: ARTSEDGE- ARTSEDGE supports the place of arts education at the center of the curriculum through the creative and appropriate uses of technology. ARTSEDGE helps educators to teach in, through and about the arts. Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning (download pdf file) Great studies on the impact of the arts!  National Standards
  

• Learning Through the Arts for Lesson Plans - incorporating art into core curriculum -  K- 8 plans (listed for Canada for each province - browse at your leisure). Nice Flash movie for advocacy
  

• Marvin Bartel’s Art Education Goshen College
  How Important are the Arts in Our Schools
  A Successful Program: Honeyville School
  Why Art is Basic Education: Art Advocacy
  See Marvin Bartel's 22 Reasons for Art

• National Art Education Association- Advocacy

Instant Art, Instant Culture: The Unspoken Policy for American Schools book by By Laura H. Chapman - originally printed over 25 years ago, is the sixth in NAEA's archival series to make available out-of-print texts - Order No. 247

• National Assembly of State Arts Agencies -  "Eloquent Evidence: Arts at the Core of Learning"
  

• National Endowment for the Arts- The National Endowment for the Arts enriches our Nation and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country.
  
  
• No Subject Left Behind (pdf file) A guide to arts education opportunities in the 2001 Education Act.
  

• Ohio Alliance for Arts Education is a statewide network to support arts education for Ohio's students. The Ohio Alliance for Arts Education's advocacy agenda outlines goals and objectives to improve arts education in Ohio for all students. (Site was under construction last I checked)
  
  
• "Opening Minds Through Art" This is part of a speech made by the Arizona State Superintendent of Schools. The arts portion is towards the end of the speech. I like the Character Education initiative, too. 
  

• President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities  - The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, created by Presidential Executive Order in 1982, identifies issues and develops initiatives in the arts and the humanities.
  
  
• Project Zero - education research group from Harvard University.  "Project Zero's mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking, and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels." See research for the arts.
  

• Scores of Students in the Arts  -National Association for Music Education. Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT
  
  
• "The Ocean the Bird and the Scholar" -  Helen Vendler Lecture

• Why Art? Site by Michael Gerrish. Geared to middle school and special ed. See Advocacy for Technology Centered Learning. "I am convinced that Art is of paramount importance in every educational experience! Art must be more than a hands-on activity paired with other learning, for when it is integrated with other content areas the synergy of connected learning paths promotes a deeper understanding of culture, period and discipline." -Michael Gerrish.
  
  
• The Benefits of a Visual Art - Research paper by Nada AbiSamra on the Contribution Visual Arts Education offers in order to enhance Intellectual and Emotional Intelligence. This paper lists several good primary sources you may want to check.
  
  
• Transforming Education through the Arts Challenge National Initiative - Academics centered around the Arts - with measured results. 

"In 1997, the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies published the results of a national arts study that showed a positive relationship between standardized test scores, English grades, and other educational methods. The study revealed that students in eighth and 10th grade who had 'high involvement' in the arts, in and out of class, consistently outscored those with low exposure to the arts." (source for this is no longer online)