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The arts are a
PARTNERSHIP for success
By Pat Boyd, Executive Director, South Dakotans for
the Arts
Look around your community and chances are you’ll discover the arts
everywhere in your town this season. Maybe there's a play at the school, or the
church on the east side of town is hosting a choral concert for the holidays.
You may find an arts and crafts fair that is an annual tradition at the Legion
Hall or perhaps your community has a South Dakota Arts Council-sponsored artist
in the schools, bringing a new and exciting perspective to your students.
In fact, if you think about it, we're all partners. Anyone, anywhere in South Dakota, who buys a ticket to a holiday show, compliments a child on a school art project, sings in a choir, has an original work of art framed for an office, or just tells a neighbor about an upcoming arts event is a partner in advancing the arts in South Dakota. And that's a partnership to be proud of, because the arts do so much for our state.
1. Children learn better. Arts education programs in most of our schools help students acquire knowledge in a variety of effective ways, using the arts to teach other core curricula subjects.
2. Arts performances bring people to town. Whether it's an annual festival or a holiday musical, people turn out to see and hear arts activities—and those people spend money while they are in town.
3. Community pride is boosted. Dying towns have no arts opportunites. Thriving towns have lots of them. Communities which sponsor the arts have something to brag about—and something to grow each year.
4. Economic development is served. Businesses and the families who work in them don't come to a state or community with no leisure activities, no recreational programs and no quality of life. The arts are the basis of so much that we do outside of our worklife. When we support the arts, we support a stronger economic base for the whole state.
You can be a partner—a vital partner—in building better communities. This is a good time of the year to think about how you support the arts in your town. Let's strengthen the partnership for an even better year in 2005!
For more about the arts in South Dakota, visit www.sdarts.org, a joint website of the South Dakota Arts Council and South Dakotans for the Arts.