While School is out, enjoy an art-filled summer
By Pat Boyd, Executive Director, South Dakotans for the Arts
 

Reports are coming in from school districts across the state and around the nation as they struggle with budget cuts, and the news is mostly not good. Local advocacy for arts education has been strong, but the cuts are deep and the choices impossibly hard.

Parents, teachers, school boards and administrators are working to protect their remaining arts classes and programs because they are aware of the evidence that the arts provide critical links to academic success and healthy social development. Many recognize the arts as the best motivators available to them for reaching their students, including gifted and talented students and children at risk of failure in academic and social settings.

Understanding that the arts are basic to education does not change the financial facts. Until we find a way to fund education and find the resources to implement these essential tools for learning and ensure access to a complete education for every child, this unsatisfactory situation of limited educational prospects will continue. We must continue to make the arts a part of the solution to this dilemma.

Meanwhile, as we adults talk through our decision-making, our children are making their way through school without much art. Next year there will be even less, for some, much less. Setbacks to arts education will have an impact on students everywhere, and will last through precious years in the academic careers of our children. What can we do now, and next year, to make a critical difference for them?

We can do what we do best… provide a wide range of live arts experiences and opportunities for all ages to participate. Community arts organizations cannot replace strong instruction in the fine arts in our schools, nor develop extracurricular programs for every child in the district—but we can reach out and include students and their families in new ways.  On-going support of arts education and enthusiastic appreciation of arts educators are priorities for our local arts groups—but our work to bring live arts experiences to the community is very different from arts instruction in school.

The arts belong in schools because they are a part of life and learning, a very large part that brings us to understand, interpret and interact with our world. We have been experimenting with various meanings for the phrases “art works” and “the work of art”. But school is out for the summer, and the play’s the thing.  Local arts organizations offer up the lively arts throughout the year, but summer is the time for adventure and recreation, no matter what age child you are.

Summer is gloriously here, and the arts come alive all over South Dakota. We somehow become more alive when we are active and engaged in the energy of the arts. We can take the sculpture walks—prowl the galleries—picnic at the band shell concert – make any kind of music festival a mini vacation and discover a new love for Shakespeare in the park and musicals at the playhouse. 

What to do on stormy afternoons? Do not hide in your basement unless advised to do so by the Weather Service. The arts bring life indoors too. Museums and art centers are bright and beautiful, alive with interactive exhibits and extraordinary visions. Summer symphony programs lead you on journeys across the universe without ever leaving your comfortable seat. Film festivals and movie houses turn out the lights and open your eyes to new worlds.

Explore our cultural variety and you will be amazed at new friendships and memories that will last forever. South Dakota is a feast for the senses in the summertime, providing full and pleasing cultural immersion through traditional arts with music, dancing, stories, food and fun.  These are great adventures to share with summer visitors – become a tourist on your own turf and try them out together. Great information is available on the South Dakota Tourism site, www.travelsd.com , South Dakota Public Broadcasting, www.sdpb.org, and South Dakotans for the Arts, www.sdarts.org. (Oh, and don’t mention that any of this is Education, summer’s E-word.)