2022 Utah Rural Schools Conference

Arts advocacy comes in many forms whether occurring within our classroom, school, district or more broadly. It is shaped by the needs and desires of our learners as well as those of the larger community. Utah Arts Education Association (UAEA) provides the scaffolding to build advocacy by bringing together individuals specifically focused on creating art learning experiences.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate how advocacy can happen in a variety of environments, and, most importantly, it is something all educators, not just art teachers, can build into their practice. We propose creating advocacy systems that can be implemented across any level. We would like to share two important impact areas using hands-on, arts-integrated activities accessible to all participants.

Arts Education Relationships and Advocacy at Different Levels - We will show how to harness a variety of arts, cultural, political, and commercial organizations to broaden access to art learning across content areas. Our "Clouds" lesson and hands-on activity will demonstrate how the arts can be integrated across a variety of content areas.

Getting Arts Education and Arts Awareness into the Public Sphere - When art is integrated into communities, it helps to cultivate a student’s experience and teach them that art is a powerful tool in their life. Our second "All in for Art" hands-on activity will demonstrate how we can harness the arts to provide a creative voice beyond the classroom.