By Connie Martinez, SVCREATES’ Chief Executive Officer
In 2002, Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley published research about our creative community. One of their findings showed 94% of Silicon Valley parents wanted their children to study or experience the arts in school. I doubt this statistic has changed in the past 20 years, as it is consistent with recent studies conducted by Americans for the Arts and other research institutes across our nation.
As many students go back to school this month, we are still seeing a lack of arts education opportunities offered within the school day. To counteract this lack in curriculum, Silicon Valley has multiple arts and cultural organizations that provide high-quality programs and services for our children and families. Children’s Discovery Museum, Community School of Music and Arts, Children’s Musical Theater, School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, and Starting Arts come to mind. They are joined by dozens of culturally specific arts organizations that provide classes and workshops that deepen cultural understanding and connect young people to their heritage. These organizations reach hundreds of thousands of children each year, but providing every child with exposure to and engagement in the arts is not scalable without the participation of our schools.
So why have arts curriculum in K-12 schools been trending downwards over the past few decades? The most convincing explanation aligns with our hunger for data, and the concept that what gets measured gets done. As standardized testing expanded, educational resources turned to the “tested subjects” like math and science and turned away from the arts. And while there is a growing body of research that demonstrates how the arts improve academic performance and a series of other emotional and social skills, it is difficult and costly to conduct when the true value of the arts requires longitudinal studies about the “whole child”.
The bottom line: it is harder to measure the impact of the arts on a child’s ability to empathize, be compassionate, feel a sense of purpose, or collaborate with others than it is to measure whether a child’s answer to a math problem is correct. Perhaps an oversimplification, but it begs the question, is our educational system focused on the most important things impacting the future of our children who are struggling with the complexities of our time? I am not suggesting that math does not matter, rather my plea is for an “and” not an “or.”
Until our educational systems change, we plan to spend our time and resources on local solutions that are achievable and with partners who value the arts. Just before the pandemic hit, we established a partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) to scale our ArtsEdConnect program. ArtsEdConnect is an online marketplace for teachers to “order” arts education modules for their students designed and created by local artists and arts organizations. This program reaches about 10,000 students each year, primarily those who attend Title I schools. The pandemic curtailed our efforts, but we are back to work on expanding ArtsEdConnect with the generous support of the Warmenhoven Family Foundation and the County of Santa Clara, and in partnership with SCCOE, under the leadership of Mary Ann Dewan. We are also exploring new partnerships for afterschool arts programs provided at school sites, enabled by new funding sources from the State of California for afterschool programs. Stay tuned for progress reports along the way.
A final thought: Measuring the impact of the arts takes time, money and political will. Understanding the impact of the arts requires seeing the faces, the voices and the souls of our children and students experiencing the arts in real-time. Proving to me that the arts matter to our children is like having to prove to me that love matters to our children. Too squishy for Silicon Valley? Perhaps that is the real problem.
