Welcome to Dog Days 2.0.
While I was away from this blog for three years, I was discovering entirely new forms of advocacy. I found creating programs where none existed can build community demand for more. I found adding value to the goals of others brings them to value yours. I found public officials want to make the arts one of their choices, they just need help making it happen. I found that being ready with a project is the first step to securing support for it.
Advocating for the arts and arts education can no longer be exclusively on our own terms. We need to recognize that the changing landscape around us demands more sensitivity to and interest in the concerns of others. The arts have the potential to be at the table of every policy conversation. We just have to show up and demonstrate our understanding that our interests are aligned with everyone else and we’ll invest in more than ourselves.