You know what music is? God’s little reminder that there’s something else besides us in this universe; harmonic connection between all living beings, everywhere, even the stars.
— Robin Williams, 2007
The direction that the Utah Board of Education has taken on art education is counter to the needs of students within the Utah K-12 system. Utah’s Board of Education decided to make art classes electives rather than part of the required curriculum. The board’s actions undermine students’ chances of finding careers in the arts, participating in the art community of Utah and adding to the economic growth of Utah’s creative industry.
During the fall of 2017, members of the Utah Board of Education changed state policy to reflect their belief that students, with their parents, should have the freedom to choose their class experiences through the use of electives. Board members believe that curriculum should be catered toward the interests and strengths of the individual student and not set by the school board. This is a proposition that may seem logical for many students in the state, so what is the problem? The problem is that art classes provide creative skills that Utah’s economy needs.
In Utah, according to the Utah Arts Alliance, the state’s creative industry — which includes art schools and services, design and publishing, film, radio and TV, museums and collections, performing arts, and visual arts and photography — employs 27,100 people and accounts for 4.5 percent of the state’s economy. But there are also entire industries for various forms of art and creativity, including the software developers at Adobe, who just announced an expansion of their building in Lehi, adding 1,300 employees.
Yet the board has fought to make art classes electives, which will be detrimental to the development of creative skill sets among students in the state. Change will only mean fewer students exposed to innovative forms of learning, and will result in fewer students having interest in participating in Utah’s creative industries.
The economic benefits are rich when arts education is a requirement in K-12 school, because it prepares students for creative majors and jobs. The state of Wisconsin is a great example of an economy heading in the opposite direction of Utah. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is looking to shift its focus to fields in the arts, including graphic design, because of the economic demand in the surrounding area and the ability for the university’s graphic design majors to find high job placement in the field — a reality Utah, too, can capitalize on.
Required courses do not limit the freedom of students. In fact, the curriculum of K-12 is designed to teach students the skills and qualities of citizenship necessary to fully appreciate freedom and find a career in which they are passionate, arts included. If fine arts classes are not of quality, they need to be updated, not eliminated. Syllabi can be readjusted, class assessment can be conducted, but the classes themselves should not simply become an “option” for students and parents. In a growing, lively, creative state, it is distressing to imagine a generation of Utah students without an art education.
Instead of turning its back on the arts, the Utah Board of Education must understand that teaching our students about art and to be artists not only prepares them to participate in their communities more fully as citizens, but can lead to continued personal and economic growth. In our contemporary era it is not enough to double down on math and science. Utah’s children and students deserve an education that reflects Utah’s creative economy — which includes the arts.
Kimiko Miyashima
Kimiko Miyashima and Jonathan Cardenas are graduate students at the University of Utah studying educational leadership and policy.
Jonathan Cardenas
Miyashima majored in theater arts, with a double minor in film studies and peace studies, at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Cardenas has a degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.