Why I support introducing Arizona students to the arts
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John Clifford
Submitted photo/Act One
A school field trip to a museum, a play or a musical performance was the norm in the middle-class suburb I grew up in in the 1960s. Today, access to these types of field trips often depends on where a student lives.”
It seems like a nanosecond ago I was riding on a school bus, off to see the orchestra perform at a local university. Whether I knew it then, exposure to that and other venues, particularly the arts, was vitally important to my development and long-term achievement.
As I reflect on it now, the goals I set for myself were only as challenging as my exposure to the world. Not necessarily in terms of being an artist, actor or musician, but in terms of whether I saw the world in terms of simply the four corners of my neighborhood or through the depth of my imagination.
The arts build creativity and inspiration. They build a sense of the impossible being possible. They help create a mindset of “Yes, that could be me!”
A school field trip to a museum, a play or a musical performance was the norm in the middle-class suburb I grew up in in the 1960s. Today, access to these types of field trips often depends on where a student lives.
Students in Title I or lower-income schools are much less likely to have these opportunities. The lack of opportunities to stretch one’s mind later translates into a lack of opportunities to achieve one’s potential. That stunting of growth not only hurts the Title I student who could become an artist, actor or musician but also those interested in becoming a nurse, architect or scientist.
A report from the National Endowment for the Arts found that low-income students with high levels of arts involvement (in school and/or out of school) had better academic outcomes, including higher grades and higher rates of college enrollment and degree attainment as compared to low-income students with low arts exposure.
In fact, students with high arts exposure were three times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than low-arts, low-income students, and these same students were more likely to volunteer, vote and engage in school and local politics.
One organization that helps provide opportunities to low-income students across the Valley is Act One, an Arizona-based non-profit that partners with local arts organizations to bring students to the arts. The organization collaborates with cultural institutions to offer field trips with experiential activities such as backstage tours, Q&A sessions and hands-on learning opportunities to provide the maximum impact for students.
Not long ago Act One collaborated with Arizona State University to produce a series of curated virtual reality classroom experiences, exposing students to arts that are as broad as Mexican American muralist Sentrock, originally from Phoenix, to the Tucson-based all-female Mariachi band, Las Azaleas, and a variety of Native American artists whose work appears in public spaces at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and downtown Phoenix light rail stops.
Both in-person and virtual reality field trips bring Title I students to the arts and arts to the students for free.
A study from the University of Arkansas found that students who participated in field trips to museums and other cultural venues had improved critical thinking, historical empathy and tolerance, and expressed more interest in future museum visits.
Like me as a young person, you may only think of the immediate value of the arts to students, but it’s so much more, and can profoundly affect the trajectory of a student’s life.
John Clifford is board chair of Act One, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to providing meaningful arts experiences for students, and a retired executive vice president and CHRO.Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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