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The Need for First Artists
The need for First Artists is growing daily. School districts are forced to make tough
budgetary decisions, and arts funding is often the first thing to go. We are committed to
meeting the growing need for art supplies in children's education.
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High arts participation makes a more significant difference to students from low-income
backgrounds than for high-income students.1
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Arts education is important as a means of giving our young people a sense of civilization
and the multiple forms of literacy that will give them meaningful access to our culture.
The arts provide children with opportunities to develop creativity, to learn the tools of
communication, and to create multiple solutions to problems. The arts provide individuals
a language that is universal, one that cuts across the disciplines and helps to bring more
coherent meaning to our world.2
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Arts education has a measurable impact on youth at risk in deterring delinquent
behavior and truancy problems while also increasing overall academic
performance among those youth engaged in after school and summer arts
programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.3
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Arts education makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and
has proven to help level the 'learning field' across socio-economic boundaries.4
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Through the arts, children learn that there is a time for originality and a time for
replication, a time to be the star and a time to be a productive member of the group.
The arts help children build a value system in which they learn self-discipline
and responsibility; they learn to value effort and to get enjoyment and inspiration from its
results.5
The following are some articles highlighting how critical the need for art supplies has
become.
Cuts in Arts Funding Could Have Major Impact
PNN Online, June 27, 2003
1 "Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning," President's Committee on the Arts
and the Humanities and the Arts Education Partnership, 1999.
2 "Arts Education Advocacy, Americans for the Arts" Champions of Change: The Impact of
the Arts on Learning, 1999.
3 YouthARTS Development Project, 1996, US Department of Justice, National Endowment for
the Arts, and Americans for the Arts.
4 "Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School," James S. Catterall,
the UCLA Imagination Project, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA,
Americans for the Arts Monograph, January 1998.
5 "Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications," Center for Arts
Education Research, Teachers College, Colombia University, 1999.
First Artists
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Email: info@firstartists.org
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