I saw artist Andrew Wyeth’s exhibit ‘Helga’ in Omaha a few years back. It changed everything I knew about art, and further proves that an arts education is important to our growth as a society.
The other day I was on the fence about cutting arts funding, but as more information funneled in, I changed my mind. A majority of the almost $700,000 dollars goes towards education.
Robert Joyce (Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society) sums it up in an email;
In addition, that 86 cents for each citizen sent 26 artists to 162 schools for 231 weeks, bringing arts opportunities to 35,000 South Dakota young people.
Arts education is extremly important. Students who combine an arts education (music, dance or visual) with math and science do better than students who don’t. A lot better. An extensive study done in Chicago a fews years back showed that an arts education produced students who are not only faster at understanding math and science problems, they are better critical and creative thinkers and usually breeze through college and get better paying jobs.
So why does Rounds want to cut arts funding? Who knows? Trying to figure out his clowning around with the budget would make someone sick to their stomach. The silly part about the cut is that it is so minimal, you would think he has an axe to grind with the SDAC? Maybe he does? I’m not a fan of the organization (a very long story), but I do support arts education, this isn’t about the who runs SDAC, it’s about the kids.
The money could come out of the very lucrative tourism budget without even impacting them one bit (An ad agency employee may lose their job, but oh well).
Cut a few Deadwood Casino ads, and fund arts education. It’s important.