Arts Impact Celebrates 25 Years

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.”

Above is one of Picasso’s most famous quotes—and it contains a truth that cannot be denied: We are all born with an innate ability to be creative and artistic. The challenge, especially in a country which often expresses suspicion towards the arts as a whole, is not only how to foster and nourish the artist within every child, but also how to foster and nourish the teacher of a child. 

Twenty-five years ago, Arts Impact was launched in partnership with the Cultural Council of Greater Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum, and the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts to provide professional learning in the arts for Pierce County teachers. The need for such a training program was spurred out of the anticipation of changes to come; in 2009, Washington State would begin requiring students to meet the Essential Academic Learning Requirements (or EALRs) in the Arts. Along with music, these new standards covered visual arts, dance, and theater. The state had no plans to expand the number of Arts Specialists in the public schools…so the responsibility for a comprehensive arts education was to be heaped upon the already beleaguered classroom teachers. The educators, while very proficient in teaching core academic subjects, were not necessarily well-versed in the arts. This created a real dilemma for Washington State: How can we logically expect an educator to teach dance (for example) without any background knowledge in the art form itself?  

Arts Impact was created to help fill the gaps in foundational knowledge and help create more art-literate classroom teachers. The organization also wanted to foster something more profound and transformational: to deepen a teacher’s conceptual understanding of the three art forms and, equally important, nourish the artist within.

Courtesy of Arts Impact

Through an intensive Summer Institute, the teachers became the students of professional Artist Mentors, who led them through workshops that stripped the visual and performing arts down to their basic conceptual foundations. For instance, in dance, there were workshops that examined the use of direction and shape while moving through space; in theater, how to use body and voice to create a character; in visual art, how to use color to express a feeling or mood. Then, during the school year, those Artist Mentors would work in the classroom with the teachers, writing Arts-infused lessons and co-teaching them to students.

While we artists all love the idea of “art for art’s sake”, school districts and principals largely frown upon using precious classroom time to focus solely on the subject, so the concept of Arts-infused Learning was created. Infusion, simply put, is the conceptual merging of an art form with an academic subject—like taking the mathematical concept of symmetry and applying it to dance. What occurs is an infused experience for the learner; the concept of geometric symmetry is explored through the body and movement (usually more kinesthetic learners can thrive with such approaches).

Recently, Arts Impact celebrated its 25th Birthday at the Bethaday Community Learning Space in West Seattle. During the 2022-23 academic year, Arts Impact, through its various programs, served 3651 students, 121 educators, and 101 schools throughout the state of Washington (Arts Impact has expanded beyond Pierce County since 1999).  

Courtesy of Arts Impact

These statistics, while encouraging, also show the challenges faced by the State of Washington, and our country as a whole—equity and access to the arts. While the focus of Arts Impact is on training teachers in the Arts, they also keep their eye on the students they serve. The majority of schools where Arts Impact works are “Title 1” schools, where the disparities in our public education system are most manifest. The students in these schools are largely BIPOC and/or children experiencing poverty. These students are greatly in need of many things from our educational system, including quality engagement with the arts. Grace Washington, the Co-Director of Arts Impact, stated at the birthday celebration, “We are laser-focused on the kids who don’t receive enough arts in their educational lives.” 

As Arts Impact moves forward, continuing to pivot and adjust to the ever-changing educational moment, it will always keep its “laser focus” on the needs of the teachers and students it serves. It’s not easy, but it is vital work. The Co-Chair of Arts Impact’s Board of Directors, Cindy MacIssac, put it this way: “After twenty-five years, it still feels like we are at ground zero in achieving the goal of all students in the State of Washington receiving a quality arts education—but we have to keep at it…because all children love being artists.”

For more information, ways to donate, and access to Arts-infused lesson plans, visit Arts Impact at: https://arts-impact.org/