Making Arts Policy a Priority
From the editorial page of The Boston Globe:
The arts are not merely an add-on — a luxury — but an essential component of the state’s quality of life. The Massachusetts arts community encompasses roughly 6,000 arts and cultural organizations that support more than 45,000 jobs. A report last summer by ArtsBoston showed that nonprofit arts and cultural organizations boost the Boston economy alone by $1 billion every year. Arts education has been shown to improve student performance across the disciplines and to transform troubled schools like Roxbury’s Orchard Gardens. The latter went from being one of the worst schools in the state to becoming one of the best after a new principal initiated a robust arts program. Likewise, an array of arts programs — from the Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s Incarcerated Youth at Play to the Boston Children’s Chorus, Shakespeare and Company’s Shakespeare in the Courts, RAW (Raw Art Works) in Lynn, and Zumix in East Boston — have been instrumental in curbing youth violence across the state and changing young lives. And it is impossible to imagine the turnarounds in economically distressed cities like Pittsfield, North Adams, and Lowell without investment in the arts.