Creative Advantage expands arts education in Central Area

In recent years, arts education funding has been cut from Seattle Public Schools (SPS). But the City of Seattle is doing something about it.

Creative Advantage is a partnership that formed among the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), SPS and The Seattle Foundation in the wake of severe funding cuts to arts education. It partners with individuals, community organizations and cultural institutions to provide arts education resources for students. The goal of Creative Advantage is for all students to have access to comprehensive arts education, according to the city, despite budget cuts.

But which schools get Creative Advantage services?

“We take a region-by-region approach to closing the arts access gap over time,” explained program manager Audrey Querns in an email. “We start by sharing arts access data with the principals of a region so that they understand who in their K-12 pathway is getting arts classes and who is not.”

The Central Area schools were identified as having the most need. These schools, otherwise known as Central Pathway Schools, are comprised of the 13 schools in the Washington Middle School area. Among all the art forms, music instruction was greatly suffering if not completely wiped, so those principals chose to focus on music and gave priority to their youngest students.

To the delight of stakeholders, the effort, which started in March 2013, was successful. In its first year, the six identified schools started music classes for their K-1 students, providing nearly 1,700 students with consistent music instruction.

This year, K-4 students were included; this effort was effective, as well, Querns said.

One Creative Advantage partner is the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). According to SAM spokesperson Wendy Malloy, the museum helped Creative Advantage with tapping into the greater community.

“We helped with formulating the grant in the planning phase and now are designing, coordinating and facilitating [a] series of free professional development workshops for community-based organizations, teaching artists, arts administrators and teachers focused on partnering with SPS,” she said in an email.

SAM will continue to provide resources, such as a summer institute hosted at SAM in August.

Other partners include Arts Corps, Arts Impact, the EMP Museum and many individuals. Each partner specializes in a certain type of art (such as theater, dance or visual) and specifies which age group it would prefer working with. Applications are available on the Creative Advantage website, and the process reopens every year.

A bigger vision

Mayor Ed Murray said students’ ability to think outside the box is critical. “These are exactly the kinds of skills that are developed through arts education,” he said in a press release. “Our partnership is helping to close the opportunity gap in the arts.”

But it’s not just the kids who are benefiting: The Creative Advantage Year One Evaluation report indicated that the program helped its stakeholders, too. There was a sense among stakeholders that arts education was a priority not only for the district but for the city and the larger community, the report said.

Stakeholders also claimed that there is a growing conversation about social justice as a benefit of the arts initiative.

SPS and ARTS plan to expand Creative Advantage to schools in West Seattle.

Because of its importance, the city prioritized the program through new staff capacity and an investment of $450,000 in the program, with plans for an additional investment of $525,000 over the next two years.

SPS and The Seattle Foundation invested money, as well. SPS invested $600,000 in increased staffing, supplies and professional development, while The Seattle Foundation created capacity in private fundraising that raised $200,000 from foundations, according to the city.

Fighting for art

Creative Advantage comes at a time of desperate need, as arts education cuts have been drastic over the years. SPS stated in a report that music and visual arts hurt greatly.

During the 2011-12 school year, the district’s K-5 students received 30 minutes or less per week of music instruction per year, according to the city: 23 percent received no music instruction at all. Seventy-one percent received 30 minutes or less per week of visual arts instruction per year, and 35 percent received no visual art instruction at all.

“Next school year, every elementary student in the Central Arts Pathway will have general music classes,” Querns said. “Over the years, this means that more kids will have the foundational music skills they need to enter into and succeed in secondary programs in the region.”

To learn more, visit creativeadvantageseattle.org.

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