Holistic Doesn't Happen Without Art

More than a decade ago, Fulton County Schools stopped providing music instruction at the elementary level. Regionally, district cost-saving measures have limited arts instruction, assemblies, and field trips. The nonprofit Arts sector has worked ceaselessly to bridge this gap by providing virtual performances, in-school residencies, afterschool programming, and summer camps. The Zeist Foundation, led for the past 20 years by trustees who worked in early education, recognizes the value of access to the arts for children. As such, the Foundation has contributed more than $35 million during the same timeframe to support children’s access to the Arts, but it is a drop in the bucket when you consider the 1.6 million children living in Metro Atlanta or the 2.5 million children across the state.

North Springs High School Pep Rally, author pictured in red holding symbols. Photo courtesy of the Author.

In 5th grade, my family moved from DeKalb County to Fulton County. In both districts I had enjoyed field trips and assemblies to Atlanta cultural institutions: the Alliance Theatre, The Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Manga African Dance, and the Atlanta and Georgia Symphony chamber ensembles.

The stark difference between the two districts for me was that I could begin learning a string instrument in Fulton County. Whereas in DeKalb, I could not begin an instrument until 7th grade and would be limited to a band instrument. That summer, my mother signed me up for a district organized string camp to begin learning the violin and I was immersed in orchestra.

Playing the violin in the Sandy Springs Middle and North Springs High School orchestras taught me so much about perseverance, responsibility, collaboration, transcendence, and inclusivity not to mention history. The experience was so formative that I get emotional now at the thought of not having it. Looking back, I can see how the practice of music, and that of other art forms, was about expression, reflection, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and friend-making. Practices I continue to draw on personally and professionally.

Recently, an acquaintance whom I had not seen for several years shared that following several back-to-back personal tragedies, the local theatre her daughters had engaged with became a lifeline helping the entire family navigate loss. Her daughters had a safe third space that was positive and generative thus providing this mother a brief respite to cope through her own loss. Other mothers have shared how the practice of an arts discipline has strengthened their child’s confidence and expanded their social connectivity.

The fact is, the Arts enhance every other aspect of life. It is a recognized adjunctive therapy for mental and physical health and rehabilitation. It is often the vibrancy of Artists that reinvigorate divested neighborhoods and drive economic development. It is the creative process that provides elegant solutions for the constrictive challenge. It is a framework by which individual threads weave a community tapestry.

Atlanta Music Project performance, a funding recipient of the Zeist Foundation. Photo by Danielle Gray.

A fully funded and sustained arts ecosystem would ensure that children, particularly those whose parents cannot afford lessons (as mine couldn’t), have access to the spirit-building experience of art appreciation and art creation, while also building the skills and resiliency necessary for our times. A fully funded and sustained arts ecosystem means that blighted neighborhoods are supported through place-making investments (murals, studios, performance spaces) and artists aren’t priced out but encouraged to stay. A fully funded and sustained arts ecosystem means that we support the nonprofits who train the workforce that turn into for-profit film/tv production crews, concert venue managers, festival presenters, in addition to all the stars they launch. A fully funded and sustained arts ecosystem also means that the weekend artisan who wants to make her own dishes, watercolors, quilts, novel, stained glass, or music group etc. has an arts center with the necessary tools with which to learn and practice her creative meditations, generate a side-hustle, or age dynamically in-place.