In a display of commitment that's all brains, no fluff, Portland's educational and artistic communities have found harmony in numbers—specifically, $7.8 million from the Arts Access Fund, aimed squarely at making sure crayons, clarinets, and canvas are as much a part of the ABCs for K-5 students as reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. With the funds, sourced from the pockets of residents through the $35 Arts Tax, every one of the 28,000 pint-sized Picassos in public and charter elementary schools across Portland will get a taste of what it means to express themselves outside the lines, and inside the school day.
Now that Tax Day has come and gone, and the dollars have been counted, Portland.gov took a moment to reflect—without the usual governmental spin—on the Arts Access Fund's transformative impact, a patchwork quilt of arts education stitched together in every elementary school like an afterthought that was actually a forethought, with arts educators carving their space in the curriculum to the tune of $7.8 million, because what's learning without a little bit of sculpting, sketching, or singing to make it stick?
The bucks have been earmarked, quite literally, for the educators who breathe life into art classes—a far cry from a time before the Arts Tax, when Portland's elementary schools were veritable deserts for the arts. Kristen Brayson, Portland Public Schools' Director for Visual & Performing Arts, told Portland.gov, "Before the Arts Access Fund, our 50+ elementary schools had virtually no arts education. This fund has established and sustained arts education in every K-5 school across Portland Public Schools." She goes on to explain the profound influence of the arts on young ones, saying, "The arts are where children make sense of the world and connect to their own story and the stories of others."
It's not just the bank account that's feeling robust—but the spirits of students and teachers too thanks to this fund, and while the Portland Building and Literary Arts might not be the Louvre or the Royal Shakespeare Company, the student art installation there put on display what investment in creativity yields, passion and potential festooned on walls and pedestals, shouting without a sound that the next generation's artistry has a place, and it's right here, right now in Portland's schools.
