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October is National Arts and Humanities Month!
Every
year, the Iowa Arts Council likes to remind Iowans that October is National Arts
and Humanities Month. This year is no different. Arts organizations across the
country are highlighting National Arts and Humanities Month as part of their programming
in what has become the country’s largest collective celebration of the arts
and humanities.
Coordinated by Americans for the Arts, National Arts and Humanities Month began in 1985 as National Arts Week, coordinated by the National Endowment for the Arts and Americans for the Arts.
Americans for the Arts also provides a handy list of things you can do to celebrate
the month. Here are just a few of them:
• Hang a banner proclaiming National Arts and Humanities Month
• Write an op-ed on the value of arts education to the students in your
community
• Encourage school field trips to arts events during National Arts and Humanities
Month – and apply for an IAC Big Yellow School Bus grant to help them go!
• Send notes to your donors thanking them for all they do to keep the arts
and humanities in the community.
National
Arts and Humanities Month also allows us an opportunity to explore the impact
the arts and culture have on our own communities. According to the report, Culture
Builds Communities: The Power of Arts and Culture in Community Building,
“…partnerships among for profit and nonprofit organizations; arts,
social service or religious institutions; artists, parents and neighbors have
the potential to create a vital ‘ecosystem’ where the arts and communities
flourish.”
If
you’re interested in finding out more about how the arts contribute to civic
engagement and strong communities, one classic resource is Robert Putnam’s
Better
Together, which explores how the arts build social capital.
More recently, the National Endowment for the Arts has published research showing that arts participants are more likely than the rest of the population to engage in activities such as volunteer or charity work (www.arts.gov/pub/Notes/89.pdf).
For more information on how you or your organization can participate in National Arts and Humanities Month, visit www.americansforthearts.org.
