Erin Gough

A lot has happened since my last blog post. I left my job at a tiny non-profit in Pennsylvania, packed up my life, and drove all the way across the country to California. I’m now working in the private sector at one of the largest tech corporations in the world. I can’t say that my new gig would have been on my radar in art school – but art school was absolutely what put me on the radar of my hiring manager. It was all she wanted to talk about in my interview. It is the first thing she mentions when she introduces me to colleagues: “This is Erin. She just started. She has a Fine Arts Degree. She is going to help us so much.” Within the first few days (I’m only a handful in), it was obvious to me why my they valued my arts background and every day I’m learning how to leverage it even more.

Of course, this should come as no big surprise to any arts education advocate. Those of us who have read Americans for the Arts’ “Arts Education Navigator” series know that 72% of business leaders say that creativity is the number one skill they are seeking when hiring, yet too few schools have the resources to provide opportunities for students to hone or simply explore these skills.

This opportunity gap is the reason that so many of our colleagues have taken time to head to Washington D.C. this week for Americans for the Arts’ annual Arts Advocacy Day. They are standing in front of their Congressmen and women to remind them that the arts are a $135.2 billion industry that supports 4.1 million jobs and that arts education opportunities for students need to be expanded to not only support this industry, but to encourage the creative skill-sets of students who will go on to excel in every type of endeavor.

Those of us who were unable to make the journey to the Nation’s capitol this year (sorry about the snow) can still support the two major asks advocates are making on Tuesday. We need our Congressional Representatives to strengthen the arts in federal education reform legislation and support funding for the Arts in Education (AIE) program at the U.S. Department of Education. You can read more about these priority issues at the Arts Education Policy and Funding page on the Americans for the Arts website.

I am personally looking forward to using this opportunity to find a time to say “Hello” to my new neighbors and their staffers in their district offices, but in the meantime I just dropped them a line with Americans for the Arts’ E-Advocacy Center. I’ve also been following all of the #AAD14 chatter on twitter and I loved every minute of Maureen Dowd’s Nancy Hanks Lecture, even if my own living room is not as beautiful a venue as the Kennedy Center. I am thankful for all of the resources that AFTA provides so that I can continue to advocate for the arts and arts education from my new post, however many miles away from the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill. I know I’ll be back on the ground there again someday, but our asks can’t wait until then. Too many students need to be introduced to new ways of learning and creating right now so that they can help change their little piece of the world someday too.