Expressing support for the designation of February 28, 2025, as Community Arts Education Day.

Expressing support for the designation of February 28, 2025, as Community Arts Education Day.

Whereas community arts education is a dynamic and inclusive approach to learning and engagement in the arts, fostering creativity, cultural expression, and social transformation within communities;

Whereas community arts education encompasses a broad range of artistic disciplines and practices that empower individuals to develop their artistic skills, deepen their cultural understanding, and cultivate a sense of belonging and agency within themselves and their communities;

Whereas community arts education is a participatory and transformative practice that engages individuals in the creation, exploration, and critical dialogue of the arts within a community context, and community arts education goes beyond individual skill-building or personal expression and it connects through a larger social context;

Whereas community arts education leaders, which can include culture bearers, teaching artists, and administrators, play a vital role in providing essential arts instruction and learning to diverse communities, both within and outside of formal educational settings;

Whereas community arts education is liberatory by uplifting our communities’ culture, heritage, and history in many forms such as dance, music, theatre, literary arts and other modes of self-expression;

Whereas community arts education can build people’s imaginations, build critical learning and life skills, promote better health, and generate a sense of shared culture and community belonging;

Whereas research has shown that community arts education positively impacts individuals of all ages and develops social emotional competencies like confidence in self-expression and ideas, social awareness, and self-regulating emotions; and

Whereas students who actively participate in the arts tend to enroll in competitive colleges, as well as four-year colleges in general, at higher rates compared to students with lower engagement in the arts: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives supports Community Arts Education Day and recognizes Community Arts Education Day is more crucial than ever as a vehicle for activism, individual and collective self-expression, and healing.