Maybe you don’t think of yourself as an artist; art might not be something you make time for on a daily basis. Even if it’s the lowest priority on your list, interacting with different art forms regularly can improve every aspect of your life. This is why it’s so important for art to be accessible to students. When federally imposed budget cuts and digital replicas make it difficult to create art, it’s up to students to seek out opportunities and align our priorities.
A study from ScienceDirect shows that creating art benefits students in more ways than you might think. Rather than taking time away from schoolwork or your social life, devoting your time to an art form can improve these areas of your life; it aids creative problem-solving and helps to develop cognitive function. Art can improve your life at any age, but it’s especially critical for youth. Children learning to express themselves can use art to communicate and understand the world around them. It is so important for art to be available, but recent legislation has made it increasingly inaccessible.
Government funding withdrawals have hit the arts hard. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was sued over a policy that worked to ensure no grants were provided to art promoting “gender ideology,” according to the New York Times. Now, its overall funding has been cut, and countless grants have been revoked, as stated by artnet. This is leaving artists scrambling for solutions.
The Fiscal Year 26 budget proposes a 15% cut to funding for the U.S Department of Education, as per NPR. Often, art programs are the first to experience cutbacks, and the coming year promises nothing but uncertainty.
Adam Souza has taught Video Production — one of the many art programs offered at Franklin — for ten years. For students, the course can span over all four years, and during this time, students learn the fundamentals of filmmaking.
Classes like these are essential for students. Souza says, “My biggest value that I consistently share with my students is that creativity is vulnerability. We share about [how when I’m] making a film, I’m in a sense expressing something inside myself, a story that I have inside of me.” Art classes can be a safe space for students, and taking opportunities like those away is incredibly harmful. Souza says, “When we [make budget cuts], I don’t necessarily think we know what’s happening in these classrooms. We are looking at data, we’re looking at numbers, and our numbers were kind of low. [So] the students must not like it,” He explains. “But the administrators do not know what’s happening in these classrooms, and if administrators do not know what’s happening … then we don’t know what we’re cutting.”
Learning an artistic skill isn’t just technical. Art classes create communities that are critical for student life. Sofi Bishop is a Franklin senior. Art is a big part of her life; she uses it to express herself and as an outlet for her imagination. Bishop says, “I’m an artist because I create things that haven’t existed before.” She plans to attend animation school after graduating from high school. “I think art is so important right now, especially with everything going on with AI. I really think we should start prioritizing things created by humans, because that’s such a unique human ability,” Bishop says. “Even though AI can make art, it can’t create in the same way humans can, and I think that’s so special. I think that we should take advantage of this special ability we have of unique creation.”
AI in art is subject to major controversy. Can an image created by a machine really be considered art? A piece compiled from countless other works without human inspiration poses a major threat to artists everywhere. Even professional artists sometimes see AI as a cheaper and more convenient alternative, and use AI to outline ideas or create mockups for their art.
There are so many threats to art and expression, and it can be difficult to figure out where you come in. The best place to start is making art on your own. Dedicating time to an activity like drawing or writing can be calming and inspiring, but it can become so much more than that. It’s a way of acknowledging that even though there are factors you have no control over, the simple act of putting a pen to paper opposes the many forces that underprioritise art and the people who create it.
