Arts Advocacy Toolkit
What Can I Do Today as an Arts Advocate?
Looking for something you can do right now to impact arts and culture and arts education in your community? Start with our list of simple, proactive advocacy actions.
Why Students need Arts Education
A wealth of reasons why arts education benefits students, businesses, and society.
What do you ask a candidate?
Arts for LA's suggestions for participating in a candidate forum.
Working with public officials
Goals, tips, and how-to's for effectively working with public officials.
Organizing a meeting
Tips on how to prepare for a meeting with a board member.
How to start a community advocacy team
This section discusses planning and finding resources to get started in your community.
Campaign planning
This area provides an overview of elements of the campaign story, tips on planning, schedule information, and definitions of roles.
Media & publicity
Read this section for strategies and advice for how to secure media and press coverage.
Advocacy event planning
This area provides step by step information on event planning.
Recruitment & leadership development
Recruitment is most fundamental part of any campaign. It takes people to make things happen.
Training volunteers
The more people who have the skills to carry out a campaign and an understanding of the big picture within which you are working, the more likely you are to succeed. Running frequent trainings helps you to achieve this.
Running effective meetings
Group meetings are a great way to make group decisions, develop plans, delegate responsibilities, facilitate group trainings, etc.
The purpose of this toolkit is to give you the resources you need to be an effective arts education advocate in your school district and community. In the above sections, you'll find modules covering specific campaigning and advocacy skills, as well as practical aides including sample press materials, phone scripts, and planning worksheets.
The order of the modules is intended to correspond to incresing levels of involvenent. The first few are helpful to those engaging in direct, one-time advocacy actions, such as providing public testimony. The next few, beginning with "How to start an advocacy team," are meant to guide those who want to engage in long-term advocacy efforts. The last few, beginning with "Recruitment and leadership development," are for those who desire to take on leadership in a long-term advocacy effort.
