Local arts advocates hosted educators and students at an April 8 rally on the steps of Manhattan’s City Hall, in order to demand more transparent arts education funding for NYC’s public schools. Then, they headed inside to testify at a City Council hearing on the subject.
The buoyant event, which also featured remarks by Manhattan City Council members Carlina Rivera and Keith Powers, was hosted by a group known as the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable. They’re drawing attention to the fact that the city’s public schools lost a stunning 425 full-time arts-education teachers between 2020 and 2023, while 290 schools lack any such teachers at all.
Although a recent report claimed that 99 percent of the city’s public schools provided an arts education to their students, the Education Roundtable believes that the data on genuine student access is unreliable and opaque, making it hard to square with their research on serious educational deficits.
The Education Roundtable’s Executive director, Kimberly Olsen, told Straus News that “New York City is the cultural capital of the world, and it’s wild to believe that only some of New York City’s students are actually getting a quality and sufficient arts education. We are here so we can take one step forward in addressing those inequities.”
The hearing and the rally were part and parcel of a larger “It Starts with the Arts” campaign spearheaded by Olsen’s organization. One of its prominent planks is asking relevant officials to get $41 million of at-risk art funding off the chopping block, which is the result of expiring federal stimulus dollars and city funds.
During her time at the mic, Council Member Carlina Rivera explained how her two young children–aged 1 and 2–are musical and visual art obsessives: “They want to color. They want to sing. They want to play the guitar, the bongos, whatever is around. They want to bang two pots and pans together. So, we’re here to make sure that every child experiences the transformative power of the arts.”
”Arts are fundamental to our mental health, our well-being, and the ‘whole child,’ as they say in the Department of Education,” Rivera added. “Arts and culture leads to better outcomes for our students. Better in science, better in all of these categories, and it also teaches humanity and kindness. It’s an introduction to all of these experiences that we hope to have, both in the classroom and outside of the classroom.”
City Council Member Keith Powers, introduced by Olsen as a “fantastic arts-education champion,” said that it should be “basic and fundamental that every single school in NYC should have access to a good arts program and good music program.”
“When we hear about budget cuts and the Education Department getting cut, and then we hear from our principals that the first thing that they’re looking to cut is the arts program or their music teacher, we know that we have to continuously do this work,” Powers concluded.
Students themselves made the case for how arts had completely transformed their lives. Miriam, a high-school senior who is part of the Midori & Friend NEXTGen Musician program, highlighted how her love of bass guitar is central to her identity. “Sometime over the past few years, I’ve realized that I’m no longer somebody who just plays bass guitar, but a bassist,” she said. “Music moves our souls, and reveals parts of ourselves that we didn’t even know existed. For me, it helped me find my voice and express myself through the strings of bass.”
Finally, a group of students attending Ridgewood’s I.S. 93 gave a spirited percussive performance of hand-claps and stomps, demonstrating the tangible gift of arts education in real time. Julian, one of the students and a member of a band, implored the city to please “consider funding music and the arts—as I believe all students should have the chance to show growth, and connect.”