Call to Action on Arts Education

COVID-19 has devastated the arts and learning sector, threatening to push the arts completely out of post-pandemic school programming while limiting the impact of the sector on broader community revival. We are seeking endorsements for our Call to Action on Arts Education to help in our advocacy efforts as we seek to sustain and grow arts and learning in an emerging new normal. By adding your name, you will make a bold statement that arts and creativity are integral to the learning process, both at school and throughout life, and are fundamental to the development of the fully realized individual.

Call to Action on Arts Education - The Winnipeg Vision

The Canadian Network for Arts & Learning calls on governments, artists, educators, professional organizations, researchers, universities, communities, and all advocates of arts and learning to endorse the following principles to ensure that the arts are positioned to make an increased and sustainable contribution to learning both at school and throughout our communities.

The vision is the outcome of a major conference (Creative Convergence) held in Winnipeg, Manitoba in October of 2019 during which participating experts from across Canada and around the globe were asked to share their perspectives on the future of the sector. Their responses highlighted how the three goals of the Seoul Agenda, Goals for the development of arts education (UNESCO 2010) can be interpreted from the perspective of practitioners and learners.

We envision a sustainable future for arts and learning in which learners of all ages:

  1. Have Access

    • Access diverse and inclusive learning experiences in, through and about the arts via
      • Opportunities within the home, community, learning institutions, and workplace
      • Recognition and celebration of diverse artistic traditions and expressions
      • Digitally mediated and face-to-face engagement
      • Overcoming social, economic, geographic, and cultural barriers

  2. Experience Quality

    • Experience quality arts education via
      • Progressive development of artistic knowledge and techniques
      • Self-expression and human interaction
      • Responding to works of arts from diverse cultures and traditions
      • Balancing the potential and risks of technologically-mediated arts practice and learning
      • Moments of contemplation, curiosity, wonder, joy and delight

  3. Apply the Arts

    • Apply the arts to issues of personal, local, and global significance via
      • connecting to self, others and community
      • Building understanding, reconciling difference and mobilizing change
      • Supporting civic engagement and social good
      • Contributing to personal and community health and well being
      • Activating artistic ways of knowing within non-arts sectors

Our call to action is issued in sympathy with the provisions of the Frankfurt Declaration for Arts Education (World Alliance for Arts Education, November 2019) and is closely aligned with several of the goals and targets of UNESCO's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNESCO 2015).

View the Call to Action as a PDF

Add your endorsement to the Call to Action on Arts Education

Recent Endorsements

Srividya Natarajan

Nicole Lafreniere

I am endorsing because Humans are more than just employees in a business. We have emotions, thoughts, ideas, that can only be expressed and shared through the arts. This human expression is part of various experiences, from weddings, funerals, celebrations, sports activities, formal occasions such as parades and even the opening of the Legislation or Parliament. The arts Can bring people together or inspire or touch an indIvidual to feel sometime open their mind to something new. Various kinds of arts are therapeutic for people of all ages. Where would the media, including movies & entertainment be without the arts? Arts education and arts venues should be available to all, regardless their economic status, race, creed, sexual orientation/identification, culture. It should not only be wealthy parents who can provide art/music classes to their children, but all students should have access to a quality arts education through their school. We needs the arts to feel, express and share to be wholly and truly human. Without the arts we are mere robots in human form.

Dave Mutnjakovic

I am endorsing because Without the arts we are doomed as a society.

Julie Mongeon-Ferré

I am endorsing because L'éducation artistique épanouit, outille pour mieux vivre et rend plus humain. L’éducation artistique est essentielle au bien-être, au développement émotionnel, social et académique. L'éducation artistique nous permet de percevoir, d’interpréter et d'apprivoiser le monde qui nous entoure et d'y donner un sens. Que serions-nous sans les arts (Gabrielle Roy)... dans les écoles?

Tati Marazzo

Je signe parce que Un monde sans les arts c'est un monde sans joie, plus gris, sans amour, sans magique, sans l'imaginaire. C'est comme un être humain sans âme. Un zombie, un robot... Nos enfants ont trop besoin de ça pour guérir de la pandémie. Il faut avoir de l'art dans leur vie !

London Arts Council

I am endorsing because As an arts administrator and as an arts educator (and as an artist) - I have seen first hand how impactful arts education has been and continues to be for people of all ages. Arts education experiences and practices enable one to develop more fully as individuals - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and as community members - environmentally, socially and culturally. Arts education does not have to be complicated, just consistent.