This is the second year that I have taught a freshman course at Berklee College of Music about Neurodiversity. Over the 15-week semester, we examine topics and issues in neurodiversity and their relationship to the arts. We start by talking about the origin of the term “neurodiversity,” and we go on to consider issues of language, power, and representation as they relate to individuals with disabilities. We work with scholarly writings in disability studies and the arts to better understand and question the rhetorical frames at play in various cultural contexts when it comes to artists with disabilities. Every time I teach this course, I am struck by the openness with which these freshmen—brand new to Berklee, just getting to know each other, only recently living on their own—share their personal experiences and challenges. The respect and kindness that they show their classmates helps us all to create a safe space for learning and vulnerability for every student.

Impact. That is what every arts educator hopes for when they greet a new crop of students. To impact their lives through the art form they love. Whether a student develops an appreciation and love for the arts, decides to pursue it as a career, or just discovers something within themselves they may not have known without experiencing the arts, it all comes down to impact. A few weeks ago, we had an opportunity to see this impact on a national level as people all over the world told their stories during National Arts in Education Week. The #BecauseOfArtsEd hashtag gave us a chance to reflect on our story and how it was shaped by the arts. Like many of you, I was excited to post stories about the educators we work with and add to the tapestry of stories across the country. The response to our educators was overwhelming.

In the rise of a socially-conscious zeitgeist, a spectrum of practices across the vast catalog of art institutions and programming have come into question, specifically around the issues of representation and equity. From hiring policies to curation, art audiences are demanding more inclusive narratives. Often our digital platforms provide the unfortunate circumstance of sustaining a highly contentious environment around these conversations. A common response across many institutions has been to remain steadfast and inflexible in questionable practice, as opposed to considering the validity of such cultural objections. But some institutions have found a way to respond to the current state of cultural criticism in more productive ways. 

The use of data is changing the way cities across the United States tackle arts education inequities. Community-wide efforts, including our own work through the Arts Access Initiative in Houston, continue to use data to consistently measure results, use as tools for learning and adapting, and ensure efforts are aligned with agreed-upon ambitious goals and visions for equity of arts education and creative learning in our cities.

Simply put, data matters in arts education.

When Fenway High School moved to a new building in August 2015, I was struck by one thing: vast canvases of blank, white walls.

Our old building, which we shared with another high school, was a cozy warren of classrooms all branching off of a single, low-ceilinged hallway. That hallway was alive with color: with the help of visiting artists, students over the years had painted murals representing their heroes, their neighborhood, and their activism. Between classes, 350 students packed the brightly painted halls, which matched the vibrancy of their shouts and laughter. When we moved our school across the city, our piles of books and equipment came with us, but those walls couldn’t budge.

In a recent ad campaign, Wells Fargo implied that students shouldn’t pursue a career in the arts. Americans for the Arts strongly disagrees with this statement.