Building Public Will for Arts Education

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Building Public Will for Arts Education

• Eric Friedenwald-Fishman
• President, Metropolitan Group
• Access, Equity and Quality in Arts Learning
  Conference
• June 20, 2009

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Manifesto This Matters

• Not reaching as far beyond the choir as we must
• For too long first budget cut, last investment
  made
• Existing frames undersell the power of arts
  Education
• New paradigm for social change (collective
  action, dispersed innovation and shared
  responsibility)
• Information, Imagination and Ability to engage
  are critical tools
• Sparks creativity and innovation
• Breaks barriers and connects across cultures
• Strengthens human capital
• Harness arts to create a just, equitable,
  sustainable and meaningful society
• Must build public will to achieve new normative
  expectation

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To Achieve Access, Equity and Equality

• Need engagement of other committed players
• Need real buy-in of numerous stakeholders to
  drive scale implementation (administrators,
  teachers, arts education community, arts
  partners, etc.)
• Need awareness and and engagement of larger
  community to ensure sustainability (parents,
  advocates, voters and policy makers)

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Whats the problem?

• Arts education is viewed by many Americans as a
  nicety, rather than a necessity
• Arts education funding a roller coaster and often
  the first thing to go
• Current frame(s)?
• Transactional and not strongly tied to core
  values
• Seen as secondary defensive
• Reflects lack of priority and buy-in by key
  stakeholders

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Whats the solution?

• Build Public Will
• Reframe arts education as a priority need that
  makes individuals and communities stronger
• Change fundamental positioning of the arts
• Change public expectations
• Increase buy-in from internal and external
  stakeholders
• Create engagement
• Motivate people to action
• Establish new norm
• Create relevancy and ownership for the new frame
  by integrating grassroots outreach with
  traditional media

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What is Public Will?

• Communication approach that builds public support
  for long-term social change by
• integrating grassroots outreach methods with
  traditional mass media tools
• connecting an issue to the existing, closely held
  values of individuals and groups
• Results in long-term attitudinal shifts
• Manifested by individuals taking new or different
  action
• Achieved when community members and thought
  leaders have galvanized around an issue to create
  a new set of normative expectations

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Public Opinion vs. Public Will

• Public opinioninfluencing specific decisions and
  actions during a limited time frame
• Public opinionfocus on mass media as delivery
  mechanism
• Public opinionnarrows the discourse
• Public willlong-term change built over time that
  focuses on grassroots engagement with mass media
  support

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Principles of Public Will Building

• Connecting through closely held values
• Respecting cultural context
• Including target audiences in development and
  testing
• Integrating grassroots and traditional
  communication methods

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• Five Phases of Building Public Will
• Organizers and Audiences
• Framing the problem
• Building awareness
• Becoming knowledgeable/transmitting information
• Creating a personal conviction
• Evaluating while reinforcing
• To download MGs entire Public Will Framework,
  visit www.metgroup.com.

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• Organizers
• Conducting research about the problem
• Determining connection to values and audiences
  for whom issue is relevant
• Framing the message
• Identifying potential change agents and pathways
  to change
• Audiences
• Moving from not aware of the problem to early
  awareness that defines the issue as one of
  relevance to them

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• Organizers
• Preparing segmenting, learning about and
  prioritizing audiences crafting messages
  identifying communication mediums
• Attracting early adopters and key influencers
• Building awareness through grassroots and
  traditional media
• Audiences
• Participate in testing
• Gaining awareness and depth of information
  through trusted relationships, affiliations,
  media, etc.

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• Organizers
• Transmitting information, with specific
  information about how to create desired changes
• Audiences
• Hearing about the issue through multiple channels
  and trusted relationships with identification of
  specific desired changes

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• Organizers
• Providing opportunities for commitment and action
• Audiences
• Gaining ownership
• Identifying specific actions to take
• Committing themselves
• Recruiting others

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• Organizers
• Evaluating effectiveness of tools and messages
• Adapting as necessary
• Reinforcing audience choices and encouraging
  champions
• Audiences
• See messages that support their choices
• See impact and value of action
• Rededicate to continue taking action and to
  recruiting others

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What are the strategies to reach this solution?

• Audience understanding
• Values identification
• Message framing
• Integrated outreach / engagement

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Audience Understanding

• Segmentation and prioritization
• Influence mapping
• Needs identification
• Values identification

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Identify the closely held values examples

• Options and opportunity
• Achievement
• Innovation and adaptability
• Sense of belonging and sense of community /
  identity (self-worth)
• Creativity and beauty
• Freedom (of expression/thought)
• Safety and stability
• Health (mind and spirit)

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Reframing the message
Definition Framing is the use of images/words to
intentionally associate an issue with certain
deeply held values, thereby providing a context
that predisposes audiences to accept a particular
definition of the issue. To move framing from
nicety to necessity arts education needs to

• Demonstrate relevancy to peoples lives
• Identify benefits that reinforce values and needs

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Reframing the messagecurrent examples

• Schools should nurture the whole child by
  integrating the arts into teaching (Ford)
• Integrating the arts help students become
  well-rounded (Ford)
• Learning and participation in music, dance,
  theater and the visual arts are vital to the
  development of our children and communities
  (AFTA)
• Promote the essential role of the arts in the
  learning and development of every child and in
  the improvement of Americas schools (AEP)
• The arts are an essential component of education,
  and all children, not only those with specific
  artistic talent, benefit from an education in the
  arts including opportunities to create, perform,
  and communicate through various artistic media
  (NEA)

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Reframing the messagecurrent examples

• The arts are where learning starts, from a
  childs first exploration of meaning on a page by
  finger painting to an adult's use of the arts to
  develop, understand and communicate new ideas.
  The fundamental way in which we experience our
  world and express our selves is through the arts,
  and arts education develops essential skills and
  abilities for successful 21st century citizens
  (ODOE)
• We believe that art - and therefore art education
  - means three things everyone wants and needs Art
  means work. Art means language. Art means
  values. (NAEA)

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Reframing the messagesome concepts to consider

• Arts education opens opportunity
• Arts education the spark of innovation
• Creativity is the foundation of opportunity
• Imagination creates solutions
• Inspiring creativity and instilling adaptability
  is a sound investment
• Arts education makes life better
• Create Opportunity/Create Prosperity
• Create links and connections in a multi-cultural
  world

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Integrated outreach/engagement

• Heal thyselfensure that the choir learns and
  owns the new music.
• Create a fertile environment for discourse (media
  and traditional outreach tools to frame the
  message and set the terms of the debate).
• Convert interested investors into activist
  shareholders (start with thought leaders and key
  influencersthe power of trusted relationships).
• Ensure consistent reinforcementuse of
  grassroots, media and other traditional tools to
  reinforce the conviction of others and the
  message frame.

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This matters.

• We know the educational and cultural benefits.
• We have seen nearly two decades of definition
  being set by others.
• We know that the trade-offs are false choices and
  that a both/and demand is the pathway to
  educational success
• We must engage others and build the public will
  to demand a new baseline.

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Questions and Discussion
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Case Study
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Breakout

• What change do we seek what action do we need?
• Who has the power to create change? (pick one key
  stakeholder group)
• What are their closely held values, drivers and
  motivators?
• Ideas for powerful frames What is the value we
  deliver? What are the values we advance?
• Messaging What? So what? Now what?

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Report Back
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Metropolitan Group Agency Profile What We Do and
Who We Help

• Practice Areas
• Strategic Communication
• Resource Development
• Multicultural Communication
• Organizational Development

• Focus Areas
• Children, Youth, Families and Education
• Arts, Heritage and Culture
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Libraries and Literacy
• Community and Economic Development
• Public Health
• Environment and Sustainability
• Socially Responsible Business
• Foundations

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