{"id":179,"date":"2017-07-14T13:50:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T18:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/?p=179"},"modified":"2017-07-16T17:10:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T22:10:19","slug":"budget-cuts-force-oklahoma-schools-to-find-new-ways-to-fund-their-arts-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/budget-cuts-force-oklahoma-schools-to-find-new-ways-to-fund-their-arts-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget cuts force Oklahoma schools to find new ways to fund their arts programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>When Eugene Field Elementary was forced to discontinue the arts at their school, Current Studio Co-founder Kelsey Karper knew there was a way to bring it back.<\/h4>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-179-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/EugeneFieldArts2_mixdown.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/EugeneFieldArts2_mixdown.mp3\">https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/EugeneFieldArts2_mixdown.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Current Studio, an independent visual arts space in Oklahoma City, resides in the Classen Ten Penn neighborhood shared by Eugene Field Elementary.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_198\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-198\" style=\"width: 401px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-198\" src=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9250-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"401\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9250-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9250-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9250-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9250-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-198\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Eugene Field Elementary in the Classen Ten Penn neighborhood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Financial restraints forced the school to eliminate their arts program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone in Oklahoma as far as I\u2019ve encountered understands that there\u2019s a budget crisis here,\u201d Karper said.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this year, Oklahoma presented a budget to fill an almost $900 million deficit. Year after year, cuts have been made to education across the state. Data from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/content\/dam\/Census\/library\/publications\/2017\/econ\/g15-aspef.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2015 U.S Census Bureau ranks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Oklahoma in the bottom 25 states in overall education investment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Annette Price, Oklahoma State Department of Education communications and constituent services specialist, said there is no state funding for out-of-school-time programs as well as no direct allocations for the arts. These funds have to be taken out of the school\u2019s general budget.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think more and more people are understanding that arts education is a part of a well-rounded educational experience, and study after study shows that when kids have arts education, they excel in all other areas of their academic studies,\u201d Karper said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsedsearch.org\/summaries\/oklahoma-a-schools-what-the-research-tells-us-2002-2007-volume-three-quantitative-measures\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oklahoma arts education research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows that students who take arts courses show more interest and engagement in class, are more well-behaved, have better attendance records and score higher on standardized tests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Karper\u2019s great-grandmother taught her how to paint when she was growing up. It sparked her interest in art.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAn art class was what I got excited about and that was the thing I really connected with,\u201d Karper said. \u201cIt made me motivated to go to school and helped me learn how to express myself and learn who I am. It\u2019s really important to me that these kids have that same experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_202\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-202\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-202\" src=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9233-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9233-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9233-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9233-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_9233-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-202\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alondra Mondragon shows off her younger sister&#8217;s coloring art. Victor A. Pozadas\/NextGenRadio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Schools around the city have struggled to fund art classes due to budget cuts. Last year, it took community funding and a partnership with the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation to keep a music teacher at MLK Elementary employed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Cleveland Elementary, members of their Parent-Teacher Association began a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/SaveClevelandArt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GoFundMe page<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to help raise $20,000 to prevent the visual arts program from being cut. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf something is going to get cut, the arts are going first,\u201d Eugene Field Elementary Principal Paige Bressman said. \u00a0The prioritization of funding is determined by the state of Oklahoma, which does not recognize visual arts as a core subject.<\/p>\n<p>With these shortfalls, Current Studio and Eugene Field Elementary formed a partnership to restore the arts program at the school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids are happy, the teachers are happy and everybody wins when the community partners step in and help us,\u201d Bressman said.<\/p>\n<p>After a successful funding campaign, Current Studio brought four guest arts teachers, supplies and a three-week arts education program back to Eugene Field Elementary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe intend to do what we can to make sure that the kids at Eugene Field Elementary have an arts experience every year,\u201d Karper said. \u201cIt could potentially be an ongoing relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When they had to cut the program at her school, Eugene Field Elementary fifth-grader Alondra Mondragon said, \u201cmost kids liked art a lot, and it was fun to do, so it was sad.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5w4lWq25Kdg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Her mother Nohemi said her son Noe, a third grader at Eugene Field, was pleased when the school restored the arts program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor him, he likes to fly in his imagination, he said [the program] was great; he loved it,\u201d Mondragon said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Karper said successful community partnerships run the risk of filling the gaps too well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would look like the funding doesn\u2019t need to be restored because we\u2019re doing just fine without it, but I can\u2019t help but think about what more is possible if the funding were there,\u201d Karper said.<\/p>\n<p>Current Studio is planning to host a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentstudio.org\/eugene-field-elementary\">second fundraiser<\/a> for Eugene Field on July 17 to fund the arts program for the fall 2017 semester.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope as we move forward that our legislators and other decision makers will realize that art is a critical piece of an educational experience and that it will no longer be considered optional or extracurricular,\u201d Karper said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Eugene Field Elementary was forced to discontinue the arts at their school, Current Studio Co-founder Kelsey Karper knew there was a way to bring it back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,48,49,50,47,51],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/okc2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}