Providing Access to the Arts Where There is None

In mid-October, 2024, I began working an internship with Pulse Arts, a local Los Angeles educational non-profit providing experiences to be artistic and create across underserved communities. My host Keysha Baynes is the executive director, and was my internship mentor and supervisor. Pulse Arts addresses interests in dance, theater, production, video, poetry, and many other forms of performing and visual arts. The organization supports local artists and addresses inequalities in access to educational opportunities within K-12 schools. The first time I met Keysha, I found out right away that we shared common values about the transformative power of art and drawing, equity in education, and developing independence and self-autonomy in young minds. Keysha’s enthusiasm and appreciation for the arts reminded me of how much positive impact one person could have, just by supporting the creation of art. I was placed as a teaching artist at Audubon Middle School and Gifted Magnet, located between Crenshaw and Leimert Park. The school serves around 400-500 students in grades 6th through 8th. The school is representative of the ethnic groups that make up the community, made up of majority Black and Latino students and families. For several weeks I was responsible for administering a visual arts workshop, 30 minutes each session during the advisory period, for three groups of students. I taught 6th and 8th graders with unique lessons each week, aligned with student passions. Additionally, one of two groups of 8th graders I was teaching was a self-contained class for students with special needs.

The biggest issue I saw during my internship was the socio-economic barriers that prevented students from exploring and being a part of the art world. In the first couple of weeks, till the end of October, I asked the students from each group what their favorite medium is. I asked if they had experimented much, if they do art at home or during lunch break, etc. My workshops became a matter of exposing the students to all types of artmaking techniques and materials from the ground up. As I interacted more each week one-on-one, I noticed a lot of the students I was working with had never experimented with many of the art supplies before, let alone have any time at all to create for creation’s sake. Across every group session I found the base experience to be using pencil and lined paper to draw, and that was it. It was important that a new material and or technique was introduced each session to expand the students’ perspectives of what’s possible. Many students I worked with came from working-class families, facing socio-economic challenges in their daily lives. Creating art for the sake of it, and pursuits in extracurriculars and hobbies were not a priority, as they are an additional expense to the basic necessities required for raising a child. Coming from personal experience living with my family below the poverty line, finding ways to stay busy with your interests is difficult if access was not free or available. Audubon itself does not have any programs or classes for the visual arts, just music. The time the school gave me for art was barely enough to get in a mini-lesson, let alone enough time for the students to make an art piece without rushing. Some of the 8th graders I talked to wished so badly to have a dedicated time and space for art- these students would often ask me if they could ask their teacher to stay in the workshop past the 30-minute mark. Even with an additional 15-25 minutes, it was not a substantial amount of time to make meaningful and fulfilling art for the students. Understandably, the school has limited resources and time to alot to non-curriculum based activities. Art supplies are expensive and or sold in stores not readily available in the community. The families of students are too occupied with sustaining themselves to nurture curiosity and skills, and schools like Audubon are in need of resources to provide an equitable learning environment comparable to other schools who receive more support for less output. 

Institutions like Audubon Middle School and Gifted Magnet could benefit from current efforts to bring focus back to the arts, like funding initiative Prop 28. However, a shortage of art teachers, a long and congested, confused rollout of funding, and attention on technology like AI is representative of the current shifts in culture keeping art elitist and exclusive, making art education take a backseat.

Proposition 28 was passed in Los Angeles in 2022, approving millions in funding for arts and music in K-12 schools. Prior to the approval, only 11% of schools in California were providing standardized teaching in performing and visual arts. A shortage of educators is making the implementation of Prop 28 rollout very slow, making it especially challenging for school districts that didn’t start with any arts programs in the first place. A cultural shift towards a more technological world, places less emphasis on the arts in real life. Digital creations and manipulation are quickly becoming the new spectacle of skill, as popular culture has started to favor video-based media. The rise of AI technology and economic barriers in art has made access and support for the arts take a backseat. Joanna Zylinska is a professor of King’s College London, based in Critical Digital Practice and Media Philosophy, who shared profoundly for Science, “Given the outpouring of visual, textual, and sonic artifacts enabled by AI, we have begun to ponder the future of human creative professions and pastimes. These developments raise questions about labor, about how we value artifacts and institutions that enable the experience of art, and about art education. Even though artists have always borrowed, copied…for the sake of the construction of AI training models needs to be interrogated, for reasons of moral and economic justice, if not humanist panic.” Support for advancements in tools like AI continues to snowball due to “hype” and attention online and in the news, leaving the fundamental basis for those learning art to be neglected. The harmonious integration of art into a quickly advancing technological world can be achieved through continuing to prioritize the emotional and cognitive needs of students along with intellectual needs, starting at the K-12 level to develop artists’ self-esteem, rationale, and empathy.  It is essential in creating well-rounded citizens with personal autonomy and a voice to stand up for themselves, equipped with tools granted to them by knowledge. 

This tracks with educator Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy which emphasizes humanity of students over what he proposed as the ‘banking-concept’(1968) of education, where teachers deposit education onto students who are passive knowledge holders without purpose or application. The teachers act as “bankers” who “deposit” information onto students, dumping facts and information without context or linking with students’ natural curiosity. Freire proposes a problem-solving based curriculum, where everyone in the same space learns something from open communication with each other to tackle said problems. Access to the arts combined with this idea of conscientization creates artists who are conscious of their role in society and how they can navigate new tools they encounter like AI. 

For things to change, the basis of education must be restructured to address the future of the students first. Although schools should be held accountable for the output of test results and achievements, withholding funding due to low results creates a suffering cycle for the school and its population. Oversight committees can be implemented to monitor the use of funds, and provide advice for school administration on how and where to allocate funds. Curriculum at the K-12 level should work towards developing basic life skills and literacy for a balanced life, instead of meeting standardized goals based exclusively on numbers and benchmarks. Schools can have resources in place to partner with organizations like Pulse Arts if no in-site arts education is available. It acts as a placeholder for intensive art programs. Along with Math, English, History, and Science, performing and visual arts are important to the development of the heart and mind. Requiring an outlet for all students to self-express should be mandatory for schools.

Interning with Pulse Arts has allowed me to explore and develop my own personal teaching philosophy focusing on exploration for all there is to see. My experience has solidified my core belief in accessibility; Everyone should have the same opportunities as others with the same skill and passions. Seeing the present socio-economic barriers in place for students I work with and may encounter in the future has given me an idea of what I can provide in terms of an engaging learning experience. When I see the concentrated faces and busy hands making art in students, I am reminded to remain sensitive and respectful in a mutual connection with students, who’s life situation I see only a fragment of.  Since starting as an educator this year, I have learned the impact I can have on fellow artists of all ages and skill levels to pursue their dreams, even with limited time or funding. On my teaching journey I hope I can prepare creatives to recognize inequalities and continue the trend of inclusivity and accessibility in arts education.