Art Education Is Disappearing, Yet It Matters Now More Than Ever

Over the last decade, elementary schools across the country have seen dramatic cuts in arts funding—with some schools losing up to a third of their arts staff, and half of K‑5 students no longer getting any art instruction at all. That creative activity time—painting, drawing, sculpting, imagining—is now a rare treat or entirely gone, replaced by a heavy focus on standardized testing and “core” subjects.What’s Lost When Art DisappearsArt education brings far more than pretty pictures—it helps ki