[Rep. Suzanne Bonamici:] Thank you Bob.
Thank you everyone for being here, what a
wonderful evening last night.
Bob Lynch, thank you for your leadership in
Americans for the Arts to our Chairs, Chair,
Acting Chair Mary Anne Carter, and all our
fabulous artists, but really to all of you
who are here to advocate for arts.
You're here because you care, and sometimes
people ask me, "Why do I care so much about
the arts?".
My mom was a piano teacher and an artist.
She did these wild paintings when I was growing
up, which I didn't appreciate at the time,
but I do now.
And I was surrounded by arts and music growing
up, and then when my own children were ready
to enter school, I said, "Where are the art
teachers?
Where are the art classes?
Where are the music teachers?
Where are the choirs and the bands and the
orchestras?".
And I know what a difference it makes for
students to have arts in their curriculum,
arts growing up.
And so, I got myself to congress and got onto
the education committee and worked to get
rid of No Child Left Behind, because too frequently
I heard, "Well, we don't have the arts and
music because they're not tested, and our
test scores are so important."
So, that focus on well-rounded education that
includes the arts, thank you to Americans
for the Arts for helping our efforts there.
Also, with career and technical education
which a lot of schools are now seeing the
value of hands-on learning.
We got an amendment into that bill as well,
to promote STEAM instead of just STEM.
And that came about because, thank you, because
as someone who serves on both the education
committee and the science committee, everyone
is always talking about how important STEM
is.
And then I get out to the real world and nobody
said, "We're looking for scientists and people
in technology and engineers and mathematicians
who are rote learners."
They're looking for people who can communicate
and be creative and come up with new ideas
and new ways to solve problems, and as we
know, that comes from educating both halves
of the brain, so the STEAM caucus has been
working hard on that and we are growing in
membership and working again with Americans
for the Arts.
I was going to talk a little bit about how
arts are great for the economy, but you've
already heard all of that.
I know I'm going out to talk to members of
Congress, so I'm going to tell a story.
From time to time, here in Congress, we get
together for bipartisan dinners at the Library
of Congress and we listen to speakers, typically
authors.
And this is Senators, Representatives, Democrats,
Republicans, and recently, Ron Chernow was
there to speak about his book about Grant.
But he also spent some time talking about
his book about Hamilton.
And as many of you know, Lin Manuel Miranda
talks about how important arts education was
to him growing up.
So, when you look at all of these things coming
together, we had all of these bipartisan group
of Senators and Republicans listening to Ron
Chernow who was an English major and the book
he wrote about Hamilton and thinking about
what Hamilton has done for telling story of
history but also to get people listening who
might not typically listen to rap music and
hip-hop music.
The costumes, the dancing, all of it, the
literature, coming together.
But here's my point.
You shouldn't have to be able to afford a
ticket to Hamilton to benefit from the arts
and the arts education.
So, as Chair Carter was saying, the NEA is
working in every congressional district across
the country.
That's why your message is so important for
arts education, for that funding to make sure
that every student and every member of this
beautiful country has access to the arts.
So, thank you for your advocacy, get out there,
and tell your story so that we can continue
this and get the funding, and you can all
do your work and everyone in this country,
students, adults, across the country can enjoy
the arts.
Thank you so much.
