Reilly Powers

For preservice teachers, the idea of advocacy can be terrifying. You are beginning your career at a time when the arts often feel undervalued and underrepresented. I am here to let you know you are not alone. Finding your voice and speaking up for yourself, your students, and art education is a process that often takes slow, small steps. We all possess the skills and capabilities to be an advocate for the arts, and understanding that is necessary both in preservice and active teaching.

Advocacy through Mentorship
I have been incredibly lucky to have been mentored by a great professor and teacher, Dr. Stephanie Danker. It was my journey with her and many others that shaped my voice as an emerging leader and art educator. In her classroom, I learned the impacts of arts advocacy on a broad level.

During my ART195 course, we collaborated with another program on campus called the Performing Arts Series, which brings once-in-a-lifetime artistic experiences to Miami University staff, students, and the community. They wanted our help in developing arts education programming for a community arts festival, Electric Root 2022.

Electric Root was founded by Afrofuturistic visionary, Shariffa Ali. This initiative imagines a space where we all live together and make an active choice to create spaces of belonging rooted in love, listening, and radical hospitality.

Community-Centered Creativity
During the development of our activities for the community arts festival, we looked for ways to uplift our community and create unity. We landed on a reflective lesson based on positive self-talk. Attendees of the festival learned to be a part of a community through collective art-making, which provided intergenerational connections. From this opportunity, we were able to create meaningful interactions with our community and demonstrate the impact art-making has on people of all ages.

As an undergraduate student, my professor invited me to speak with the dean of the College of Creative Arts at Miami University. During the session, I was able to advocate for how our local community was impacted by the experience, which motivated me to create more opportunities for myself and others to advocate for themselves and their students. Ultimately, this experience advanced my career and led me to serve first as president of my student chapter of NAEA and later as the NAEA Preservice Division director.

Anyone at any age can become an advocate for the arts, thereby having an impact on our world.

Because of the influence this festival had on me and my desire to keep creating interactive areas for students and their families, I continued working on my connection with Electric Root well into my student teaching experience. When you are a student teacher, it can feel scary to take risks, but I felt an obligation to continue what I had started during my freshman year.

Empowering Young Voices
During my second-grade student-teaching placement, the Performing Arts Series staff asked me to create another display of art for Electric Root 2024. I brought my experience teaching the community into a classroom setting. I encouraged my students to advocate for themselves and guided discussions about creating a shared positive vision for their local community.

Students learned about radical hospitality, a concept centered on active listening, unity, trust, and healing. Students led the discussion and reimagined what positivity and upliftment they could add to their community through their art exhibit.

Students created mandala designs that incorporated positive words and imagery such as hearts, the earth, and hands. During our art-making, students were honored to contribute to their community. They were excited and proud that their art was displayed in a well-known and public area, accessible to generations of people who would attend the festival.

When Students Become Advocates
I realized these second graders had become advocates of the arts. They invited parents, guardians, grandparents, and siblings to the artwork display and created areas for intergenerational dialogue about the importance of the arts when developing meaning and responses to real-life problems. Through this, I realized anyone at any age can become an advocate for the arts, thereby having an impact on our world. It is incredibly important that our university staff and the greater community actively participate in building connections through art that promote creativity, kindness, and open spaces for all.

Looking Forward
I am committed to championing arts education both through my leadership and through my continued practice in the field. This work for me was revolutionary in my career, but ultimately, my students were the ones in charge. Through this experience, I believe my students will remember the power the arts hold to create positive change, which I hope will guide them throughout their lives.

Reilly Powers is a first-year K–5 art educator from Ohio. She is attending graduate school full-time and currently serves as the Preservice Division director on the NAEA Board of Directors. She is also the preservice representative for the NAEA Advocacy Committee.

Preservice Perspectives on Advocacy