Arts education was already in a state of crisis and dire need before the fraught year of 2020, and the pandemic has intensified that crisis exponentially. We regard our report as a celebration of the arts, a gesture of optimism, and, above all, a call to action.

The arts are facing a grave threat as this report goes to press. As the report shows, arts education was sorely underresourced even before the pandemic arrived, and that was before educators had to deliver their work through computer screens—a poor substitute for the group and student-teacher dynamics that are so essential to an arts education. And as we look to the future, the devastating financial effects from the pandemic threaten the local and state funding streams that underwrite classes in the subject. The Commission on the Arts was established in the fall of 2018 to address the first issue, but the events of the past year underscore the precarious nature of arts education in our nation’s schools.

This report offers a clarion call to parents, teachers, and governments at the national, state, and local level to recognize the vital role arts education plays in developing empathetic, well-rounded, and civically engaged individuals who are prepared to be active members of their communities and participants in our democracy.