Project Oklahoma: Disappearing fine art programs could prove costly compromise

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — A room full of elementary students on the edge of their seats; all eyes are affixed on the hands raised at the front of the room.

A tap on a stand and the teacher’s voice rings out, “5678.”

Then, blaring in unison, a harmony. Theses warm up notes and chords ringing out and breaking a decades old silence in the tiny town of Okarche, Oklahoma.

“It's been gone from the community so long, there's a craving for it to be here,” said Ryan Siebert, the music teacher and band leader for Okarche Public Schools.

The last time anyone can find evidence of a band program existing in the town that sits just outside the Oklahoma City metro area, is in the late 1980s. This past Christmas the community turned out in droves to listen to 5th and 6th grade students perform the first band concert the town has had in 30 years.

“We had tons of people there that didn't have kids in the band program,” Siebert said, his face beaming with pride of the accomplishments of his new musicians.

This is the first year for the band program. Siebert started the year before just offering music classes at the elementary as part of the district’s master plan to re-invest in the arts.

“When I first got here we did not have a music program, that had been cut out; the budget was not in really good shape,” explained Rob Friesen the Superintendent of Okarche Public Schools.

Okarche’s cuts to the arts were not out of line with the trends happening elsewhere in the state. As budgets were cut and funding reduced, fine arts were the first on the chopping block for many districts. According to an analysis by OK Policy’s Rebecca Fine there are 1,110 fewer art and music classes in Oklahoma than there were four years ago.

“About 28 percent of students so that's one in three students across the state do not have access to fine arts classes,” Fine said in an interview with FOX 25.

Where art classes do exist, Fine explained, supplies are often purchased out of a teacher’s own paycheck. The lack of art programs is most glaring in schools that serve at-risk students.

“There's a lot of research that shows that arts teach students critical thinking and temporal reasoning skills; so, the ability to visualize and these are skills that students need,” Fine said. “We need art in the same way we need math and science and language arts.”

In Oklahoma City, many inner-city schools were on the same course to eliminating arts programs to meet other budget needs.

That trend changed with help from the Oklahoma City Arts Council which spearheaded the effort to privately fund arts programs in several Oklahoma City schools.

“We want all children to not only achieve but we want them to be successful,” Robbie Kienzle said. Kienzle is on the committee that has helped organize the funding of arts programs in city schools. She is also the Arts Liaison & Program Planner for the Oklahoma City Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

“The fundamentals of art are teaching our children how to be better adults how to own better businesses how to run our country better,” Kienzle said, “Because they can use creative approaches and plan ahead.”

The arts, be it visual arts or performing arts, Kienzle explained are often seen as expendable when they should be prioritized.

“I think for people that haven't experienced really rich arts appreciation, they might lean to well why does my child need that they are not going to be an artist,” Kienzle said. “What they don't realize is how maybe they want their child to be a business person and every major CEO in the nation is looking for creative people.”

It is this view of the arts that is driving investment in Okarche. However, that investment is uniquely possible in the community due to increased energy sector activity, namely new wind farms which have provided enough local tax money to take Okarche completely off the state’s funding formula.

“Things are a little different here than they are in the rest of the state,” Superintendent Friesen explained of the budget boost that’s allowing for major new construction projects as well as additional arts opportunities.

The district is in the process of building a new gymnasium along with a state-of-the-art performing arts center which will feature a “Black Box” theatre. The design is modeled after several university theatres and will be a major upgrade for the award-winning drama program that up until now has only been able to practice in the high school commons area.

“We've had a state champion one act play [team] two of the last four years,” Friesen said. “Literally there is no stage, no theatre, no anything; the first time they get on a stage is when they first go to their competition.”

The decision to embrace the arts is not at the expense of any other extracurricular program or athletic group Friesen said. He said, instead, it is to bring more opportunities to students whose talents may lie outside the realm of sports or other programs.

“Whatever it is everybody has their own niche that you have to find” Friesen said.

Siebert said the band program produces similar positive outcomes to athletics.

“It teaches a work ethic and it teaches working together as a group in order to make one final product that is beyond what they can do on their own.”

Studies also show that musicians and arts students perform better in the rest of their classes as well. It is no surprise to the music major though, because he knows what he is teaching is more than just how to make music.

“When you're learning how to read music you're learning how to function with another language,” Siebert said. “It is math, it is reading, it is everything combined in one; we talk about the science behind how their instruments work.”

The arts can also be the thing that keeps kids in school. Which is why supporters of art programs argue cutting programs to balance a budget may be doing harm to the futures of a generation of Oklahoma students.

“There is a joy that comes from some of these things and finding out that you’re good at something that you may not get from sports and you may not get from academics,” Kienzle explained.

OK Policy points out that some schools are able to rely on Parent-Teacher Associations to help fund art programs, but the state should also prioritize arts education funding so schools that lack the resources of a PTA or local arts nonprofits can ensure their students are not left out on the learning that comes with the arts.