Susan Evans McClure: Our democracy needs the arts

This commentary is by Susan Evans McClure of Hinesburg, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council.

As the engines of the 2024 election cycle churn, and sometimes sputter, around us, Vermonters are thinking about our democracy. Strong, stable democracies don’t happen by accident, and over the past few years we have seen that our democratic institutions are more fragile than many of us ever imagined.

So how do we build and sustain the vibrant democracy that is the bedrock of our state and country? What the philosopher, educator and Vermonter John Dewey wrote in 1939 remains true today: our democracy can only be sustained by “inventive effort and creative activity.” Indeed, the arts are a critical component upon which we build the foundation of a healthy democracy.

The arts and creativity build the skills our communities need for democracy to thrive. Skills like listening, imagination and communication. Access to arts and creative expression builds stronger communities in vital, and sometimes intangible, ways.

Examples abound throughout Vermont. When Shidaa Projects presented traditional West African drumming in Berlin, it was the first time many participants had seen the art form. Through music and dance, Vermonters engaged in something new and left with an appreciation for and connection to experiences outside of their own. They learned to experience new viewpoints and new stories, and to value diversity, which we all need for a thriving democracy.

At the Civic Standard in Hardwick, community members are coming together to create their Civic Theater Project. Vermonters are performing the world around them for fellow community members, and in doing so, they are telling their own stories. They are communicating what is important to their community through performance, and making their community members visible through the process, a key skill of engaging in democracy.

Democracy and art are both bold acts of creation. We need to be able to envision the future and create it together. When hundreds of students at Johnson Elementary School worked with Juniper Creative Arts to create a striking mural symbolizing bringing light into the darkness, they were working together to build their own vision of the world. When students learn those skills of expression and collective creation, they feel empowered to create the future they want to see. Our democracy needs this vision and creative power.

All of these examples of arts experiences that strengthen our democracy, and many others in Vermont, were made possible, in part, with public funding.

The founding legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 stated that the United States’ role in the world “must be solidly founded upon worldwide respect and admiration for the Nation’s high qualities as a leader in the realm of ideas and of the spirit.”

Vermont is lucky to have vibrant cultural organizations and artists working in every corner of our state. We are a leader “in the realm of ideas and of the spirit.” But those artists and organizations need intentional support and cultivation to flourish.

In this year’s state budget, there is vital funding appropriated to the Vermont Arts Council and other statewide arts and culture organizations. Overwhelmingly, Vermont leaders understand that when our tax dollars support the arts, it is an investment in our democracy.

Vermont has the skills and tools to lead the nation in democratic engagement, and we can do it through our commitment to the arts. We need strong arts organizations in our communities, vibrant arts education in our schools, thriving artists with career opportunities in our state and robust public art in our lives not only because of the intrinsic and human value of the arts, but because the systems and structure on which we rely need the skills of the arts too.

The future of our democracy depends on it.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Susan Evans McClure: Our democracy needs the arts .