Americans for the Arts and the Ad Council have partnered to create a multiyear national public service advertisement campaign to promote the need for more arts education opportunities for children. The campaign has been educating parents on how the arts are essential to a child's development and identifying ways for parents to ask for more art for their kids since its creation in January 2002. A generous $1 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation served as the catalyst in the development and launch of this initiative created by the nationally recognized advertising agency, GSD&M of Austin, Texas. In October 2002, a series of hip-hop television spots were created in partnership with Chuck D. and Marc Herbert Productions. Due to the success of the print ads from the first phase of the campaign, Americans for the Arts worked again with advertising agency GSD&M to create a second round of print ads which were released in the spring of 2007.

For the second phase of the campaign, Americans for the Arts has once again partnered with the Ad Council. We are very pleased to announce our new funding partner, the NAMM Foundation, which has generously contributed $1 million for the launch of the second phase of our arts education PSA campaign. The goal of the campaign is to empower parents and concerned citizens to advocate for more arts education for children both in and out of school. In the spring of 2008 the campaign released new television and radio ads (with new print ads and web banners to be released in the summer of 2008) produced by the advertising agency Leo Burnett. In the new television and radio ads, the arts are equated with a healthy diet; just like kids need healthy foods on a daily basis, kids need their daily serving of the arts. Included in the campaign is a list of “10 Simple Ways,” detailing how parents can get involved in their child’s arts education.

Please click on the links below for more information about the campaign.