By Jim Speirs, Executive Director, Arts South Dakota
Look around your community and chances are you’ll discover the arts everywhere this season. Maybe there’s a play at school, or a choral concert celebrating the holidays. You may find an arts and crafts fair that’s an annual tradition or perhaps your community has a South Dakota Arts Council-sponsored artist in the schools, bringing a new and exciting perspective to your students.
People working to make these events possible are partners in making their community better through the arts. In fact, we’re all partners. Anyone who buys a ticket to a holiday show, compliments a student on a school art project, sings in a choir, has an original work of art framed for an office or just tells a neighbor about an upcoming arts event is a partner in advancing the arts in South Dakota. Now is the best time to join that partnership supporting our communities and the creative activities that help them thrive.
We’re about to turn the calendar page to a new year, with the hopes and dreams of making every day better, lifting up the arts and being even stronger local champions of creativity, culture and community. Arts education programs in our schools help students acquire knowledge in a variety of effective ways, using the arts to teach other core curricula subjects. Communities that nurture the arts have something to be proud of—and something to grow each year.
You can be a vital partner in building strong communities. This is a good time of year to celebrate the creative activities we all enjoy on a daily basis and think about the ways you support the arts in your town. Let’s strengthen our community partnerships for an even better year in 2025!
For more about celebrating and growing the arts in South Dakota, visit www.ArtsSouthDakota.org and don’t forget to check out the calendar of arts events near you.
