ABOUT ESDA
Every student deserves the opportunity to discover what the Fine Arts might awaken in them.
Every Student Deserves the Arts
exists to help keep that opportunity open.
Our Mission
Every Student Deserves the Arts works to ensure students have meaningful opportunities to experience, discover, and participate
in the Fine Arts by educating communities, elevating student
voices, equipping educators, and advocating for policies
that preserve access to arts education.
Our vision
We envision a future where the door to the Fine Arts remains
open for every student, giving them the opportunity to
discover what the arts might awaken in them.
The Open Door
The opportunity is already on the other side.
Our job is to make sure somebody doesn't close the door before the student gets there.
Access
The light
Possibility
The Door
The opening
Exposure
walking through
Student Choice
what they find
Discovery
what it awakens
Their Own
We don't believe every student must become an artist.
We believe every student deserves the chance to find out.
We turn our mission into action by educating, elevating,
equipping, advocating, and connecting.
WHAT WE DO
Help students, families, educators, and communities understand the role of Fine Arts education and the policies that affect student access.
Educate.
Create opportunities for students to share their own experiences and perspectives in their own words.
elevate.
Support policies that preserve meaningful
opportunities for students to experience
and participate in the Fine Arts.
advocate.
Provide educators with resources to engage
students and communities while protecting
authentic student voice.
equip.
Bring together educators, students, families,
artists, organizations, and communities working
to keep Fine Arts opportunities open.
connect.
Our Values
Six values shape how we pursue our mission, engage with students
and educators, and advocate for Fine Arts access.
Access.
Meaningful Fine Arts opportunities should be available to students regardless of background, circumstance, prior experience, or whether they already know the arts are for them.
discovery.
Students deserve opportunities to encounter interests, abilities, and possibilities they may not yet know exist.
student voice.
Students are the experts on their own experiences. Their stories should be heard, respected, and represented authentically.
opportunity.
Education should open possibilities, not narrow them before students have had the chance to explore.
belonging.
The arts create spaces for connection, community, identity, and place. Every student deserves the chance to discover where they belong.
integrity.
Accurate information.
Authentic student experiences.
Responsible stewardship.
Respect for educators, communities, and policymakers.
The first five values describe what we protect.
Integrity describes how we protect it.
How it Began
Every Student Deserves the Arts began in Indiana during a significant change to the state's high school diploma requirements.
When the two-credit Fine Arts requirement included in Indiana's current Academic Honors Diploma was not carried into the redesigned honors-level structure, a larger question emerged:
What happens to the students who never discover the arts if the opportunity to encounter them disappears?
That question became the beginning of ESDA.
What started as an effort to preserve Fine Arts opportunities within Indiana's diploma requirements grew into a broader commitment to student access, discovery, voice, belonging, and opportunity.
Indiana's diploma requirements are our first campaign.
Keeping the door open is our mission.