Tell the Story: Arts and Creativity Strengthen Our Nation

Do you remember the framing science tree? If you do, you may remember it as a component of NASAA’s advocacy research project entitled Arts and Creativity Strengthen Our Nation. The project demonstrated how the words we choose and the stories we tell can broaden support for the arts. It revealed what messages resonate best across the political spectrum; it also offered evidence based advice for promoting positive narratives that help policymakers invest in the arts with confidence. With so many legislative sessions now in full swing, I share it as a reminder of this productive body of work and as a tool that can be put to use today.

After rigorous political research and analysis, we collaborated with a public messaging firm to learn how to improve our narrative about the arts. They shared a process based on framing science. An easy way to visualize this is to imagine a tree. Framing science begins with understanding your target audience’s underlying values and worldviews—at the root of the tree. Those are used to develop message frames at the ground level, which serve as a supporting structure for stories and evidence—the tree’s branches and leaves. This is a proven method that has been used to shift public will on a wide variety of issues, like tobacco use, reducing teen pregnancy and improving attitudes toward aging.

We can use this framing approach to inform how we talk about the arts. It gives us guidance on what to say, how to say it and the order in which we should consider saying it.

The overarching narrative starts this way:

Arts and creativity strengthen our nation.

We begin with the idea of strength. Our message testing shows that this helps to change the dynamic of conversations. It strikes a positive note and shifts the mindset away from asking for handouts; it elevates what the arts add to communities. It’s additive, not self-serving. It’s not just about the arts; it’s about the communities in which we live.

We build on the narrative this way:

Arts and creativity make us stronger—as individuals, families, communities, states and as a country. They are a backbone of innovation, prosperity, and thriving people and places. Public funding for arts and creativity is a high-return investment that benefits every American in every city, town and rural community nationwide.

This message contains important components:

The words stronger and backbone tie back to the idea of strength.
This model message acknowledges individuals, families and communities. This puts people into the equation. It evokes deeply held values around individualism, family attachments and a shared sense of community.
The last sentence here is important because it offers a vision of every community. This corrects the myth that the arts are the province of the privileged few. We know that’s not true, but we still have work to do to lay those myths to rest.

The core message is important, yet we still need branches and leaves of data and stories to reinforce the narrative—to give our message tree structure and food. Here it’s helpful to talk about the distinctive value the arts bring to the public environment.

We often begin with the economy and cite that the arts build jobs. Every industry creates jobs. In order to be worthy of public investment, the arts need to offer something different that other industries don’t.

Only the arts sector delivers a fivefold return on investment, boosting economic productivity as well as education outcomes and civic cohesion, facilitating good health, and preserving our cherished heritage and traditions. No other industry offers this suite of benefits to our country.

There are certain ways it’s helpful to talk about each of these themes:

Economy. We’ve all been told that elected officials want to hear about jobs. Our research showed that talking about arts employment is not compelling unless we couple it with the concept of how the arts help other sectors to grow—like tourism, restaurants and retail. The idea of innovation is also persuasive, and tying the arts to workforce skills tested well, too, talking about how businesses need workers who are good communicators, idea generators and resourceful problem solvers, all of which the arts offer.
Community connection and civic cohesion are very important, too. It’s useful to talk about how the arts strengthen the fabric of communities, reduce isolation and repair divides. The arts are also a powerful place based strategy that creates communities where people want to live, work and raise families.
Education is another compelling point. Chronic absenteeism and learning loss—made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic—are persistent problems for schools, students and their parents. If not reversed, these trends could cost our country up to $31 trillion in lost economic productivity. That’s a staggering number, and arts education can be part of the solution by boosting academic outcomes and attendance.
Health is another theme that elected officials found compelling. The officials in our message testing pool were drawn to the idea of the arts as an agent for health and healing. They were interested in the ability of creative therapies to heal veterans, help older adults, support good mental health and address addiction.
Last but not least is preserving our heritage. Every community has unique stories to tell, and the arts celebrate that. The arts honor our distinctive cultures and history; they instill community pride and they preserve our traditions for future generations.

These messages are not a rigid recipe that requires strict adherence. It’s important to know your audience and select the benefits that speak to their interests. Customize your advocacy conversations based on the interests of the officials you’re speaking with. Then add stories from your own community to breathe life into your messages.

At our core, the arts industry is made up of storytellers. This messaging strategy helps us to organize our storytelling in the most compelling way possible. The following NASAA resources can help you achieve this: