Tiffiney Christiansen // Republican // Iron County School Board District 3

  • How have the arts, culture, and/or humanities impacted your life?
    • How has it not? I grew up in a small artist community in Highland, Utah called Bull River. I was surrounded by kind and generous people. I learned that art was a form of communication, something to make us think and feel, perhaps, in a new way than we had in the past. Art, in all its forms, is critical to education because it helps students think creatively. And creative thinking is something that can be nurtured. I'll never forget when one of our Elementary principals wrote a grant to bring money from the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Foundation so our schools could have real artists teach our kids. My daughter went from coloring pages, to fantastic self-portraits and projects that reflected what she was learning in class. I grew up dancing at Children's Dance Theater and had art from Ms. Anne. Those were formative years for me and I fell in love with music, poetry, dance, and many artforms. The impact art has had on my life is profound and still brings me great joy.
  • Utah's humanities and arts employ 123,000 Utahns, provide $4.4 billion in earnings, and $13.2 billion in sales. This is a larger economic impact than agriculture, mining, and real estate. Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
    • Yes
  • Fiscally responsible government investment in the arts and humanities (including humanities and arts education) means to me:
    • When our governments support the arts and humanities, they are truly supporting the next generation of great ideas and furthering progress in the world. We don't study the arts and humanities to all become artists, we study it to open our minds. Perhaps if a humanities class was taught as a creative thinking class, we'd have students who dread taking art credits lining up to learn how to think freely and critically.
  • Items of Business I support:
    • Credit requirements for participation in the arts and humanities should be increased
    • K-6 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • 7-12 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • I support the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program which puts one arts specialist in most elementary schools
    • I support the POPS (Professional Outreach Program in the Schools) which sends 13 professional arts organizations to all UT school districts
    • I support the iSEE (Informal Science Educational Enhancement) which sends 10 professional science, zoological, and natural history organizations to all UT school districts
    • I support increasing funding for arts education with property tax
    • I support increasing funding for humanities and social sciences education with property tax
    • I support working to increase funding for arts and humanities education.
  • How would you expand participation in the arts and humanities amongst all students?
    • Teachers are our greatest resource and empowering them to understand how to implement creative thinking into their day to day teaching would give students more access to the arts and humanities. I would suggest doing that through professional development and encouraging support from the administration. Having access to high quality art teachers in schools also makes a difference because they can offer teacher support and inspire students to appreciate the arts. Art organizations outside of regional areas can also be used to open the minds of our students, helping them think creatively
  • Anything else we should know about you?
    • I believe creative thinking is critical for our future. Encouraging, training and developing students to look to the arts and humanities for inspiration will help them in any future they choose. I think of great leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors and inventors and they are successful because they can often see what others can't. That's what art teaches us. To think. To see. To open our minds and not be afraid to fail. There are often no right answers in art and that is why it continues to break boundaries. Art in our schools is as critical as science or math. And together, they prepare the minds of our students for the unknown future. By embracing the arts, we are thinking ahead. It's where our strength lies as a country- creative thinking.