CenterStage believes in the importance to serve as an advocate for the arts and the need to promote a greater understanding of the benefits of arts in education for young people in the Richmond Region. An arts education connects young people to themselves, their culture and civilization. It provides the imagination to see something wholly new in the most ordinary materials and events while daring them to challenge tired modes of expression. An arts education develops collaborative and teamwork skills, technical competencies, flexible thinking, which translates into 21st Century learning skills for students. This arts education advocacy campaign not only strives to increase awareness of the overall benefits of the arts, but also to recognize the outstanding work being done in classrooms and cultural organizations throughout our community every day.