While the arts in the United States are themselves often controversial, arts in public schools rarely are. That is to say that teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community members tend to agree that the opportunity to participate in the arts is beneficial to students and to the wider society. Whether discipline-based arts education (DBAE or "art for art's sake"), integrated arts (art that promotes core content knowledge--literacy, numeracy, critical thinking--alongside self-expression), or somewhere in between, the desire to have art (including music and theater) in public schools is well-known. Also well-known, however, are the local and national pressures and mandates that place arts at the bottom of the list of school priorities and possibilities. In their thoughtful articles about the centrality of arts in education, Gulla, Milman, and Norman raise a series of interrelated issues amidst snapshots of best practices. In this paper, the author talks about these three articles that provide hopeful visions of what can happen when arts are included in the classroom, even amidst the funding crises, the standardized testing schedules, and the challenge of administering any innovative program in overburdened and under-resourced public schools.