During the 2016 presidential campaign season, Bernie Sanders made an unusual pledge: “As president,” he said, “I will be an arts president.” He cited, as an example of his past support of the arts, the Burlington Arts Council, which he founded in 1981 as one of his first acts as mayor of the Vermont city, with the goal of making the arts “available to all, regardless of social, economic or physical constraints.”

The municipally funded effort supported public art in the form of street murals and performances in parks, as well as brought arts programming into public schools and provided grants to artists and small arts organizations. Early in his tenure, Bernie and his wife Jane O’Meara Sanders, then director of the mayor’s youth office, overturned a local ordinance against live performances on public property to establish a youth center that became an iconic punk rock venue, which still stands today. He brought free outdoor concerts, too, to Burlington’s Battery Park; today, the Discover Jazz Festival continues to bring live music to Burlington each summer. The council expanded over time; in 1988 Burlington was deemed “one of the most livable cities for the arts.” Today it continues to thrive. In his pledge, Bernie was unequivocal: “Art is speech. Art is what life is about.”

In the lead-up to 2020, Bernie should reiterate this promise — and back it up with concrete policy proposals. The state of the arts in Burlington may be healthy, but nationwide, it’s in bad shape. And only sweeping changes to the way the arts are funded and disseminated will make the United States a country where everyone has access to quality, enriching arts programming, and working artists can pursue their passion.