Vermont and Washington: Early Childhood Education

Research has long identified the benefits of the arts on early childhood development, including greater gains in language acquisition, sensory and motor skills, and executive function. Two early childhood education programs from state and jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs), the Vermont Arts Council‘s Early Childhood Arts Partnership Grants and the Washington State Arts Commission‘s (ArtsWA) Creative Start, illustrate the ways SAAs support lifelong creativity and learning through the arts, starting with some of the earliest learners.

The Vermont Arts Council’s Early Childhood Arts Partnership Grants support arts education for preschool-aged children through partnerships between arts organizations, Head Start programs, regional early education collaboratives, school districts and teaching artists. The program, which awards grantees up to $6,000, prioritizes programming tailored to the applicant’s learning community, expanding access, engaging families and strengthening holistic instruction. Recent examples of the types of programming the Vermont Arts Council supports include a grant to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center for teaching artists to deliver hands-on art, music and movement sessions in 17 area Head Start classrooms; a grant to Catamount Arts to support five professional development workshops for early childhood educators and conduct a pre-K family engagement workshop; and a grant to Creative Preschool Inc. to support embedded music and arts experiences for children six weeks through kindergarten and provide professional development programming for educators to help them effectively engage children through the arts.

The Washington State Arts Commission’s Creative Start Program supports and expands arts integration efforts—defined in this ArtsWA video—in early learning communities. The program bridges the opportunity gap for Washington’s youngest learners. In partnership with the Laird Norton Family Foundation, ArtsWA provides grants, professional learning opportunities and resource development to support students, teachers and their families. The Arts in Education Creative Start Project Grant , for example, is a one-year grant for either $6,000 or $10,000 that funds preschool through third grade arts integration efforts and encourages partnerships between educators, schools, families, teaching artists and organizations. Funds are used to create inclusive and culturally responsive arts learning for students. ArtsWA also provides resources for early learning educators, teaching artists, families and caregivers in its Creative Art Studio. This toolkit offers arts integration lesson plans, video tutorials and arts education research and guides. Moreover, as an affiliate of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts (a nationally recognized leader in early childhood performing-arts-based learning), ArtsWA supports teaching artist residencies in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Using a coteaching model where teaching artists and educators work side by side, children learn through music, movement and drama, while educators gain lasting skills that become integral to their teaching practices.

The Vermont Arts Council and ArtsWA exemplify two different approaches for supporting early arts education, helping to develop lifelong learners from the beginning. For more information on the grants and services that SAAs offer in support of arts education, contact NASAA.