From the Field

Using ARP and ESSER to Support Arts Education

The Arts Education Partnership has published the first success story in a series intended to showcase how arts organizations, states and schools are using American Rescue Plan (ARP) and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) funds to fund arts education. In 2022, the Houston Independent School District, the largest in Houston, received $1.16 billion in ESSER II and ESSER III funding and dedicated $22 million to its fine arts department. The dedication was made in large part as a result of the work of Arts Connect Houston, a collective impact initiative. Arts Connect Houston began in 2015 when local leaders shared their worries about the decline of arts education in schools. The initiative now has more than 90 institutions working together and partners includes more than 89 arts and culture organizations. Future success stories are in process.

Free Survey Measures Sense of Belonging at Museums

Museum research has begun to focus on issues of inequity, including the social exclusion of guests not part of the original power structures that built many Western museums. To help more museums understand their visitors’ sense of community and belonging, evaluators at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, developed a survey tool, the Cultural Institution Belonging Instrument. The survey is free to use under a Creative Commons license and can be downloaded, along with supporting documentation and tutorials. This tool can be a particularly useful resource for smaller cultural institutions without research staff or budgets to better understand audience perceptions and senses of belonging related to the communities they attempt to serve.

Cultural Workers and Sustainable Careers

The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies has published a report on the precarious working conditions of artists and independent workers in the cultural and creative sectors. A Crisis of Sustainable Careers? explores working conditions around the world for cultural workers, citing common problems such as inequity, informality and the lack of legal protections. The report makes recommendations on how government can address and improve the working conditions of cultural-sector workers.