Iowa: Fine Arts Education Summit

A middle school rock band, Screaming Goats, was invited to perform for summit participants. The students are part of Council Bluffs, Iowa, band instructor Dan Black’s class, Modern Rock Band. Photo courtesy Iowa Arts Council

State arts agencies are vital partners in supporting student learning and engagement in the arts and the professional development of arts educators. To this end, the Iowa Arts Council (IAC) promotes and assists in the development of teaching professionals and reinforces state fine arts standards through its biennial Iowa Fine Arts Education Summit.

IAC’s Fine Arts Education Summit, now in its third year, is presented in partnership with the Iowa Department of Education and the statewide arts education association, the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education. The summit started in 2019 as a strategy to assist arts educators in adapting to new state fine arts standards and now serves to connect and inspire fine arts educators, administrators, nonprofit arts leaders and teaching artists.

Presented on June 13, 2023, the most recent Iowa Fine Arts Education Summit brought together nearly 200 members from the arts education ecosystem to build connections through focusing on creativity and community. In-person sessions, a first for the summit since the COVID-19 pandemic, addressed Iowa’s fine arts standards and how they can be implemented across all arts disciplines. More than 25 breakout sessions, led by educators ranging from early childhood to university levels, discussed innovative methods for using the fine arts standards to:

center diverse and inclusive educational models and curricula;
engage local communities in fine arts practices and explore the potential for school and community collaboration;
integrate arts practices into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), literature and history curricula; and
bolster student achievement.

Additionally, Susan Riley, founder and CEO of the Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM, delivered a keynote address touching on many of these themes.

The Iowa Fine Arts Education Summit is one part of IAC’s multiprong strategy to support arts education. Other programs include scholarships for those seeking to continue their fine arts education at the postsecondary level and fine arts experiences for K-12 students. For more information about the Iowa Fine Arts Education Summit or IAC’s arts learning programming, contact Senior Grants and Programs Manager Jennie Knoebel or Iowa Arts Council Director David Schmitz.