The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) serves a diverse state with cultural and physical topographies as variegated as Philadelphia to the east, Pittsburgh to the west and the Allegheny Mountains in between. Through its Arts in Education (AIE) Partnership, PCA works with a network of arts organizations acting as local and regional partners to…
New Jersey recently marked a national milestone when it became the first state to include arts education in its annual assessment of public schools. While the State of New Jersey Department of Education’s comprehensive evaluation—its second ever—does not measure students’ grades or test scores in the arts, it does report on the percentage of high…
The California Arts Council (CAC) has created six new programs with an extra $2 million in one-time funds from the California State Assembly. The $2-million supplement, which was allocated from a discretionary fund via a budget bill passed in July, brought CAC’s total fiscal year 2014 budget to $7 million. With the boon of its…
This fall, the Oregon Arts Commission (OAC) kicks off its new Connecting Students to the World of Work grant program. Through the program, OAC awards grants to organizations that introduce underserved students, grades 6–12, to the artistic and creative job market through internships, externships, mentorships, job shadowing and professionals in residence. The program builds on…
Education policy is a complex tapestry in America, consisting of a dynamic mixture of federal, state and local resources and regulations. Within this multilayered system, many important decisions affecting the quality and availability of arts education are made at the state level. This year, a number of state legislatures introduced bills affecting arts education. Some…
The Mississippi Blues Trail Curriculum is a new initiative of the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) that integrates the history, culture and art of Mississippi blues music into the state’s classrooms. The curriculum has 18 lessons, three each for six subject areas—music, meaning, cotton, transportation, civil rights and media. While the curriculum was developed for 4th-grade…
Create2013, the Tennessee Arts Commission’s (TAC) third annual Creativity in Education Institute in July, will be of special interest to state arts agencies interested in arts integration models and practices. The conference, hosted in partnership with Middle Tennessee State University, focuses on integrating the arts and the common core curriculum. Nonetheless, the conference is open…
The Nebraska Arts Council (NAC) and Nebraskans for the Arts have launched artsadvantage.com. This website features success stories in arts education and reveals how important arts experiences are for individuals who become high-achieving adults. Eighteen prominent Nebraskans are profiled through interview transcripts, written profiles and videos that share how learning in the visual arts, theatre,…
The North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) recently sponsored a youth photography exchange between rural communities in North Dakota and Iceland. Many families of Icelandic heritage reside in northeastern North Dakota, creating one of the largest Icelandic communities outside of Iceland. NDCA supports international residency programs that encourage intercultural understanding through arts learning, with…
In 2009, the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) adopted a special arts learning initiative: the New Visions project. This initiative was catalyzed by sobering results from a statewide assessment revealing that 73% of Alaskan districts had no arts curriculum, only six included the arts as a graduation requirement and less than 2% of…
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