The field of arts education is a complex ecosystem. Americans for the Arts plays a unique and specific role in connecting the national, state, and local efforts to advance arts education

By striving to build leadership, create a value proposition for arts education, and increase tools and resources that support the field, this ecosystem becomes more powerful than the sum of each of its parts.

Arts Education Theory of Change

Americans for the Arts works with its Arts Education Network of arts educational professionals to affect change on the national, state, and local levels. 

Local Arts Education Work
Through the Arts Education Network, Americans for the Arts provides professional development, as well as tools and resources to professionals to help strengthen arts education in communities. Members of the Arts Education Network represent a cross-section of arts education leaders, including arts administrators, teaching artists, school administrators, and representatives from higher education. Want to get involved? Sign up for our listserv!

The Arts Education Council, an advisory body elected by the Network, provides guidance on the development and execution of programs and services that meet the needs of these arts education professionals nationwide.

State Arts Education Work
Increasingly, the majority of funding and policy decisions for our nation’s education system are at the state level. As such, Americans for the Arts is embarking on a three-pronged strategy:  influence state-based implementation of federal mandates or programs; expand state support of arts education in policy and appropriations; and impact local access to arts programs and instruction for students.

Read more about our pilot grant program at the state level here.

National Arts Education Work
Americans for the Arts builds the national clout necessary to effectively influence pro-arts federal education policy and private sector support by forging strategic policy alliances, engaging high level leaders in taking action, and raising public visibility for the value of arts education. Read more about our national efforts here.

 

A Shared Endeavor: Arts Education for America’s Students
The inequity of access to quality arts education must be addressed.
A Shared Endeavor

Americans for the Arts recently joined 12 arts and education advocacy groups to release A Shared Endeavor: Arts Education for America’s Students.

This statement articulates the purpose and value of arts education in the balanced curriculum of all students, asserts its place as a core academic subject area, and details how sequential arts learning can be supported by rigorous national standards and assessments.

The model is predicated on the convergence the skills and expertise of several members of the arts education ecosystem: arts educators, community arts organizations and non-arts educators.