Chula Vista Elementary School District (Chula Vista, California is located just south of Dan Diego) launched an arts education expansion and teacher hiring spree this summer unlike any that local arts educators have ever seen. The district serving 30,000 students hired about 60 new art teachers in the span of a few months, and 16 arts instructor spots still remain open… The district’s unprecedented investment in arts instruction was made possible by $15 million in funding approved by the Chula Vista school board in June. The allocation flowed from Gov.
Arts Education
Grantmakers in the Arts holds arts education as one of its core funding focus areas. GIA is committed to invigorate funding and support for arts education within federal policy and defend that every resident has access to the arts as part of a well-rounded, life-long education. In 2012, GIA formed the Arts Education Funders Coalition (AEFC), an interest group within GIA, to address identified needs in comprehensive arts education and to strengthen communication and networking among arts education funders. Advised by a committee of Coalition members, GIA engaged the services of Washington, DC-based Penn Hill Group, a firm with education policy expertise and experience working with diverse education groups to research, develop, and promote educational policy strategies.
Most recently, GIA worked with Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) on the development of the Arts Education for All Act, the broadest arts education policy bill ever introduced in Congress.
In Spring 2021, GIA influenced the U.S. Department of Education to highlight the importance of equitable access to arts and culture to the process of reopening schools and to make explicit how racialized this access was prior to the pandemic and that addressing this inequity is essential to effective reopening.
Grantmakers in the Arts is delighted that in 2020 Congress passed the Supporting Older Americans Act, including our recommendations that the Administration on Aging include the arts in the issues to be identified and addressed and be included among supportive services for older Americans.
GIA has successfully lobbied to include arts-related provisions in the Child Care for Working Families Act, which proposes to better help low-income families pay for childcare and expand high-quality state preschool options.
GIA is extremely proud of our work over the past several years on raising the visibility of the arts in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in its legislative form. GIA and Penn Hill Group continue these advocacy efforts around the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), guiding GIA members and their grantees in advocating for new or expanded arts programs at their local schools and districts.
July 13, 2015 by Steve
United States House of Representatives
Last week the House took up H.R. 5, the Student Success Act, for the second time after the bill was pulled from the floor in February due to lack of votes. While none of the amendments were related to arts education or our AEFC agenda, the House bill does include references to arts education as part of the local block grant in Title I and in Title II with regard to professional development. The House passed H.R. 5 by a final vote of 218-213. All Democrats and 27 Republicans voted against the bill.
July 8, 2015 by admin
Presentations and white papers presented at Grantmakers for the Arts Every Child, Every School forum for funders in Minneapolis, May 7, 2015, can be found here.
Read More...July 8, 2015 by admin
As part of an upcoming Thought Leader Forum titled Every School, Every Child, I was asked by Janet Brown, CEO of Grantmakers in the Arts, to spend some time with their newly released report Foundation Funding for Arts Education: An Update on Foundation Trends by Steven Lawrence, director of research, and Reina Mukai, research manager, both from the Foundation Center.
Read More...June 26, 2015 by Steve
Earlier this year, Arts Education Partnership (AEP) announced that the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education have initiated a process for finding a new home for AEP.The NEA has now released the Program Solicitation for the AEP, a competitive process to find the AEP a new home in January 2016. The Arts Endowment requires organizations to submit their proposals electronically through Grants.gov, the federal government’s online application system.
May 21, 2015 by Steve
The AEFC Forum, Every Child, Every School was held in Minneapolis in early May. Attendees were treated to great presentations and reports, including the release of Foundation Funding for Arts Education: An Update on Foundation Trends, a new report from GIA and Foundation Center that looks at data from 1999-2012. Links to the reports, as well as materials from the presentations, are available on the forum page.
May 18, 2015 by Steve
Grantmakers in the Arts and Foundation Center are pleased to announce the release of a new report that provides an update to the state of arts education funding by private foundations. Foundation Funding for Arts Education: An Update on Foundation Trends puts together data from 1999 to 2012. The report was authored by Steven Lawrence and Reina Mukai of Foundation Center.
April 23, 2015 by Steve
After several attempts over the past few years, Congress is making progress in updating the No Child Left Behind Act, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Arts Education Funders Coalition has been advancing its systemic policy agenda for ESEA as part of the Senate and House process to move ESEA legislation. Just this past week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (Senate HELP) Committee approved their version of an ESEA rewrite on a unanimous 22 to 0 vote. The AEFC arts education agenda was well represented as part of this legislation.
April 15, 2015 by admin
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Foundation Funding for Arts Education (311 Kb)