Southern California Public Radio station KPCC has performed an analysis of arts instruction at Los Angeles Unified elementary schools. It found 87 percent of these schools won’t offer comprehensive access in the coming school year, in violation of California law. Only about 70 of the district’s more than 500 elementary schools will provide all four art forms: dance, visual arts, music and theater. But most of those only provide arts access to a portion of each school’s students.
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 10, 2014 by admin
July 2014, 46 pages. Ingenuity, 11 E. Hubbard, Suite 200, Chicago, Illinois, 60611. (312) 583-7459. http://www.ingenuity-inc.org.
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Read More...July 10, 2014 by admin
Ingenuity, a Chicago-based arts advocacy organization, has released a new report, State of the Arts in Chicago Public Schools, detailing the level of arts-related instruction, staffing, partnerships, and funding in Chicago Public Schools during the 2012-13 school year. The data collected describes how schools match up to the goals and recommendations set forth in the City’s first-ever CPS Arts Education Plan which was approved by the Chicago Board of Education in November of 2012.
June 30, 2014 by admin
Art Works/National Endowment for the Arts. 2014, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Read More...June 30, 2014 by admin
Marco Sanchez was in the third grade in 2010 when the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory (SDYS) launched the Community Opus Project in Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD). Participating in the after-school El Sistema–inspired music program, Marco went home from his Community Opus sessions two days a week and taught his younger brother Rodrigo what he was learning in class. This was not unusual for a Community Opus student, who has been immersed in a program that encourages peer teaching as a cornerstone of its pedagogy.
Read More...June 30, 2014 by admin
An American lady traveling to Paris in 1913 — the kind of American lady who will still be traveling to Paris in 2013 — asked Ezra Pound what he thought art was for. Pound replied: “Ask me what a rose bush is for.”
Europe was on the edge of war. Do rose bushes matter in a war? What can art do for us now, in the likelihood of another war?
Read More...June 18, 2014 by Steve
From by Geoff Decker, writing for Chalkbeat New York:
The city should subsidize the salaries of new arts teachers for up to three years to make sure schools are complying with state arts requirements, a coalition of education advocates says. In a letter sent to Chancellor Carmen Fariña on this week, the group outlined tips for how the Department of Education should spend an extra $23 million that’s likely to be allotted to the arts budget next year. Arts spending has fallen over the past decade amid shifting priorities, hovering at around $300 million in recent years.
June 5, 2014 by Steve
Jeff Poulin, bloggint at ARTSblog:
On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, the Coalition for Core Arts Standards held a virtual event celebrating the launch of new standards. Whether you participated or not, you may have some questions about them. Here is your key to understanding what’s going on.
Why are arts standards important? For several reasons:
May 20, 2014 by Steve
Grantmakers for Education will be hosting the webinar Ensuring Aligned and Effective Instructional Materials for the Common Core on Tuesday, May 27: