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.
Miguel Cardona, President Joe Biden’s pick to become the next U.S. education secretary, "considered majoring in art education — influenced by an excellent art teacher he had," as The Hechinger Report stated recently.
Read More...The Education Commission of the States released a policy brief that "captures the discussion, insights and policy considerations that came out of a Thinkers Meeting with 11 experts in the arts education and juvenile justice fields. It builds on the report, “Engaging the Arts Across the Juvenile Justice System,” by providing examples for building sustainable, arts-based programming."
Read More...The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion recently to adopt the Arts for All Children, Youth, and Families: Los Angeles County’s New Regional Blueprint for Arts Education, which aims to bring arts education to young people throughout LA County.
Read More...The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans Initiative will hold a roundtable titled "Connecting the Dots Between Academics, Broadband, and Culture for Communities of Color" on Tuesday, September 29, at 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST, that will addresses broadband access, education, and cultural competency.
Read More...As arts educator modify their practices in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts collaborated with arts education stakeholders and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations for a reopening resource produced and led by Arts Ed NJ, according to a recent post by National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA).
Read More..."Imagine what could be accomplished if the city of Boston and any of the 26 Massachusetts Gateway Cities reinvested the millions of dollars now spent policing schools—often with questionable results—in arts instruction!" write Barbara Wallace Grossman and Jonathan C. Rappaport, in a recent post.
Read More...The National Endowment for the Arts and Education Commission of the States released a group of resources as part of an initiative to help stakeholders in the arts extract, analyze, and report on data about arts education.
Read More...We all know by now how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the educational system. Inevitably, the pandemic has greatly impacted arts education in university-level art programs as some colleges continue to change or revisit their plans for in-person learning, remote classes, a hybrid model, as an article in The Los Angeles Times reports.
Read More...As the art-world faces the coronavirus pandemic, over a 1,500 artists, curators, writers, educators, and administrators signed an open letter denouncing the treatment of education workers and other essential staffers whose jobs are currently at risk, as reported recently by ArtForum.
Read More...The coronavirus pandemic has made all of us shift to online life for school and for work. Shifts to online learning impact arts education as well, turning this moment in "a unique opportunity for students and teachers to develop new strategies for teaching and learning and to reflect and grow as musicians and people.," as the School Band & Orchestra magazine writes.
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