Featured News | April 30, 2014
This comes from the National Endowment for the Arts:
NEA research has shown that when students have access to in-school arts education they perform better academically, participate more actively in extracurricular activities, and are more likely to pursue higher education. But how do you ensure that high quality arts education is available for all students, no matter their geographic location or socioeconomic status?
Over the course of a five-year period, the NEA brought together teams from 29 states for Education Leaders Institutes (ELI) to discuss just this question and to collaborate on ways to strengthen states’ arts education policies. In 2012, participants from eight of those states came back together for an alumni summit to discuss what was and was not working in their states and to find the common elements that are needed to have a system in this country where every student is engaged and empowered through an excellent arts education.
The NEA’s recently released report about ELI and this summit shares the significant findings to assist both national and state-level policymakers in understanding what is needed to advance the arts as a core element of education. The NEA has taken these findings to heart and used them to shape the NEA’s priorities, leadership, and investments in arts education.
To learn more about ELI and the NEA’s new arts education strategic plan, please visit the NEA’s Art Works blog, where Ayanna Hudson, the NEA’s director of Arts Education, shares how ELI helped to lead the NEA to these goals and the steps the NEA is already taking to meet them. For your convenience, the full text of the blog is also copied below.
To read the full Education Leaders Institute Alumni Summit Report, please visit the NEA’s website, arts.gov.
In addition, on May 14 at 1:30 pm ET, the NEA will host a webinar featuring representatives from three states to discuss their participation in ELI and their next steps to achieving arts education for all students. For full details and to register, please click here.
If you have any questions about this report, please contact the NEA’s Office of Public Affairs at 202-682-5570.
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
