National Art Education Association & Partners Receive $8.5 Million Grant for Student Artists

The NAEA, along with other non-profits, are looking to fund the arts in schools

By: Oct. 08, 2021
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National Art Education Association & Partners Receive $8.5 Million Grant for Student Artists

The National Art Education Association (NAEA), along with partners National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), and the New York City Department of Education's (NYCDOE's) Office of Arts and Special Projects (OASP), have developed a program called the Connected Arts Networks (CAN): Leveraging Arts Learning Communities for Teacher Leadership and Student Achievement. The program focuses on equity, diversity, and inclusion; social and emotional learning; and professional learning communities for arts teachers. All work is aligned to the National Core Arts Standards which recognizes arts education as dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. The program has just received an incredible $8.5 million grant from the US Department of Education.

The project is based on a New York City program in which arts educators across disciplines and grade levels meet monthly in professional learning communities to investigate how to incorporate best practices into arts education content, instruction, and leadership. The methodology has proven successful, so national arts education organizations want to take the approach nationwide.

"Through this unique and unprecedented partnership, the four national arts education organizations can leverage the foundational work in New York City and move the model to a national scale, with the ability to impact over 800,000 students across diverse communities as well as more than 1,600 dance, music, theatre and visual arts educators," said Mario R. Rossero, executive director of NAEA.

"The NYCDOE is honored to collaborate with the nation's premier arts organizations and deliver a high-quality arts education to thousands of students across New York City's public schools and beyond where self-expression and all artistic voices are valued and honored. This partnership grant will provide essential supports and resources for arts educators committed to nurturing our student artists," said Maria Palma, executive director of the Office of Arts and Special Projects, New York City Department of Education.

"The Educational Theatre Association is honored to represent theatre education and contribute to this dynamic collaboration that will have a long-lasting impact on theatre education, student learning, and teacher practice," said EdTA Education Director Cory Wilkerson.

The CAN project has four goals: 1) to develop highly effective arts educators, building their capacity to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and social-emotional learning in their standards-based arts instruction; 2) to develop a local and national cadre of teacher leaders in the arts by building their content knowledge and leadership skills to expand the impact of arts learning for students and their communities; 3) to develop accessible arts-based instructional materials, strategies, and tools to disseminate to the field nationally; and 4) to create a model for developing, deepening, and maintaining effective partnerships among school communities, local education agencies, and national arts education associations.



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