Mission
Art is Education ensures that every child has equitable access to a quality education that includes the arts, preparing them for the 21st century.
Featured Story
Residency Work is in Full Swing!
In December, Art is Education arts partner, Dance Afrika Dance, began a short term residency with the fourth and fifth grade students at Wade Park Elementary school. The residency primarily focused on helping students develop skills in self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness. These skills are the five core competencies of all Social and Emotional Learning, and are a major focus of CMSD's overall plan to prepare students for life and work in the 21st Century. Through writing and discussion on topics such as bullying, peer pressure, and personal responsibility, students improved their speaking and listening comprehension and their writing abilities. Through improvisation and role-playing, fourth and fifth graders developed the ability to resolve their conflicts and develop self-confidence. Under the guidance of the Dance Afrika Dance teaching artists and their classroom teachers, the students expanded their vocabularies to include words that help them describe and communicate how they and others feel.
Students and teachers from this group will present their work at the Celebration for Arts Education at City Hall on March 12, and at CMSD's Rock Your World event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum on May 19. The residency will come to a close later this month, but the lasting skills and knowledge gained through this experience will undoubtedly aid these students as they navigate their future.
What is Art is Education?
Through a partnership of 30+ arts, cultural, philanthropic and educational institutions and with support from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), the Art is Education initiative provides standards-based, integrated arts experiences to children. Art is Education schools have equitable access to local arts resources and educators are empowered to incorporate arts learning across the curriculum. By supporting a whole school model, Art is Education addresses important issues of academic achievement and school climate.
Art is Education is also about advocacy on behalf of arts education. The only way to ensure that students in Cleveland receive a truly equitable education is to mobilize the greater community to support the arts as a vital component in the education of all students.
Through shared goals for a quality education for all students in Cleveland, the Art is Education initiative supports the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in its goal to become a premier school district in the United States.
The Goals of
Art is Education
- Integrate the arts across the curriculum to improve academic achievement and enhance students’ cognitive, social, and personal development
- Develop the capacity of teachers and cultural organizations to design, implement, and assess the arts and arts integrated curriculum through regular professional development
- Support schools in developing standards-based arts-infused curriculum for all students and disseminate successful practices throughout CMSD
- Promote collaboration among teachers, and with community organizations to positively impact school culture
- Increase parent/family and community participation and engagement with the school
- Build public will in support of an equitable education that includes the arts for every student in Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Partners
The Art is Education Collaborative is made up of 30+ arts, cultural and educational organizations in the greater Cleveland area, all of which serve a number of programmatic, advisory, advocacy and administrative roles in the project.
