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Community arts education programs may be delivered in a great variety of ways, but the schools in our field share distinguishing attributes. They are nonprofit, non-degree granting, community-based institutions offering open access to quality arts instruction by professional faculty.
The antecedents of today's community schools emerged in the late nineteenth century as arts programs provided by urban settlement houses and neighborhood centers. There are now thousands of community schools of the arts operating in communities of all sizes and configurations throughout the country.
Our Code of Best Practices (2006) describes the kind of institution best served by the National Guild.
The Code provides standards in the areas of:
Quality,
Accessibility, and
Accountability.
The Guild's programs and services are directed toward institutions that already adhere to these standards or which are striving to attain them. These are not criteria for membership in the Guild.
