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Through the MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education Program, the Guild distributes best-practices guides, makes grants and produces training institutes to support high-quality, sustainable arts education partnerships with public schools.
Learn about:
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Profiles in Excellence: case studies of exemplary arts education partnershipsA supplement to Partners in ExcellenceThis monograph describes three exemplary public school/community school partnerships: those led by Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Art Center in New York (theater), the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia (visual arts), and MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis (music). Sample program materials are included. |
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partners in excellence: a guide to community school of the arts/ public school partnerships from inspiration to implementationPublished in 2005, this handbook describes exemplary practices in planning and budgeting, fundraising and advocacy, content creation, professional development, and evaluation and assessment. Worksheets and an annotated bibliography are provided. |
The national initiative, now in its sixth year, aims to improve teaching and learning in the arts by supporting and promoting sustainable partnerships between community arts education organizations and public schools. During the current school year, more than 11,500 students in eight cities are receiving year-long arts instruction thanks to 14 partnerships funded by the Partners in Arts Education Program. Grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded to support arts education partnerships during the 2010-2011 school year.
MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education Grants are designed to support exemplary partnerships that:
The application deadline for the 2010-11 program has passed.
Grants are restricted to the following 33 cities listed here and in the guidelines. Only organizations that are Full Members in good standing of the National Guild of Community Arts Education may apply. Non-member organizations should submit a membership application and first-year dues payments at least one week prior to submitting an application. Click here for membership information or contact Heather Ikemire at (212) 268-3337 ext. 10. Members that are interested in submitting applications are encouraged to contact Jay Samios at (212) 268-3337 ext. 12 with questions.
Click here to learn more about earlier partnerships
Community Arts Education have the potential to play a more comprehensive and influential role in educating our children, one that extends beyond high quality arts education taught by professional artists. Long-term partnerships with public schools enable community schools to enrich the general and arts curriculum through many avenues, including team teaching, artist-in-the-school residencies and communal performances and exhibits by students, faculty and artists. What many CSA’s view as a partnership, however, is often a one-sided approach whereby public schools purchase programs that are developed by the arts school. True partnerships, which involve deepening mutual regard, shared responsibility and accountability, and collaborative curriculum development, have been shown to have a powerful and lasting impact on students, faculty and the greater community
The goal of the Partners Training Institute is to provide key leaders and decision-makers at community schools with tools, training and know-how to develop successful arts education partnerships. They will be able to enter into partnership planning with a knowledge of best practices in the field, equipped to overcome whatever challenges may arise. Participants will emerge as more capable collaborators in the development of equally balanced, sustainable school partnerships.
Key areas of focus include the following:
Participants receive support materials prior to attending geared to help them determine their degree of readiness for a partnership by identifying their organizational assets and weaknesses, potential for local support, and other key issues.
The next Institute will be held as a Pre-Conference Institute to the 2010 Conference for Community Arts Education in San Francisco, CA, November 3 - 6, 2010.
Over the past 20 years the National Guild of Community Arts Education has been engaged in an effort to understand how its constituents can contribute to the ongoing improvement of teaching and learning in the arts. The project has evolved out of a continuum of inquiry by the National Guild about effective arts education collaborations, beginning with the formation of a special task force in 1990. This was followed by the Repro pilot project from 1992-1994, and then the Linkages with Public Schools symposium in 1996, which was supported by the Annenberg Foundation. In 2000, with the generous support of The Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation, the Guild launched the Partners in Excellence (PIE) initiative. The initiative has enabled us to closely study and document best practices for partnerships between community and public schools.
In 2005, in partnership with the MetLife Foundation, the National Guild initiated the MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education Program. The Program distributes a best-practices guide, provides grants and produces training institutes.
• Convening of 15 partnerships that demonstrated high standards of excellence at a national summit to study promising practices and success factors. Four areas of investigation were delineated: Ecology of the Partnership, Quality of Teaching and Learning, Professional Development, and Program Evaluation and Assessment of Student Learning.
(2000-2001)
• Publication of conference proceedings and the creation of a training course curriculum. (2001-2002)
• Presentation of Training Institutes in 2002, and each year from 2005 to 2009.
• Distribution of $1,029,400 in grants for partnership projects providing direct sequential arts education to 45,989 students in 204 public schools since 2005.
• Distribution of Partners in Excellence or Profiles in Excellence books in both hard and electronic copy to more than 13,500 arts practitioners, funders and arts agency personnel.
Learn more about other GUILD programs
