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Over the past 17 years the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts 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.
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Profiles in Excellence: case studies of exemplary arts education partnershipsA supplement to Partners in Excellence This 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 covers the reasons to partner, planning and budgeting, fundraising and advocacy, content creation, professional development, evaluation and assessment. Worksheets and an annotated bibliography are provided. |
In partnership with MetLife Foundation, the National Guild awarded grants totaling $210,550 to twelve members to support exemplary arts education partnerships with public schools during the 2007-2008 school year.
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On behalf of the MetLife Foundation, the National Guild awarded grants totaling $258,850 to eleven members to support exemplary community school/public school arts education partnerships during the 2006-2007 school year and fall 2007 semester.
MacPhail Center for Music (Music, Minneapolis, MN)
Henry Street Settlement/ Abrons Art Center (Theater, New York, NY)
Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial (Visual Arts, Philadelphia, PA)
The Training Institute provides participants with tools, knowledge and the opportunity to develop critical skills in order prepare them to plan and implement successful partnerships. Key areas of focus include the following:
Participants receive materials, including the PIE Handbook, prior to attending. These documents are geared to help them to 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 incorporated into the 2008 Conference for Community Arts Education as a track of workshops. Join our 71st annual conference in Philadelphia, PA October 29-November 1, 2008.
• 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, 2005, 2006, and 2007.
• Distribution of grants totaling $388,850 for partnership projects providing sequential arts education to more than 11,000 public school students since 2005.
• Distribution of Partners in Excellence books to more than 1,000 arts practitioners, funders and arts agency personnel.
• Distribution of Profiles in Excellence books in both hard and electronic copy to more than 1,500 arts practitioners, funders and arts agency personnel.
