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When completed, the Partners in Excellence Initiative will consist of four parts:
The Guild launched the Initiative in April 2000 by notifying a broad cross-section of arts organizations across the country about this opportunity. Organizations were also permitted to self-nominate. Requests for Proposals were subsequently issued to nearly 300 potential applicants.
Applicants were asked to focus not only on their accomplishments, but also on their challenges and problem-solving strategies. Announcing the initiative, Lolita Mayadas, the Guild's Executive Director, said, "While partnership models themselves are important, we believe that it is the complex processes that lead to successful models which need to be better understood and shared. We are interested in finding out what makes these partnerships work and how they are sustained. We also expect to find out more about organic changes in and long term impact on the institutional partners. This initiative offers a unique opportunity for people from diverse sectors to participate in and learn from a focused and candid discourse about their experiences."
Fifty-five proposals were received from 21 states and Canada. Through a panel review process, 15 partnerships were selected to be featured at the conference. In making its selections, the panel looked for a record of progressive development, promising practices, and strategies for sustainability along one or more of the following dimensions:
The panel found that many collaborative relationships that are called partnerships are in the form of so-called "service provider" models, in which the arts organizations offer a roster of services, sometimes "tailored" to the schools’ needs, and the public schools purchase programs. While these arrangements are not without merit, they lack the opportunity to take joint advantage of the expertise of both the arts and the education communities to create in-depth, pedagogically sound arts experiences for children and professional enrichment for both teachers and artists. In such situations, true "buy-in" from the schools, and particularly from the teachers, tends to be minimal.
The review panel placed special emphasis on those elements it deemed critical to a true partnership among equals. They include shared goals, values, and decision-making regarding both structural and curriculum issues; equitable distribution of financial responsibility, resources and leadership roles; evidence of existing problem-solving strategies; and changes made in response to evaluation and assessment processes.
Some of the partnerships have existed for a decade or more while others are pilot projects. They involve arts education organizations, community arts schools, performing organizations, arts centers and even a juvenile probation department. Some organizations can be defined as partnership agents, coordinating the activities of disparate collaborators. All have one or more public schools as partners. The partnerships involve anywhere from two to six institutions and 25 to 23,000 students. Budgets vary widely.
Although they have many differences, their common denominator is a commitment to artistic and educational excellence, mutual respect and shared responsibility. They also share a commitment to the concept of creating together. Indeed, as was pointed out several times during the conference, among these partnerships, the very act of collaborative planning becomes, in and of itself, professional development in the highest sense of the word.
Advising and assisting with the PIE initiative is a distinguished steering committee. Chaired by David E. Myers, Director of the Center for Educational Partnerships in Music and Associate Director of the School of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta, the committee also includes: Ronne Hartfield, Consultant and former Executive Director of Museum Education at The Art Institute of Chicago and of Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts in Education, also in Chicago; Jane Remer, Author and Consultant; Larry Scripp, Director of the Music-in-Education Program and Research Center for Learning Through Music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; and Andrea Temkin, Executive Director of the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, California.
