The educational experience of students and teachers is enriched by arts partnerships between schools and practicing artists.
Arts partnerships have evolved since I was a dance teaching artist in rural Maine in the early 1980s. I was doing STEAM and arts integration before it was a thing. (Teaching fission/fusion through dance to fourth graders was particularly memorable.) Since then, arts organizations and artists have stepped up, embracing the language of education. And teachers and administrators have opened the doors, bringing creativity and real-world artistic experience into the classroom.
Successful partnerships are dynamic and complex, connecting students to arts learning through coordinated artist residencies, performances, standards-aligned lessons, with deepened community connections and professional learning opportunities for teachers. I asked two knowledgeable experts for their thoughts on effective partnerships.
Roberta Ciuffo West is the Executive Vice President for Education and Outreach at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville. TPAC has a robust education department and has been at the forefront of developing artist/teacher partnerships in Tennessee. One program in particular, Disney Musicals in the Schools, has been offered in Metro Nashville Public Schools since 2011 and has grown from serving five schools to over 40 schools, with 6,000 students and 200 teachers participating, thanks to the support of the CMA Foundation.
Lauren Shelton serves as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator at Chula Vista Elementary School District in California. Chula Vista garnered national attention in recent years for their innovative partnership with the San Diego Youth Symphony/OPUS program and subsequent $15 million investment in new arts teacher hires. The arts feature prominently in the district’s annual plan and budget request to the state, and arts partners augment existing programs and provide important policy levers to guide district decisions. Key partners include La Jolla Playhouse, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, and SD Youth Symphony/OPUS, among many others.
What do you look for in a partnership?
Lauren Shelton describes the mutual benefit of partnerships. Both the schools and arts partner must agree on who’s doing what and why, and more importantly, how it will serve the larger mission of educating the whole child. Chula Vista looks to answer three essential questions in evaluating a potential partner:
Sustainability: Does the partnership provide support over time, building the district’s internal capacity and ultimately ensuring a smooth transfer of knowledge and responsibility?
Support for what’s there: How does the partnership support existing programs and enhance teaching practice, aligning with district values and culture?
Advocacy leverage: How does the partnership enhance the district’s capacity to tell the story of why and how the arts are important, through research and data collection, relationship building, and outreach to the public?
What does success look like in an arts partnership?
Roberta Ciuffo West reports that Disney Musicals in the Schools (DMIS) was launched in New York City in 2010 to create and support sustainable theatre in NYC elementary schools. It was designed as a vehicle to support learning transference for reading comprehension. Nashville became a proving ground for the regional effort. The model has proven to be wildly successful, with the level community building being the most surprising outcome.
Elements of success…
- The Disney brand is a key selling point with schools.
- The schools like having additional resources that don’t impact limited budgets.
- Disney keeps a firm hand on the artistic tiller with vetted scripts and appropriate music.
- Disney is a responsible steward of the program and shares TPAC’s commitment to quality.
- TPAC is a trusted partner, with trained teaching artists and a desire to align services to the needs of the schools.
- Overall structure, roles/responsibilities and accountability is very clear.
- The larger community embraces the project and is invested in its sustainability.
Community building outcomes…
- With an inclusive “let’s put on a show” collaborative attitude, school communities have put their trust in the process and have assumed total ownership over time.
- Nashville’s growing international/immigrant population is fully vested in the project. Cross-cultural buy-in across languages and cultures has been astonishing.
- Local businesses and religious organizations have stepped in to support the schools.
- Teachers are taking ownership of the work, sharing resources and adopting collaborative teaching practices.
- Enthusiasm travels, as teachers and administrators move to new schools and advocate for continued participation.
What are the long-term benefits of partnerships between schools and artists/arts organizations?
Roberta Ciuffo is hopeful that schools will continue to see positive outcomes in family engagement, student academic gains, teacher confidence, and student self-efficacy. Roberta sees value for TPAC as the DMIS experience translates to their other education programs by building opportunities for creativity beyond Disney. Finally, there is something very satisfying in building a collaborative learning process that engages the entire school community in learning through art, music, dance and theatre. The experience is both meaningful and joyful.
For Lauren Shelton, arts partnerships bring a wider world view to Chula Vista students and teachers and allow them to experience learning and teaching that is both impactful and engaging. It is Lauren’s hope that the arts will become part of the essential fabric of the district, never to be thought of as marginal or “other.” Arts partners bring expertise, fresh energy and a strong research and advocacy platform that enables the district to have confidence in their vision and be bold in their future choices.
It takes vision and determination to make a partnership sing. As shared by our experts, it takes a strong sense of purpose, articulated roles and responsibilities and clear pathways for implementation. It also takes trust. Trust in the process and in each other. Leaving room for surprises and that ineffable sense of knowing that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.