Non-profit Arts Corps has been awarded a $1.7 million grant over four years from the U.S. Department of Education to launch the Highline Creative Schools Initiative within Highline Public Schools.
The Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant will support the planning and implementation of this pioneering art initiative.
The Highline Creative Schools Initiative will fund Arts Corps’ teaching artists to regularly lead in-depth visual and theatrical art lessons at two Highline middle schools. The middle schools will be selected during the planning process.
The teaching artists will work closely with language arts teachers to integrate art lessons and projects with core subject lessons. For example, if students are reading historical fiction and studying the main characters, the teaching artist may lead a project in which students write and perform monologues in the point of view of those characters.
The grant will also support professional development and collaborations between the Highline middle school teachers and teaching artists.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Arts Corps to increase arts participation in our schools,” said Superintendent Susan Enfield. “Arts instruction belongs in our schools, and not just as an after school add-on for those who can afford to pay for it.”
The initiative builds upon the successes of Arts Corps’ two-year pilot project in Seattle Public Schools.
“It’s amazing to see kids grow their creative and critical capacities through an integrated arts learning model,” says Arts Corps Executive Director Elizabeth Whitford. “This funding allows us to bring a powerful model to scale as well as understand how and why it deepens classroom engagement in the short and long-term.”
Learn more about Arts Corps here: http://www.artscorps.org/