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This pamphlet explores how an increasing number of communities are realizing that art programs for at-risk youth offer an effective and more affordable alternative to detention and police-centered crime prevention. Complete listing and access info »

This report includes evaluation findings from the first of three years of data collection for the Performing Arts Workshop's ARISE Project (Arts Residency Interventions in Special Education). The ARISE Project offers public schools weekly artist residencies lasting between 25 and 30 weeks in theater arts and creative movement for third to fifth grade students. Classrooms participating in ARISE are identified as Special Day Classes or general education classes with special education inclusion (or mainstreamed) students. The ARISE residencies emphasize critical-thinking while engaging in the creative process. In the 2007-08 school year, the Workshop provided ARISE residencies to 24 classrooms from five schools within the San Francisco Unified School District. The report includes the ARISE program methodology; the evaluation methodology; background information on arts education for students in special education; results from the data collected during the 2007-08 school year; a discussion of factors that affect findings and program impact; and recommendations. The appendices to this report include our statistical analysis, data collection instruments, and informed consent forms. Complete listing and access info »

This issue of Monographs provides profiles of how local arts agencies, arts organizations, and educators are incorporating new technologies into their already-existing programming and curriculum. The Arts, Education and Technology: A Winning Combination highlights examples of how locally, the arts community and schools are forging new collaborations with patterns such as libraries, universities, public access television stations, cooperative education agencies, and businesses to link arts and technology to the classroom. Funding trends are discussed by Arlene Krebs, author of The Distance Learning Funding Sourcebook. In the resource section is a list of publications and online websites. Believe it or not, this braver new world of technology can be demystified. Complete listing and access info »

Examines, compares, and highlights the state of arts education in Michigan. Complete listing and access info »

ArtsSmarts is a national program that promotes the teaching of arts infused curricula and the invaluable lessons that artistic practices can contribute to self-awareness, creativity, empathy, and community. The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation funds the ArtsSmarts program, and the Canadian Conference of the Arts acts as the ArtsSmarts Secretariat. Organizations from across Canada have been chosen as ArtsSmarts Partners to oversee projects that meld the program objectives with localized needs, resources, and visions for learning through the arts. More than 125,000 young people, 2,500 artists, and 4,500 teachers and community members have participated in Phase I (1998-2001) of the ArtsSmarts program.
The evaluative research into Phase I of ArtsSmarts has shown that the program is meeting its goal of promoting collaborative efforts that bring the arts to schools and communities. Artists are bringing new insights and skills to learning, while passing on their passion for the arts. Teachers and administrators are expressing gratitude for the infusion of the arts into their teaching, their schools, and their community centres. Young people are enthusiastically engaging in art making and showing consistent signs of gaining new understandings of curriculum subjects, of themselves, and of their communities. Parents are volunteering time to the implementation and support of the projects. Whole communities are beginning to recognize the benefits of having the ArtsSmarts program in their midst and are providing venues, media coverage, collaboration, and, in some case, additional funding for the projects.
ArtsSmarts is embarking on Phase II of its programming, in which it will continue to support existing projects, expand the reach of ArtsSmarts to other Partners and communities, and identify strategies that will ultimately allow localized projects to become self-sustaining. The ArtsSmarts program is providing both leadership and opportunities to ensure that the arts remain a vital component of the lives and learning of Canadian young people. Complete listing and access info »

For two years, the Workshop participated in an evaluation project run by the California Arts Council. The goals of this project were to identify potentially "at-risk" student populations and then evaluate the effects of a Creative Movement or Theatre residency in the classroom. Areas for student improvement were based on the Workshop's Cycle of Artistic Inquiry which seeks to demonstrate the process of critical thinking through arts learning. The following reports deal with the findings of this project at three separate locations: The Paul Robeson & Diego Rivera Academy, John Muir Elementary, and Mission Education Center. Complete listing and access info »

This second issue in P/PV's In Brief series focuses on the San Francisco Beacon Initiative and P/PV's recently released evaluation results. The Beacon Initiative established after-school programs in eight public schools in low-income San Francisco neighborhoods. P/PVs 36-month evaluation examined key developmental and academic outcomes. Beacons In Brief summarizes our findings and discusses their implications in the context of larger questions about the after-school field. Complete listing and access info »

Violent crime, youth and gang crime, unemployment, quality of education, family instability, and racial and ethnic relations continue to rank among the top ten key concerns for our nation's civic leaders. As community leaders seek solutions to these problems, they are increasingly turning to the arts to provide answers. This compendium presents a diverse collection of 130 arts programs from across the country that address community development issues. The Institute for Community Development and the Arts has completed its second year of a three-year pilot effort to research arts programs designed to contribute to community development and to addressing some of the social problems that plague our nation. In its first two years the Institute has already examined more than 850 programs nationwide. Arts programs addressing social issues exist in small rural communities [and in] our largest urban centers that are home to millions. Research shows that more than 80 percent of the nation's 3,800 local arts agencies has developed or provides funding to arts programs that address social issues. In the 50 largest U.S. cities, a full 100 percent is involved in such programming, up from 88 percent just two years ago, and only a handful a decade ago. Complete listing and access info »

In 2006, the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) created an initiative to build Canada's capacity to conduct research on learning, inviting not-for profit organizations to apply for Researcher in Residence grants. ArtsSmarts was one of the successful grant applicant organizations.
Saad Chahine was hired by ArtsSmarts to take on the researcher-in-residence role. Several meetings resulted in the development of a work plan (Appendix A) and an outline of the various activities to be carried out by the researcher-in-residence. The work plan was approved by CCL, and the residency commenced in June 2007.
What follows is an interim report on the residency, documenting what has been accomplished since June 2007, and providing direction for continuing to build ArtsSmarts' research capacity going forward. Complete listing and access info »

A group of nonprofit leaders working in the arts, advocacy, political organizing, social services, and education explored the connection between community organizing and creative expression by engaging in collective activities, including visiting various examples of community arts, and experimentation with their own practice. Through this process, the group concluded that arts could be socially transformative; that community arts can create a safe space that allows people to trust and be open to changing; that art can help people reflect together and not talk past one another; and that the process of creating together can be healing and sustaining. Complete listing and access info »