2010-2011 School Year

The Center for Arts Education (CAE) is dedicated to ensuring that every New York City public school student has quality arts learning as an essential part of their K-12 education. CAE is the only arts education organization in New York supporting all arts disciplines with in-school programs, professional development and active public engagement/education and advocacy efforts. As a result of our concomitant efforts in teaching and learning, public engagement and advocacy, CAE has and continues to enhance the education reform conversation, successfully serving as the “go-to” resource for media, government officials and others on arts education issues.

CAE programs and activities for the 2010-2011 fiscal year included:

CAE is dedicated to strengthening its school-centered approach, equipping and empowering schools to value and provide quality arts education for all of their students, and to strengthening its own network of allies. Our advocacy and public education initiatives involve and engage parents, school leaders and elected officials through coalition building, trainings, workshops, grassroots outreach and the Arts Education Action Network in the fight to ensure all New York City public school students receive a well-rounded education that includes the arts.

This summer, The Center for Arts Education partnered with The Alliance for Quality Education and the Coalition for Educational Justice to organize an emergency rally on the steps of City Hall, in response to proposed teacher layoffs and budget cuts to arts programming in NYC public schools. Elected NYC officials in attendance included Robert Jackson, Steve Levin, Brad Landers, Gail Brewer, Jimmy Van Bremer, Letitia James, and Oliver Koppel among others. The event raised awareness of the impact the proposed funding cuts would have on the arts in schools. Parents, students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and coalition members joined CAE, and were successful in fending off the proposed budget cuts that threatened the lay-off of 350 arts teachers (20% of all NYC art teachers).

CAE accomplished another success this summer when we convened arts organizations from across the state that receive US DOE Arts in Education grants—which were slated for elimination in the House’s proposed budget—to develop a coordinated and strategic response to the proposed cuts. Working closely with Americans for the Arts, the League of American Symphonies and others, CAE took a leadership role in fighting these cuts—a fight which led to the successful restoration of the AEMDD budget.

Providing high school students with career and college readiness training and mentored work-based experiences in the arts and creative industries, while simultaneously building capacity for educators to create and implement career-readiness programs in their own schools.

In 2011, CAE partnered with 12 Title 1 NYC public high schools and selected 24 students with an interest and/or aptitude in the arts to participate in the intensive Career Development Program (CDP). Through CDP, the students received career readiness training through a two-week 56 hour “boot camp” intensive and ongoing mentorship with top arts professionals through semester long internships (with stipends) at organizations and businesses in the arts and creative industries. Additionally CAE reached approximately 292 educators through ongoing professional development for those seeking to implement the program in their classrooms. This year’s internship sites included the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bloomingdale’s, Roundabout Theatre Company, Fashion Institute of Technology, and The Rubin Museum, among many others.

CDP interns (including Barbosa, pictured at left) also enjoyed the opportunity to participate in Sing for Hope’s Pop-Up Piano project, painting a piano which was then placed in a public site to raise awareness of the power of music and public art to enrich our society.

One CDP graduate, Prangmat Wanapinyosak, known as PingPing, earned the honor of having one of her pieces of artwork on display at the Met Museum throughout the summer. PingPing, who graduated from high school this spring, writes, “My experience at CDP was life changing and I feel so lucky having been a part of it.”

CAE’s flagship parent engagement initiative, PAAP creates unique school-based family arts programs that increase parent involvement in schools and provide parents and their children with quality arts instruction.

This year, 34 elementary, middle and high schools across all five boroughs participated in CAE’s PAAP program to design and implement hands-on arts education workshops for their students and families, including visits to local cultural organizations. On May 17th, CAE hosted a targeted parent outreach workshop for the Staten Island PAAP schools. The workshop brought together more than 20 parents and addressed ways that they could support a sustainable arts-friendly school, nurture creativity at home, and build support of local businesses, elected officials and others in their community for the arts at their schools.

MS 449X held a series of book-making workshops this year for students and parents. They write, “One goal in particular where we experienced success was in encouraging the involvement of non-active parents. We had several parents who partook of the program who had not regularly attended PTA meetings or other workshops provided by the school. One such parent expressed that she had come to see what all the fuss was about because her child kept coming home talking about the teaching artist that was working in the class. This made it evident that the children’s enthusiasm about the work they were doing was integral in garnering parent support and involvement.”

Since its launch in 2007, SASI has supported the creation and implementation of quality, sustainable arts programs in underserved, arts-poor middle schools.

After a highly successful pilot year, in 2008 SASI was awarded a four-year competitive AEMDD grant from the U.S. Department of Education, followed by a second four-year US DOE grant this year. With this grant CAE was able to expand SASI to five additional Title 1 middle schools, more than doubling the program.

Findings of SASI’s impact include: 1) increased student motivation and performance (arts-based and academic), 2) increased and more positive connections between families and schools, 3) improved school environments, including fewer behavioral disruptions and higher attendance – especially on days when arts classes are offered, and 4) increased number of students applying for and getting accepted to arts-focused high schools as a result of higher quality student artwork and art portfolios.

One SASI principal recently reported:
“When I first encountered one of our teachers in the fall of 2006, he was burnt out and really did not feel like a respected member of the school community. Then we became a SASI school and I saw a light begin to ignite in his eyes. He attended several SASI professional development sessions, became part of our arts committee, and began holding morning and after school sculpture and art sessions for students he saw had an interest in art. He was excited about where he saw our school going. This teacher is now leading the charge to ensure that the arts are fully integrated into the fabric of our community.”

Since our founding, CAE has offered professional development and peer exchange opportunities for principals, classroom teachers, in-school arts specialists, teaching artists, artists and arts administrators.

In addition to the essential PD elements woven throughout our programming, CAE devoted significant time and energy this year to the Principals Institute (14 sessions serving over 150 school leaders) and the Teaching Artist Institute (seven sessions serving 21 Staten Island based artists), both of which provide educators high-quality professional development. CAE’s Principals Institute works to help school leaders create a successful framework to begin to transform their schools into arts-powered centers of learning, through offering principals and assistant principals essential knowledge, proven techniques, actionable strategies, support of the alignment and synergy of the arts and Common Core Learning Standards, arts integration, and more.

This year, CAE recruited, trained, and mobilized a team of our own master teaching artists, who now have the capacity to implement many of our direct service, school-based arts education programs. This transition to a self-sustaining body of professional teaching artists selected and trained by CAE will allow the organization to increase program and mission cohesiveness, reduce overhead costs, and ensure high quality performance.