The arts take you straight to the heart of education. When you dig your thumbs into wet clay to create a water jug just like the ones early Native Americans used to carry water from the stream (before water came from faucets) history comes alive. When you understand how heat turns that soft clay and liquid glaze into a jug that can actually carry water, science makes sense. Music teaches you the math of intervals, half notes, and time. Performing a poem gives you that poem forever. Create a dance of verbs and adjectives, and your writing is suddenly much more real. When you integrate the arts into education, students become more excited about learning (and perform better in school!), teachers and administrators become more engaged, and families become closer. Artists become part of the community, working with students and teachers to choreograph dances, write stories and poems, and paint murals on the walls to become part of your school forever.
The North Carolina Arts Council believes that arts programs are essential to the intellectual and personal growth of every young person. Whether in the schools or the communities, the arts help our young people develop self-confidence, higher order thinking skills, discipline, interpersonal skills, academic success, and creativity.
We welcome schools and non-profit organizations that want to strategically plan for their arts in education programs; provide professional development for their educators; offer afterschool and summer programs for underserved youth; involve families; sponsor extended residencies; showcase student work; evaluate; develop arts integrated curriculum; and/or take youth on arts related field trips. In the Arts in Education [AIE] section, you will find:
- Profiles of notable state and national arts in education projects
- An introduction and links to grant guidelines that will enable your school or non-profit organization to apply to the NCAC for funding for innovative pre kindergarten through twelfth grade related projects
- Resources and links that include findings from the latest research; funding opportunities; advocacy tips; and annotated bibliographies and web sites.
To use this site, click on the buttons on the left sidebar of your screen for Notable Projects, Grants, and Resources and Links.
AIE Issues and Topics
If you're involved with the arts in education, you probably want to know what the current education landscape looks like, and how the arts fit into that landscape. The following is a list of hot topics for education in North Carolina and the nation.