Welcome to our Arts Learning Resource Hub, where you’ll find a curated collection of digital tools, instructional materials, and professional learning opportunities designed to support comprehensive arts education across North Carolina.
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There are a variety of opportunities for both arts and non‑arts educators to grow their skills in teaching with and through the arts. Some offerings are available virtually, while others provide in‑person connections with partners and places around the state.
| Link/Title | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DNCR Teacher Ambassadors | As part of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Learning Happens Here initiative, teachers selected for this program experience exclusive, hands-on experiences at DNCR sites, such as behind-the-scenes museum tours, curated outdoor adventures, and concerts to deepen understanding of North Carolina’s cultural and natural heritage while equipping educators with tools to enrich classroom learning. | K-12 |
| The Kennedy Center- Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) | Professional learning opportunities in both teaching the arts and integrating the arts with other subject areas. Events may take place at the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) or online. | K-8 |
| The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM | Online courses and a suite of professional learning resources that support arts integration and science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). | K-12 |
| NCMALearn- Professional Development | Both in-person and online professional development programs that support educators across North Carolina as they connect across disciplines through visual art. | K-12 |
| New Victory Resource Library | Resource library that includes activities, lessons, handouts, instructional videos and unit brainstorms for educators in a variety of art forms such as clowning, artivism, circus, theatrical design, and more. | PK-12 |
| TeachRock Webinars | Online webinars (synchronous with available recordings) that support teachers in helping “every student find joy, meaning, and a sense of purpose” by bringing learning to life through music and culture. | K-12 |
The Department of Public Instruction in North Carolina recognizes arts integration as a necessary component of Comprehensive Arts Education. The examples below highlight lesson plans that are designed to show students how non-arts content connects to arts content through instruction in both areas.
| Link/Title | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ArtsNOW Integrated Lessons | Dig into a collection of arts integrated lesson plans and unit plans from ArtsNOW, a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit that champions programming that integrates visual arts, music, dance, digital arts and drama into academic lessons. | K-12 |
| Cameron Art Museum Educator Resources | Explore four booklets of lesson plans that are perfect for in the classroom or at home and include an art history lesson, an art project, and connections to non-arts curriculum. | K-5 |
| J. Paul Getty Museum | Ready-to-use lessons and learning resources. Based in Los Angeles, the Getty is a global arts organization committed to exhibiting, conserving, and understanding the world’s artistic and cultural heritage . | K-12 |
| The Kennedy Center | Arts-centered, standards-based lessons and resources for the classroom. Because the Kennedy Center is located in Washington DC, some standards may be different from those in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. | K-12 |
| NCMALearn – An educational resource from the North Carolina Museum of Art | Over 100 arts-integrated, standards-based lesson plans based on the museum’s collection. Each lesson plan includes assessments, resources, related content, and information about the work of art. Many of the lesson plans were created by Fellows of North Carolina’s A+ Schools program. | K-12 |
| The Phillips Collection | Lessons that focus on works of art in The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC) or that are on view in a special exhibition. Lessons utilize Phillips’s “Prism.K12” arts integration strategies. | K-12 |
| TeachRock Lesson Plan Collections | Collection of rich, multimedia lessons that support learning of non-arts content through music. Collections are organized by grade, musical genre, themes, and topics. | K-12 |
The following set of diverse resources supports both arts education and arts integration in planning and instruction. It includes materials such as video series on cultural dance and vocal warm‑ups, visual art collections with interactive activities, Reader’s Theater scripts organized by reading level, chord charts and sheet music for popular music, and thinking routines that help students respond to and connect with the arts.
| Link/Title | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arts Education at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) | Information about North Carolina’s Comprehensive Arts Education framework including Arts Exposure, Arts Education, and Arts Integration. | K-12 |
| Art in the Park- North Carolina Zoo | A guide to the over 150 pieces of art featured around the North Carolina Zoo. The guide includes the art collection map and information about the artists and installations. | |
| Come Hear NC | A promotional campaign of the North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources and the North Carolina Arts Council, Come Hear NC is designed to celebrate North Carolinians groundbreaking contributions to many of America’s most important musical genres — blues, bluegrass, jazz, gospel, funk, rock and everything in-between. | K-12 |
| Google Arts and Culture | Collection of artwork, games, interactive activities, resources, and other experiential activities to explore visual art. | K-12, with teacher previewing and student supervision. |
| If Cities Could Dance | Mini-series and collections of the history and evolution of dance practices found across the United States. Videos connect dance with personal stories and community histories, as well as provide dance tutorials for a variety of dance styles and practices. | K-12 |
| Iowa Reading Research Center- Reader’s Theater Scripts | Library of scripts for readers theater organized by grade level/Lexile reading level. | K-5 |
| JamZone by Music Will | Free interactive music-learning platform featuring 1,500+ song charts, lesson units, practice tools, instrument-specific exercises, and classroom management features that support modern band, songwriting, and popular music instruction. | K-12 ,with elementary and secondary filters, as well as a “G-rated” song chart filter. |
| Khan Academy | A collection of informational texts and interactive videos to support teaching in the arts and humanities. | K-12 |
| On this Day | Collection of photographs from various days and events in history that changes daily. | K-12 |
| PBS Learning Media | A vast collection of resources including instructional and interactive videos, a media gallery with various examples across art forms, audio recordings, and curated collections of PBS content and programming. | K-12 |
| Project Zero’s Thinking Routine Toolbox | Categorized questions, prompts, and thinking routines to engage students in comparative and critical thinking, as well as reflection. Thinking routines can be used to make connections in and across content areas! | K-12 |
| Smithsonian Folkways Recordings | Collection of music throughout history from a variety of time periods, regions, and peoples in the United States and across the world. Music can be browsed by geography, genre, or individual artist. | K-12 |
| Songwriting Exhibition | Student-created songs and songwriting projects that educators can use as models for teaching composition, creativity, lyric writing, and centering student voice in music education. | 3-12 |
| NCpedia | Coordinated and managed by the North Carolina Government & Heritage Library at the Library of North Carolina (part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources), this digital encyclopedia offers over 8,400 articles across topics, including hundreds of entries about the visual and performing arts in North Carolina. | 3-12 |
Free online tools and resources that students can use as part of an arts education or arts integration lesson, as well as for arts exposure and creative exploration.
| Art form(s) | Link/Title | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creative writing | Magnetic Poetry- Nature Poet | A virtual version of magnetic poetry you may make on a refrigerator using words related to nature. | K-12. Other kits are available on the Magnetic Poetry website, but may not be appropriate for younger poets. |
| Dance, Theater | Scenic and Lighting Design: Color Lab | Color Lab is for exploring basic color lighting on the human body and on a white floor. Three instruments from three directions with RGB control of brightness and color. | 3-12 |
| Dance, Theater | Virtual Swatch Book | For students learning about traditional color filters, this is a simplified color-filter swatch book. | 3-12 |
| Music | Beadz- an online drum machine | A simple tool for creating basic loops of background beats and rhythms. | K-5 |
| Music | Drum Machine - an online drum sequencer | A sightly more complex tool for creating loops of background beats and rhythms; tool includes different styles of drum kits and the ability to save and alternate between different compositions. | 6-12 |
| Music | Chrome Music Lab | A collection of student-friendly interactive musical tools to explore and compose music. Melodies created in Shared Piano and Song Maker can be downloaded or shared. Easily accessible with iPad or phone. | K-12 |
| Music, Visual art | Toy Theater | A collection of interactive educational games for elementary classrooms. Tools and games include visual art and music, as well as other puzzles and games. | PK-8 |
| Visual art | Bonomo Abstract Art Generator | Experiment with a variety of shapes, lines, colors, and patterns to create digital abstract art. Work can be exported as a .jpeg file. Available as an iPhone or iPad app. | K-12 |
| Visual art | National Gallery of Art “Paint ‘n’ Play” | An interactive drawing pad allows the creation of art in a variety of styles, including in the styles of a collection of famous artists. | K-8 |
| Visual art | Sketchpad.io | A free digital sketchpad that provides access to drawing and other visual creation tools. Works can be exported as pdf, png, or jpeg files. | K-12 |
North Carolina is home to many strong arts education and advocacy organizations, each offering its own professional learning opportunities, resources, and events. Connect with them directly to stay informed about the latest educational news across all art forms.
A curated collection of North Carolina legislation related to arts in education, along with research, journal articles, and books that explore the importance of each component of North Carolina’s Comprehensive Arts Education framework: Arts Exposure, Arts Education, and Arts Integration. Together, these components form a multi‑faceted approach that is essential to the sound basic education every child in North Carolina has a right to receive.
North Carolina legislation regarding Comprehensive Arts Education
- Senate Bill 66: An Act to Provide a Comprehensive Arts Education Plan
- Senate Bill 681: Arts Education Graduation Requirement Section 2.5
- House Bill 785: Establish Arts Education Commission
Arts Exposure research
- Magsamen, Susan, and Ivy Ross. 2023. Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.
- Rickard, N. S., Lewis, K., Ballantyne, J., & Dingle, G. (2025). The unifying power of live music events: A systematic review of social outcomes for audience members. Musicae Scientiae.
- Trupp, M. D., Howlin, C., Fekete, A., Kutsche, J., Fingerhut, J., & Pelowski, M. (2025). The impact of viewing art on well-being—a systematic review of the evidence base and suggested mechanisms. Journal of Positive Psychology, 20(6), 978–1002.
Arts Education research
- Arts Education Partnership. 2023. “The Arts Count - Arts Education Partnership.” July 6, 2023. https://www.aep-arts.org/the-arts-count/.
- See, B.H. and Kokotsaki, D. (2016), Impact of arts education on children's learning and wider outcomes. Rev Educ, 4: 234-262. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3070
- Peppler, Kylie & Davis-Soylu, Heidi & Dahn, Maggie. (2021). Artifact-oriented learning: a theoretical review of the impact of the arts on learning. Arts Education Policy Review. 124. 1-17. 10.1080/10632913.2021.1925609.
- Peppler, Kylie, Maggie Dahn, and Mizuko Ito. 2022. “Connected Arts Learning: Cultivating Equity Through Connected and Creative Educational Experiences.” Review of Research in Education 46 (1): 264–87. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x221084322.
- Winner, E., T. Goldstein and S. Vincent-Lancrin (2013), Art for Art's Sake?: The Impact of Arts Education, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264180789-en.
- Mansour, M., Martin, A. J., Anderson, M., Gibson, R., Liem, G. A. D., & Sudmalis, D. (2018). Young People's Creative and Performing Arts Participation and Arts Self-Concept: A Longitudinal Study of Reciprocal Effects. Journal of Creative Behavior, 52(3), 240–255.
Arts Integration research
- Moss, Taylor E., Matthew J. Benus, and Elizabeth A. Tucker. 2018. “Impacting Urban Students’ Academic Achievement and Executive Function Through School-Based Arts Integration Programs.” SAGE Open 8 (2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018773131.
- LaGarry, Alison E., and Byron Richard. 2018. “Arts Integration in Rural Minnesota: A Collaborative Arts Integration Framework.” Arts Education Policy Review 119 (3): 146–57. doi:10.1080/10632913.2016.1236306.
- Winner, E., T. Goldstein and S. Vincent-Lancrin (2013), Art for Art's Sake?: The Impact of Arts Education, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264180789-en.
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This page was last modified on 07/28/2026