Monday, December 30, 2019

Art Education: What's the Big Deal?

Written by Elizabeth Delacruz, December 2019 & January 2020
(Sometimes I add to some of my blog posts over time.)
I wrote "Art Education: What's the Big Deal" for anyone, especially art educators, looking for resources about advocating for art education. It seems that we have to keep telling folks why art and art education are important. Following my essay below, I have accumulated links to resources, including a section on grants writing, that may be useful. 

               
Detail from "Milking the Red Herring" E. Delacruz. Digital image. 2013. 

APA citation and reference for this page:
(Delacruz, 2019)
Delacruz, E. M. (2019, December 30). Art Education: What's the big deal? E.Delacruz: Art Education in the 21st Century. https://elizabethdelacruz.blogspot.com/2019/12/art-education-whats-big-deal.html  

Art Education: What's the Big Deal?

This blog post "Art Education: What's the Big Deal?" (Delacruz, 2020) utilizes excerpts from two articles that I wrote nearly a decade ago, followed by a brief paragraph, based on my own experiences writing and securing various grants, about seeking funding. 

 As I reflected on the nature and value of my work as an art educator I first wrote "Entrepreneurial Strategies for Advancing Arts Based Public Engagement as a Form of University-Sanctioned Professional Activity in the New Creative Economy" (Delacruz, 2011a) and shared in that article strategies I had developed to advocate, aka, seek support, for my professional endeavors from those with the power to advance my work. Specific entrepreneurial strategies that I described in that essay include risk tolerance, adaptability, social networking, leveraging, and creating synergy. 

 The second article that informs "Art Education: What's the Big Deal?" (2020) was originally the text of my acceptance speech given in March of 2011 at the annual conference of the National art Education Association on the occasion of receiving the United States Society for Education through Art (USSEA) 2011 National Ziegfeld award. As I reflected at that time on the spate of attacks on teachers in the broadcast media and amongst politicians and the public, I just had to respond, resulting in my 2011 speech and subsequently published paper, "The Teacher as Public Enemy # 1, a Response..." (Delacruz, 2011b). The excerpt below states my concerns at the time, concerns, I should add, that I still have today. As I noted at the time:

My speech was written over the winter and into the Spring of 2011 amidst an unprecedented escalation of highly publicized attacks by politicians, the media, and ordinary citizens on public workers and teachers in particular; the outlawing by some states of teachers’ collective bargaining rights; increased (questionable and largely unchallenged) reliance on standardized testing as a measure of teacher effectiveness; and massive government and corporate efforts to privatize public education. The enterprise of public education was shifting right before my(our) eyes, and business as usual (merely being great teachers and public servants) was no longer sufficient. (p. 5)

 Wanting to say something hopeful for the future, in my "The Teacher as Public Enemy # 1, a Response..." essay I suggested four frameworks to guide us in our endeavors as art educators: (a) asserting the value of teachers as public intellectuals in their own communities; (b) adopting entrepreneurial strategies to strengthen both our aims and work; (c) networking through new digital social media; and (d) establishing common aims in service of civil society across our diverse disciplines and communities of practice (Delacruz, 2011b).  Readers of this essay "Art Education: What's the Big Deal?" (Delacruz, 2020) may notice that I offered overlapping strategies in my two original essays from 2011, networking and entrepreneurship, in particular. I would argue here that the strategies I offered in 2011 have withstood the test of time and bear a second look today.

First, it is important to understand how where we work impacts how we work as art educators. Our specific advocacy strategies will vary, depending on where we work and with and for whom we work. As I noted in 2011, "Sites for our work include schools, early childhood and senior care facilities, museums, recreational facilities, nature preserves, hospitals, prisons, libraries, playgrounds, programs for the disabled, community organizations, cultural centers, businesses, governmental agencies, and the Internet, to name a few" (Delacruz, 2011a, p. 3).  Specific actions in advocacy for our art education programs that work well in an elementary school may not be most advantageous for a recreational facility, a library setting, or a post-secondary educational institution. Nevertheless, the general strategies I suggest hold true regardless of where we work. It's all in how exactly we apply these strategies, and that's a decision best left to each of us in our own professional contexts.

As I observed in 2011, we are not alone in our endeavor to make a case for the arts in society. I found the writings of economist Richard Florida and writer Daniel Pink particularly insightful and proactive. Florida's, Pink's, and numerous other writings at the time talked about social, economic, and cultural life in the 21st century and brought together emerging notions about human and social capital, creativity, and entrepreneurship. These writings focused on what had been labeled at the time as the creative economy, which scholars and economists described as "new social, spatial, ecological, and economic arrangements, the potential for wealth and job creation, and the characteristics, preferences, and skills of people who work in creative industries" (Delacruz, 2011a, pp. 3-4). In Florida's analysis (2002) creative workers (those educators, writers, artists, designers, musicians, architects, entertainers, scientists, and engineers, along with a broader group of creative professionals in business and finance, law, health care and related fields) share common characteristics: they are educated, they work and play hard, and they value creativity, individuality, and diversity), and they generate new ideas, new technologies, and new creative content that has economic as well as cultural/aesthetic value (Delacruz, 2011a). Daniel Pink (2007) further described the skills and characteristics needed by these kinds of creative workers in the 21st century as high concept/high touch.

According to Pink, high concept skills include the ability to create artistically and emotionally satisfying products, to detect patterns and unexpected opportunities, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention. High touch skills include being able to empathize, to understand subtleties in human interaction, and to engage in the pursuit of purpose and meaning. The idea also promulgated by these theorists is that creative people, industries, and institutions are a major impetus in the global knowledge economy, and that the creative individuals driving and shaping this new economy have a high preference for technology, talent, and tolerance for diversity (Florida, Gates, Knudsen, & Stolarick, 2006). Countless reports and policy documents around the globe, in essence, support this view. (Delacruz, 2011a, p. 4)

Taken together (from  both of my 2011 essays) I have identified four strategies that may be useful to those wanting to advocate for art education. I describe each of these strategies below. The final strategy, entrepreneurship, has subcategories/strategies. I conclude my essay with a commentary about belonging in a community of practice, an idea I learned from a doctoral student in Kinesiology, Dr. Jesse Rhoades, as he was completing his dissertation at the University of Illinois where I was working at that time.

Some Strategies

     1. Develop and Assert our Role of Teacher as Public Intellectual. We need to reassert how we envision ourselves as teachers. After teacher/educator Marilyn Cochran-Smith (2005, 2006) at Boston College, I see teachers as local “public intellectuals” in their own communities. Teachers have many of the same skills and dispositions that public intellectuals in civic life have, and they play a vital role in the life of a community. Both teachers and public intellectuals pursue cross-disciplinary understandings. Teachers and public intellectuals have the ability to communicate well to general audiences, and they encourage their audiences to ask difficult questions—questions such as “Why?”, “Why not?”, and “What if?” And they consider both ethical and pragmatic implications of actions and inactions—local, regional, and global, understanding that it’s not an us/them scenario; rather, we’re all in this together. Intellectual rigor, inquiry, imagination, and civic engagement permeate everything teachers do (Delacruz, 2011b).
     2. Utilize Digital and Social Media to our Advantage. New social media is a game-changer in the enterprise of education. Despite adherence in this country to a social Darwinian myth of rugged individualism, and despite the seductive belief that one can “do it yourself,” the fact is we just can’t to this alone. Peer-to-peer teaching and learning, creative and cultural production, design thinking, and problem-solving are now immensely more powerful through collaboration in online social networks (Delacruz, Carlos, Danker, Flugelstad, Roland, & Stokrocki, 2011). In the early years of the 21st century, Henry Jenkins, former Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and USC media and communications scholar, and his colleagues described something quite remarkable happening online; something they saw to be a distinct and still emerging form of human intellectual and social evolution (Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2007). These media scholars described the rich and powerful online behaviors and the knowledge it produces as a form of distributed cognition. I rather liked that concept at the time, and I like it even more today. It is not just about working together across geographic, cultural, and disciplinary enclaves; rather, it’s both the individual and the collective. It’s about synergy, and the power of we.

     3. Being Global Citizens that Contribute to the Global Commons. I have long advocated  for a notion of the commons (the public sphere) and the pursuit of global civil society (Delacruz, 2005, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c).  As I wrote in 2011, "in olden days, the commons was the meadow, the park, and the public square. These were our shared places that were decidedly public, accessible to all, and, importantly, requiring careful stewardship. Today, our commons, or common public assets, include green spaces in our municipalities, the air we breathe, protected wilderness habitats, outer space, the Internet, architectural and artistic monuments, the global knowledge commons, and public education" (Delacruz, 2011b, p. 5). Our very survival now depends on this stewardship. It requires the joint efforts of civil society, which has been broadly defined as that realm of public and private individuals and entities working for the common public good. “Business as usual” clearly cannot continue (Delacruz, 2011b). We need to come together across ideological, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to craft new solutions for old problems. Communications scholar Howard Rheingold (2007) observed that the tools for cultural production are now in the hands of 14-year-olds who know more about emerging technologies than their teachers. Rheingold’s point was not just that kids are tech-savvy; rather it’s that because of this fact, teachers now have a new and more important role to play: teaching ethical behavior and cultural citizenship. We need to excite students about the notion of being a globally connected and ethically charged citizen as a means of facilitating our creative, educational, and civic goals as a society and as world citizens (Delacruz, 2011b).

    4. Entrepreneurship. We need to borrow from a framework already well-regarded in the world of corporate capitalism, the language of entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial disposition refers both to a conceptual outlook and a cluster of behaviors that include the following: (a) ability to understand particular needs in particular contexts; (b) to discern meaningful patterns; (c) to think big; (d) to innovate; (e) to envision something new and useful; (f) and the ability to conceptualize, design, and carry forward concrete plans of action with specific intended outcomes (Delacruz, 2011a). Entrepreneurs are good at creative problem solving, social networking, and resource development. Impediments are challenges to overcome, and fear of failure does not truncate entrepreneurial thinking. Most importantly, entrepreneurs, like art educators, create something of value to others (Delacruz, 2011b).

Entrepreneurship, for me in 2011, as an art educator working in the university sector in art education, included risk tolerance, adaptability, social networking, leveraging, and creating synergy. I believe that these strategies are still useful and that they are important for art educators working in other professional contexts. I briefly describe each of these strategies below (excerpting from my 2011 "Entrepreneurial Strategies for advancing Arts Based Public Engagement as a Form of University-Sanctioned Professional Activity in the New Creative Economy" essay).
Risk tolerance. Risk tolerance refers to the capacity to thrive within risky ventures. It involves overcoming fear of failure amidst questionable institutional support and/or implemented with individuals or organizations we may not know very well. It also includes making educated guesses that our intended audiences (learners, parents, community members, other teachers, administrators, etc.) will find our endeavors to be beneficial. Risk tolerance requires development of interrelated personal dispositions and skills that include belief in the value of this work, a high sense of self-efficacy, willingness to defer other goals and rewards, a capacity to withstand setbacks, and adaptability to varied and changing conditions. 
Adaptability. Adaptability is central to our public-oriented work. As we seek and receive information and feedback from learners, administrators, community members, we adapt our work strategies and products to meet their needs and expectations. These adaptations make our work responsive and relevant. When we meet impediments or encounter setbacks we scale-back, seek alternative routes to our goals, sometimes put on the back-burner or abandon projects and initiatives in favor of those more likely to be successful, and tailor our specific communications to address the expectations of specific audiences and/or stakeholders. This sometimes means clarifying and even redefining/redescribing what it is that we are doing, and doing so in straightforward language, without hype or our own propaganda, that is likely to be understood and accepted by our intended recipients. Adaptability involves thoughtful responsiveness to specific situations and reformulating plans when needed. It requires attention to what is actually going in our endeavors, which are almost always riddled with many dimensions, constantly moving parts, and competing agendas. 
Networking. I can’t say strongly enough how important it is to develop affiliations with like-minded individuals, including individuals in other sectors or disciplines. I sometimes informally refer to these individuals as kindred spirits, in there are individuals who "get" what we are doing, why we are doing what we do, how we are making a difference in the lives of students, schools, communities and the world (for that matter), and how important it is for people to do the things we do. It is immeasurably valuable to be have and nurture professional relationships with kindred spirits. That's one of the big things that art education workshops and conferences facilitate, that is, the opportunity to meet with kindred spirits and develop professional friendships. It may also to to our advantage to link our professional activities to similar work that appears to be valued by stakeholders and those who have some degree of say-so or power over our professional work (administrators, politicians, community members, etc.). Collaboration is a characteristic identified as important to both entrepreneurship and networking. It is a strategy that enhances social capital (a concept used in sociology, economic, political and cultural studies to describe how varying types of inter-human relationships impact individuals’ and groups’ power, knowledge, skills, access to resources, and ability to achieve particular aims). As I wrote in 2011, social capital is increased in relationships where trust, cooperation, and mutual interests are high (Fukuyama, 1999). Having social capital is recognized as essential for individual empowerment (Ferragina, 2009), professional advancement (Hamblen, 1986), and civic participation (Putnam, 2000). 
Leveraging. Studies of entrepreneurship mention the ability to capitalize on opportunities, to network, finesse resources, and turn challenges into assets as behaviors frequently exhibited by entrepreneurs. I view these behaviors as leveraging, a behavior intimately interrelated with developing one's social capital. In leveraging, we develop opportunities by strategically asking for assistance and by maximizing minimal financial and personnel resources. We connect to, share information with, and ask for things (like institutional support or funding) from individuals in leadership positions. This includes both articulating the public benefits of our work and generating positive publicity and therefore good will toward our institutions/workplaces. We spotlight both our programs/endeavors and our colleagues in positive ways in press releases, and we utilize respected broad cast media, scholarly sources, and local documents to support our claims about the value of our work to the organizations and institutions we serve. We also acknowledge, thank, and credit individuals, departments, and units in host organizations and institutions for their contributions and support. Press releases and executive reports should explicitly mention these units, departments, and individuals. 
Creating synergy within and beyond our community of practice. We need to capitalize on opportunities to connect and collaborate (see all of the above). Art educators working in all sectors of our practice need to champion, support, mentor, and collaborate with one another who are located in and around our communities, as together we refine our own tools, strategies, and resources for developing reasoned and persuasive political speech, and for tapping into influential power structures at the local and state levels. This is a grassroots endeavor, fraught with difficulties and setbacks. We have our vote, our voice, our intellectual skills, our compassion, and each other in our collective endeavors to inform and shape the public debate over education. Moreover, our professional associations, publications, conferences, and social media give us greater opportunities to engage these issues in concert with one another. We are, in fact, what social learning theorist and business consultant Etienne Wenger (2006) identifies as a “community of practice” (http://www. ewenger.com/theory/). We are a multifaceted, many-layered, amply talented community of practice dedicated to common aims and engaged in learning from one another in furtherance of these common aims.
What does it mean to be part of a Community of Practice?

     Being part of a community of practice means that despite the sometimes isolating, lonely, unrecognized, misunderstood, or unsupported nature of our work as art educators we may also be uplifted and inspired by our community of practice, or rather, I should say, our multiple communities of practice. These communities include our local, regional, state, national and international professional associations and arts organizations; our colleagues, artists, teachers, supporters, and arts activists in and around our own workplaces; community organizations, governmental agencies, art museums, libraries, park districts, universities and community colleges, art guilds, and businesses involved in doing work for the greater public good (civil society). Our communities of practice also include, to some degree, our immediate friends and families insofar as they are aware of and supportive of our professional aspirations and activities. We need to connect, collaborate, and champion one another, to nurture, love, and take care of one another in our seemingly impossible mutual mission to make a real difference in the lives of those we teach and to help create a better world. 

 What about funding our initiatives?

 While at the University of Illinois, I wrote and was awarded several grants that supported for my work both at the university and within the local community. Each grant request, although specific to the agency, department, institution, or individual shared some commonalities. In my experience, grant applications forms typically request the following. In addition to the following, you may be required to submit a cover letter and provide accompanying letters of support.
  • Specific Purpose of the Grant.  What exactly will you hope to accomplish as a result of being awarded the grant?  This statement may be aspirational. But you also need to then state clearly what specific outcomes you expect. These outcomes must be observable and measurable.
  • Background or Literature Review.  Depending on the type of grant, you will likely be asked to provide background information to contextualize your grant application. Background could include background information about the school, organization, intended students/learners/audiences, and the community itself. If a Literature Review is required, do your research on your topic and provide clear explanations without hyperbole.
  • Rationale.  Why is the project, event, or program of value, and to whom?  What are some specific tangible benefits to the intended group, organization, or individuals for whom the grant is intended?
  • Plan and Timeline: When will the project, event, or program be carried out, start to finish.  Sometimes your Plan is requested as a separate item. In that case, clearly and succinctly describe what exactly you and your intended recipients/beneficiaries will do.
  • Personnel. Who else (in addition to you) is going to be involved in a supporting role in your project, event, or program?  List their names, credentials or affiliations, and contact information.
  • Budget. Provide a line item budget for all expenses to be incurred.  Funding for your time, what is called "in-kind contributions or services" may or may not be fundable (look at the terms of the grant), but in your Budget, list your time and what exactly you will do, and if it is not fundable stipulate that your in-kind services will be donated.  List and briefly describe (4-5 words) in your Budget also any other contributions of time, money, or resources that are to be donated, and indicate that they will be donated. Include specific individuals and organizations that are providing support for your project, event, or program.
  • Evaluation. Clearly and succinctly explain how exactly you will evaluate the project, event, or program. Your evaluation must be tied in with your intended outcomes. State how and to whom you will report your evaluation findings
Writing the Grant Application. The most important advice I can offer here is:
  1. Match your Purposes. Make sure what you are asking for fully fits with the purpose of the grant itself.
  2. Feasibility. Make sure what you are stating you will do with the grant award is doable within the timeline you specify.
  3. Follow the Rules. Follow exactly, without deviation, the procedures stipulated on the grant application and as given on the grant description itself. This includes suggested word counts or page counts.
  4. Write Well. Write clearly, succinctly, and fluently. There should be no hyperbole or grammatical errors in your application materials.
See my list of Grant Resources in the Advocacy Resources section that appears below my references for this essay.
Author Endnote      

 I learned about the community of practice literature from Dr. Jesse Rhoades (see https://und.edu/directory/jesse.rhoades) when I was a member of his dissertation committee at the University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign) many years ago. Jessie was completing his dissertation study about physical eduction teachers, and his dissertation  completed in 2010 and entitled "National Board Certified Physical Education Teachers: A descriptive analysis" (see http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16892) talked abut communities of practice. Jesse earned his PH. D. from UIUC in Pedagogical Kinesiology. He was involved in teacher education, as was/am I and he asked me to be a member of his committee after taking a course that I had developed and taught at the University of Illinois called "Writing for Publication". I wrote and promoted "Writing for Publication" to students across the UIUC campus, in any discipline, to work on any paper at any stage of development that they wished to work on. We formed out own little interdisciplinary community of practice, reading and responding to one another's work-in-progress and nurturing one another along the way. In effect, Jesse's participation in my little course, so many years ago, has made a lasting impact on how I understand my work as being intricately connected to the work of others, so much so that I even wrote about it several times in 2011 (Delacruz, 2011a, 2011b, 2011c). 
References for the above essay  (Note: if anyone wants any of my articles listed below and does not have free access to them, many of them are available to download from my website in my "Work and Play section, at http://elizabethdelacruz.com.)
Delacruz, E. M. (2011a). Entrepreneurial strategies for advancing arts based public engagement as a form of university-sanctioned professional activity in the new creative economy. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(Interlude 1).  http://www.ijea.org/v12i1/ (Links to an external site.) 
Delacruz, E. M. (2011b). The teacher as public enemy # 1: A response in these most uncivil times. Art Education, 64(6), 5-10.
Delacruz, E. M., Carlos, J., Danker, S., Flugelstad, T., Roland, C., & Stokrocki, M. (2011c). Do-it-Yourself professional development through online personal learning networks as a 21st century form of self-initiated, non-hierarchical participation in communities of practice. Canadian Art Journal, 9(2), 38-53.
Delacruz, E. M. (2009a). From bricks and mortar to the public sphere in cyberspace: Creating a culture of caring on the digital global commons. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 10(5). www.ijea.org/v10n5/index.html  
Delacruz, E. M. (2009b). Art education in the age of new media: Toward global civil society. Art Education, 62(5), 13-18.
Delacruz, E. M. (2009c). Globalization: Mapping the terrain. In E. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, & A. Kuo (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. x-xviii). National Art Education Association.
Delacruz, E. M. (2005). Art education in civil society. Visual Arts Research, 31(2), 3-9. 
Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. Basic Books.
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M., & Robison, A. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for  the 21st century. MacArthur Foundation. https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF 
Pink, D. (2007). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. Berkley Publishing Group.
Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice: A brief introduction [Website]. https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/  
Advocacy Resources

Quotes about the importance of the arts

What Michelle Obama said:
Obama, M. (2015). Remarks by The First Lady at National Arts And Humanities Youth Program Awards. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/17/remarks-first-lady-national-arts-and-humanities-youth-program-awards

What others have also said:
Beete, P. (2015, June 18). The Arts Matter Because... National Endowment for the Arts [Art Works Blog post]. https://www.arts.gov/art-works/2015/arts-matter-because

Bright World Arts. (n.d.). Quotes in support of the arts: Business leader quotes on skills for work and innovation. http://www.brightworldarts.org/quotes-in-support-of-the-arts/

McQuellen Studios: Arts, Education, Advocacy. (n.d.). Advocacy. https://charlesmcquillen.com/advocacy/

Phillips, R. (n.d.). Quotes about the benefits of art & art-making. The Healing Power of Art & Artists. https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/benefits-of-art/

Utah Art Education Association. (n.d.). Advocacy quotes. http://uaea-arted.org/advocacy_files/Art%20Quotes.pdf

Winkler Gallery and Art Education Center. (2011). 15 inspirational quotes about artists and art education. https://www.winklergallery.org/blog/15-inspirational-quotes-about-art-education

National organizations engaged in advocacy for arts education
NAEA. Explore the National Art Education Association Advocacy website! https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy (Links to an external site.)
NAEA selected works regarding advocacy:
Arts Education Partnership. The Arts Education Partnership at Education Commission of the States is a national coalition of more than 100 education, arts, cultural, government, business and philanthropic organizations that was created in 1995 by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education. https://www.aep-arts.org/

 Arts Ed Search. https://www.artsedsearch.org/ ArtsEdSearch is the nation’s hub for research on the impact of the arts in education. This site offers an extensive list studies on the impact of the arts in education. The site also offers a  useful search tool for finding resources
National Endowment for the Arts. https://www.arts.gov/
Journals
International Journal of Education in the Arts. http://www.ijea.org/ (Links to an external site.)
International Journal of Art & Design Education. http://www.nsead.org/publications/ijade.aspx (Links to an external site.)
Selected readings for anyone looking for material about the value of art and art education 
Barnum, M. (2018, May 30). The ‘shadow education system’: How wealthier students benefit from art, music, and theater over the summer while poor kids miss out. Chalkbeat: Education News. In context. Retrieved from https://chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/05/30/the-shadow-education-system-how-wealthier-students-benefit-from-art-music-and-theater-over-the-summer-while-poor-kids-miss-out/

Baum, S., Oreck, B., McCartney, H. (1999). Artistic talent development for urban youth: The promise and the challenge. In E. Fiske (Ed.). Champions of change: The impact of the arts on learning (pp. 64-78). Arts Education Partnership & The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Bertling, J. G. (2015). The art of empathy: A mixed methods case study of a critical place-based art education program. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 16(3), 1-26.

Betts, J.D. (2006). Multimedia arts learning in an activity system: New literacies for at risk children. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 7(7).

Bolwerk, A., Mack-Andrick, J., Lang, F. R., Dörfler, A., & Maihöfner, C.  (2014). How art changes your brain: Differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity. PLoS ONE, 9(12): e116548. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0101035

Boske, C. (2012). Sending forth the tiniest ripples of hope that build the mightiest currents: Understanding how to prepare school leaders to interrupt oppressive school practices. Planning and changing, 43(1), 183-197.

Bowen, D. H., Greene, J. P., &  Kisida, B. (2014). Learning to think critically: A visual art experiment. Educational Researcher, 43(1), 37-44.  

Bresler, L., DeStefano, L., Feldman, R., & Garg, S. (2000). Artists-in-residence in public schools: Issues in curriculum, integration, impact. Visual Arts Research, 26(1), 13-29.

Brouillette, L., & Graham, N. J. (2016). Using arts integration to make science learning memorable in the upper elementary grades: A quasi-experimental study. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 12(1).

Brouillette, L., Childress-Evans, K., Hinga, B. & Farkas, G. (2014). Increasing the school engagement and oral language skills of ELLs through arts integration in the primary grades. Journal of Learning through the Arts, 10(1).

Brown, E. D., Sax, K. L. (2013). Arts enrichment and preschool emotions for low-income children at risk. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(2), 337–346.

Brown, E. D., Benedett, B., & Armistad, M. E. (2010). Arts enrichment and school readiness for children at risk. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 112-124.

Burger, K., & Winner, E., (2000). Instruction in visual art: Can it help children learn to read? Journal of Aesthetic Education, 34(3/4), 277-293.

Burton, J. M., Horowitz, R., & Abeles, H. (2000). Learning in and through the arts: The question of transfer. Studies in Art Education, 41(3), 228-257.

Burton, J. M., Horowitz, R. & Abeles, H. (2000). Learning in and through the arts: The question of transfer. Studies in Art Education, 41(3), 228-257

Carger, C. (2004). Art and literacy with bilingual children. Language Arts, 81(4), 283-292.
Catterall, J. S., Dumais, S. A., & Hampden-Thompson, G. (2012). The arts and achievement in at-risk youth: Findings from four longitudinal studies. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved from https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Arts-At-Risk-Youth.pdf  

Catterall, J. S. (2009). Doing well and doing good by doing art: The effects of education in the visual and performing arts on the achievements and values of young adults. Imagination Group/I-Group Books.

Catterall, J., & Peppler, K. (2007). Learning in the visual arts and the worldviews of young children. Cambridge Journal of Education, 37(4), 543.

Clover, D. E. (2006). Culture and antiracism in adult education: An exploration of the contributions of arts-based learning. Adult Education Quarterly, 57(1), 46-61.

Craig, D., & Paraiso, J. (2008). Dual Diaspora and barrio art: Art as an avenue for learning English. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 4(1).

Craig, C. (2002). A continuing inquiry into the school as parkland metaphor. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 3(4).

Crawford Barniskis, S. (2012). Graffiti, poetry, dance: How public library art programs affect teens. The Journal for Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 2.

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See also


 Writing Grant Proposals

Elements of a Grant Proposal. https://www.yc.edu/v6/grants/docs/Elements%20of%20a%20Grant%20Proposal.pdf

Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/funding/HowtoWriteaGrantProposal.asp

University of Wisconsin Writing Center. Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The basics. https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/grants-2/


Grantspace.com. How do I write a grant proposal for my individual project? Where can I find samples?  https://grantspace.org/resources/knowledge-base/grant-proposals-for-individual-projects/

Grantspace.com. Sample Documents. A winning collection of grant proposals, letters of inquiry, business plans, and other documents you need to make your case to funders. https://grantspace.org/resources/sample-documents/

The Funding Center. Writing a Grant Application. https://www.fundingcentre.com.au/help/writing-grant

The Writing Cooperative. The Surprising Way To Make Your Grant Proposal Stand Out. https://writingcooperative.com/the-surprising-way-to-make-your-grant-proposal-stand-out-b4a2ce27e972

 A very inadequate list of granting entities. Don't forget to check with your local businesses (including the big box stores), Chambers of Commerce, PTA/PTOs, and philanthropic individuals in your region.  

National Endowment for the Arts.. Grants for Organizations. https://www.arts.gov/grants/apply-grant/grants-organizations

National Art Education Association.  Apply for an NAEF Grant. https://www.arteducators.org/opportunities/articles/233-apply-for-an-naef-grant

US Department of Education. Arts in Education National Program. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/artsnational/index.html

Art in Action. Funding and Grants for Arts Education Programs. https://artinaction.org/resource/funding-and-grants-for-arts-education-programs/

Grantmakers in the Arts. State-by-State Guide for Arts Education Funding. https://www.giarts.org/esea-map

Teach.com. Grants for Teachers. https://teach.com/what/teachers-change-lives/grants-for-teachers/ 

PTA Grants. http://www.pta.org/programs/content.cfm?ItemNumber=3101
Crayola Grants. http://www.crayola.com/for-educators/ccac-landing.aspx



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