Support research, evaluation, data, advocacy, and network-building to improve practices and increase public/private resources for high-quality arts education.

If school-aged youth across the Philadelphia region are to participate in equitable, inclusive, and high-quality arts education, there needs to be a strong arts education sector to support them. By developing the field for the long term, arts education becomes part of a comprehensive system of support for the healthy development of Philadelphia’s young people.

In order to provide more opportunities for arts education in Philadelphia, we are focusing support on strengthening the arts education sector.

We recognize that there are many ways that organizations and communities can contribute to advancing this objective and are looking for Philadelphians’ best ideas about how to accomplish this across the city. Possible efforts may include support for initiatives that can bring practitioners together to foster a more connected network; support for advocacy to increase public and private financial support for out-of-school time arts education; research and evaluation to understand what works best in this area and why; and communications to share research findings.

We seek advancements, such as:

• Increasing demand for partnerships and programs.
• More cross-sector networks and relationships for youth development.
• Increasing public/private support and funding for arts education in schools and during out-of-school time.