Special Announcement

October 2021

ArtsNOW has been awarded a $2.78 million Assistance for Arts Education (AAE) grant by the US Department of Education (USDOE) for its project, “STEM + the Art of Integrated Learning (SAIL).” 

The AAE program promotes arts education for students and teachers through activities such as professional learning, development and dissemination of accessible instructional materials and arts-based programming, and community and national outreach activities that strengthen and expand partnerships among schools, local educational agencies, communities, and arts centers.

The focus of this project is to develop and test the use of a set of arts integrated lessons that are: aligned with the 3rd through 5th grade content standards for math and science, supported by standards in the arts, and incorporate inquiry-based activities to support the development of students’ critical thinking skills. SAIL will also explore ways in which arts-based programming can be used to build students’ social-emotional competencies. Overall, SAIL will include the development of eighteen inquiry-based math and science units supported by 124 hours of professional development over three years and will benefit six elementary schools with over 2,200 students and 114 teachers.

Project partners will include Barrow County School System (Winder Elementary and Statham Elementary), Cobb County School District (Dowell Elementary and Mableton Elementary), Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (Garden City Elementary and Gadsden Elementary), along with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Math and Computing (CEISMC), Young Audiences, Inc., Hillside Conant School (Atlanta Public Schools) and Youth Villages-Inner Harbor campus (Douglas County School System).
  

ArtsNOW also earned a $2.8 million Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) grant award for its program, “REimagining and Accelerating Literacy through Arts Integration (REAL).” 

The IAL program supports high-quality programs designed to develop and improve literacy skills for children and students from birth through grade 12 in high-need local educational agencies and schools. 

REAL will foster students’ literacy achievement through professional development designed to build the capacity of teachers and media specialists to plan and deliver integrated instruction, while also contributing significantly to school library collections through the purchase of developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant books. In addition, this project will include parent events to provide families with access to books and other content about how to support their child’s reading development. Each year, REAL will serve approximately 3,200 students and 170 teachers, media specialists, and literacy coaches across six high-need schools.

ArtsNOW partners in the project will include Clayton County Public Schools (Ellenwood, GA) at East Clayton Elementary School, Florence School District 3 (Lake City, SC) at JC Lynch Elementary School and Lake City Early Childhood Center of the Arts, and Colleton County School District (Walterboro, SC) at Northside Elementary School, Cottageville Elementary School, and Forest Hills Elementary School.

ArtsNOW is a national non-profit that offers customized solutions to improve teacher efficacy and student results through authentic arts integration.  For more information, contact President and CEO, Pamela Walker, at pam@artsnowlearning.org or Executive Vice President, Crystal Collins, at crystal@artsnowlearning.org.