From Guild Member Organization Cathedral Arts Project (Jacksonville, FL)
Any Given Child Jacksonville (AGC Jax), a program of the Cathedral Arts Project (CAP), is collectively leading a national effort to affect systemic change for arts education. Through a collaboration of partnerships including Ingenuity, Inc., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a nationwide cohort of Any Given Child cities, 2020 will mark the national rollout of the artlook® Project.
Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and locally by PNC Bank, AGC Jax will assess the state of the arts and continue advocating for increased equity and access to high quality, arts education for all students in Duval County. According to our partners at the Kennedy Center, “numerous studies point to the value of arts education in improving student outcomes, yet the absence of comprehensive data is a challenge, and access to the arts remains an issue for many students nationally. The project goal is to help cities close the gaps for students with little to no arts access.”
In 2019, AGC Jax and Ingenuity began the first phase of this effort by developing and implementing the Landscape of Education in the Arts in Duval (LEAD) Report, a survey to assess arts education opportunities in all K-12 Duval County Public Schools (DCPS). This project is community driven, supported and implemented through collaboration among CAP, Ingenuity, DCPS, local arts organizations, funders and experts. A survey was created and tailored for all DCPS schools that was administered in May and a subsequent survey for arts partners such as museums, community centers and grantors will be deployed this fall.
“It is imperative that communities understand arts learning opportunities, the equity of their distribution across schools and what standards should be used to ensure every child benefits from a quality arts education,” said Allison Galloway-Gonzalez, CAP Chief Program Officer & AGC Jax Executive Director. “We need to continue to show that the arts add up for our community.”
Published: October 30, 2019