From its inception, Arts Cleveland has validated the foundational role arts education plays in child development and the human experience. Cleveland recently became a Say Yes to Education city, and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) has a new arts education plan in the making. Those events, combined with findings from strategic-planning research we've done, made it clear that the time is right to examine how we can help support the arts education landscape. We began with discovery: speaking with educators, organizations and people inside the school system to gather feedback from the field. We continue to
- work closely with the CMSD as its arts education plan unfolds,
- engage in regular discussion with the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium,
- stay connected with the field as a whole to serve its work and sustain its long-term success and
- collaborate with our partners on Play It Forward Cleveland!, a musical instrument donation drive that unearths instruments from storage and puts them into the hands of Cleveland’s children.