ARTSEDGE Brings the Arts Front and Center

A program offered by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is working to bring the excitement and challenge of the arts to the center of K-12 curriculum. ARTSEDGE also partners with the Verizon Foundation, state education agencies, and Thinkfinity Content Partners, a group of national organizations that design and develop education websites based on standards and disciplines related to education, for both students and teachers. ARTSEDGE was developed more than a decade ago through the efforts of the United States Department of Education, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Although it has continued to grow substantially since its inception more than 10 years ago, the goals of the program have remained constant - to connect people to each other and to useful resources, and to develop a new knowledge base for the continuance of arts education in grades K-12.

ARTSEDGE offers educators valuable teaching materials, such as how-to-guides for managing classroom projects related to art and the arts and articles and instructional materials related to the national standards in place for arts education. For example, Content Standard 8 instructs educators in how they can use the arts as a method for teaching students to create messages and communicate meaning to an audience. The ARTSEGE website provides links to valuable websites that help in developing curriculum related to the arts. For example, a link to the American Memory section of the Library of Congress website provides valuable source materials related to the culture and history of the United States, including more than 7 million items in digital format from dozens of historical collections.

The resources for arts education on the ARTSEDGE website include advocacy materials such as connections to the new educational seasons of the Kennedy Center. These materials allow students and educators to explore the arts by way of Kennedy Center performances geared toward young people and their families. Seasonal presentations also include professional development projects for educators, as well as workshops and classes designed for aspiring performers of all ages. The "On Location" initiative, a new program offered by ARTSEDGE, lets teachers bring the excitement of digital storytelling to their students in the classroom. The On Location Studio Bus can bring teaching artists to the classroom to help students share the story of the performing arts to members of their local community.

Media-rich, interactive activities offered by ARTSEDGE help children discover the world of the arts. For example, a new Kennedy Center musical, "Nobody's Perfect," tells the story of a 10th birthday party helps two quite different young girls learn how to interact and understand each other. A "Meet the Artist" section gives students the opportunity to hear playwrights and actors talk about their experiences and challenges they had while pursuing their dreams and advancing their careers. "Make Every Day an Art Day" helps teachers bring the arts into the classroom through a collection of events and birthdays related to the performing arts.

For educators who want to teach about the arts and inspire their students to become involved in the arts, the tools and information required to develop an arts-oriented curriculum are available at ARTSEDGE including resources for professional development, student materials, and assessment and instruction guidelines.