• Some schools look like prisons, but when there is art in schools it changes the way kids talk to each other, the way they behave.
  – Ron Morris, Teacher, Tolbert Elementary School, Dallas

A Thomas Tolbert Elementary student proudly shows off the Navajo weaving that she created in the Young Audiences of Greater Dallas residency workshop taught by fiber artist Linda Disosway. This residency is taught in an after-school program that is part of the Lights and Action Dallas Independent School District 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant.

Using a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, Project "Lights and Action" has established six secondary and 11 elementary community learning centers across the Dallas Independent School District, the tenth largest district in the nation. "Lights and Action" sites will offer services to over 11,000 students and 4,700 adults.

Working with Project "Lights and Action," ArtsPartners is a collaboration of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, the public schools and 50 of the city’s arts and cultural organizations. The goal is to maximize learning in Dallas schools through the integration of arts and cultural programs into the curricula. ArtsPartners, which is a grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts, coordinates 650 cultural outreach programs, educates teachers about the availability and value of these programs, provides technical assistance to help educators implement the programs and provides access to the funding needed to pay for them.

This comprehensive coordinated effort seeks to maximize the impact of Dallas’ best arts and cultural programs on learning both in the classroom and after school. Not only are students receiving services during the school day but also, as a result of a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, children are benefiting from after-school arts education programming that supports academic and enrichment goals. ArtsPartners works with each 21st Community Learning Center campus to design a customized program that meets its specific needs.

Young Audiences of Greater Dallas was contracted by the City of Dallas to serve as the managing partner of ArtsPartners. It is charged with developing the partnership’s procedures and policies, and with recruiting and coordinating the participating organizations as well as the volunteer community leadership and staff to implement and expand the program. Young Audiences also coordinates the development and distribution of educational materials pertaining to the program, manages all financial procedures for the program (including the recruitment of private funding), develops technological tools and develops and implements a comprehensive assessment program. By the end of its three-year pilot phase, ArtsPartners expects to provide arts-in-education services to every elementary school child in the Dallas public schools.

ArtsPartners has provided approximately 2,000 parents and children with arts and cultural programming and 50 teachers with professional development opportunities at 10 schools. Twenty Dallas arts and cultural institutions have provided programs, including field trips with parents and teachers, residencies, summer camps, and performances. Providers range from the Dallas Zoo to the Junior Players Guild, from Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico to the Age of Steam Museum. Seventy-five Dallas artists received training in child development, program design, curriculum integration, classroom management and teacher communication skills. An Arts-in-Education Superday, attended by 350 educators, principals, artists, parents, arts and cultural agency representatives and civic leaders, featured speakers from Texas and across the United States who gave lectures/workshops in grant writing, multiple intelligences, literacy, curriculum integration and arts-in-education research. More than two dozen Dallas artists and art organizations provided cultural services to students and teachers. Teachers, principals and parent volunteers associated with the ArtsPartners’ 21st Century Community Learning Center have been enthusiastic. They particularly enjoy the many flexible alternatives for after-school enrichment that ArtsPartners offers.

The Dallas public school system is a member of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. In June 2000, this collaboration was featured in the U.S. Department of Education’s Satellite Town Meeting. For a videotape of this program, which was titled "Learning Everywhere – In and Out of School," please call 1-877-4ED-PUBS.