An extensive nomination and selection process was conducted. Over 200 arts education partnerships were nominated and 100 applied for inclusion in the study. Twenty-one were chosen for study, covering a variety of geographic locations, and a range of student populations, from rural areas in Montana and California, to Chicano communities in New Mexico and Chicago, to juvenile offenders in Seattle, to multicultural urban settings in New York City. Surviving partnerships place the needs of students and schools at the center of their mission. In surviving partnerships, benefits for students and the needs of teachers and schools are at the core of the design, implementation, and spirit of the partnerships' programs.
Partnerships have many purposes and participants-some with competing needs and interests.
Clarity about the primacy of student learning is a hallmark of partnerships that survive. Deep personal commitments to the educational power of arts experiences fuel surviving partnerships. These people have a deep and passionate belief in the value of the arts in their own lives, children's lives, and the lives of their communities. In surviving partnerships, multiple dimensions of the work receive regular attention. Sustaining arts education partnerships is enormously complex work that demands simultaneous attention to a multitude of needs and challenges.