The Arts Education Partnership prepared this guide at the request of the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts. Its purpose is to offer guidance to community leaders from the arts, education, business, civic and government sectors who seek to combine their talents and resources in partnership to address the arts and arts education needs of the young people of their community. The guide draws on and summarizes the knowledge and experience of a great many leaders throughout the United States who have found partnerships an effective and productive approach to addressing their communities' needs.
Partnerships take many forms.
The specific focus of this guide is on those that engage multiple sectors of the community in an effort to provide arts education to students throughout an entire public school district or in a significant cluster of schools in the district. While the success factors we discuss also are important for partnerships seeking to make an impact only on a single school or a group of students within a school, our goal is to encourage partnerships to make a broader impact so that a greater range of students benefit. The Arts Education Partnership is funded by a cooperative agreement between the US Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts managed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies .