But so far, the board has not put much money behind the effort. This year, even those funds have dried up. Resolutions aside, fine arts are not among the subject areas covered in the board's academic standards policy, which does include language arts, math, science and social studies. Under the Chicago Teachers Union contract, the board pays for full-time visual arts and music teachers in high schools. At elementary schools, the board pays for a full-time art or music teacher if enrollment is higher than 750 students.
Smaller schools get a part-time arts teacher.
An overwhelming 78 percent answered that they integrated arts into other academic content areas. Private funding Much of the impetus and funding for arts integration is coming from the philanthropic community. Alarmed by board budget cuts in the 1980s, funders responded by picking up some of the slack in the 1990s. One result is that large institutions have moved beyond student tours to work with teachers. The Art Institute of Chicago, for example, has a bigger education budget and more experienced museum education staffers than it did seven years ago, says Hartfield.