As part of its long-term planning process, the Dana Foundation is assessing the criteria and application process for arts education grants.  We plan to continue our support of arts education now and in the future.  Information regarding grants procedures and deadlines for arts education grants will be posted once our assessment is completed. 

Grantees

To learn more about current and former Dana arts education grants and grantees, click here.

The Dana Foundation has compiled profiles of several of its arts education grantees.  These profiles contain in-depth descriptions of the organizations and the types of professional development training they provide. click here.

In addition to the grant program, the Foundation’s arts education work includes publishing periodicals and books related to the field and organizing conferences around specific arts education topics. 

Dana Arts Education Publications
News

Obama Education Secretary Affirms Arts as 'Core Academic Subject'

by Andrew Kahn and Aalok Mehta

Arne Duncan’s letter, emphasizing the importance of arts education and outlining available federal funding, may help preserve programs despite budget crises, arts supporters say.

See also

News

Teaching Artists Survey to Examine Background, Roles, Opportunities

A new research project aims to identify challenges, opportunities and information about a particularly elusive brand of educator: actors, professional musicians, working dancers and other artists who also juggle K-12 teaching gigs.

News

Teaching Artists Are Still Learning Their Roles

by Aalok Mehta

Teaching artists have an ambiguous but important part to play in modern education, panelists told about 600 people during a Web symposium this past week.

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News

Arts Education Opportunities, Achievement Gaps Remain, Survey Finds

Results do not include fallout from economic crisis, which is likely to curb school arts programs.

by Aalok Mehta

Opportunities to learn music and the visual arts remain similar to 1997 levels, a nationwide arts assessment indicates. But the survey was conducted in early 2008, before the economic crisis reached full swing.

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News

‘Neuroeducation’ Emerges as Insights into Brain Development, Learning Abilities Grow

BrainWork

As scientists learn more about how the brain grows and learns, universities are developing programs to translate those insights into practical classroom strategies.

Brain Scientists Identify Close Links between Arts, Learning

Brain Scientists Identify Close Links between Arts, Learning

by Ben Mauk

May 14, 2009

Arts education influences learning and other areas of cognition and may deserve a more prominent place in schools, according to a wave of recent neuroscience research.

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Why the Arts Matter

Why the Arts Matter

Jerome Kagan Gives Six Good Reasons for Advocating the Importance of Arts in School

“It is not possible to live by rationality alone," said cognitive-research pioneer Jerome Kagan during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference in Baltimore.

The Arts Will Help School Accountability

The Arts Will Help School Accountability

Commentary by Mariale Hardiman

Federal and state policy makers should expand their view of what constitutes an effective school based on the evidence of science and of experience, proposes a neuroeducation specialist at Johns Hopkins University.  For example, at the school she ran in Baltimore, "as teachers designed arts-integrated lessons that fostered creative thinking, a transformation occurred in the school."

blog

Can Everyone Become a Genius?

At a neuro-education conference in Washington, D.C., researchers suggest that gifted people seem to have slightly different patterns of brain development and use different brain areas to do cognitive tasks. And in Baltimore, artist Keri Smith, “Blue’s Clues” psychologist Alice Wilder and DreamWorks executive John Tarnoff opened the "Learning, Arts, and the Brain" conference by discussing science, creativity and education.

Arts Educators Should Be Asking One Key Question
Column

Arts Educators Should Be Asking One Key Question

by Janet Eilber

Arts Education in the News | May 2009

Researchers and educators need to collaborate to learn how arts education will inform the cognitive skills of children in the 21st century.

Learning, Arts, and the Brain
Interview

Learning, Arts, and the Brain

A Conversation with Michael S. Gazzaniga

by Carolyn Asbury

Dr. Gazzaniga, who led the three-year, seven-university consortium that issued the research report “Learning, Arts, and the Brain,” tells why they started these studies, what they found and what happens next.

Learning, Arts, and the Brain
New Report

Learning, Arts, and the Brain

Dana Consortium studies find strong links

For the first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research brings us closer to answering the question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?

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Transforming Arts Teaching: The Role of Higher Education
Free publication

Transforming Arts Teaching: The Role of Higher Education

Edited By Barbara Rich, Ed.D., Jane L. Polin

Transforming Arts Teaching: The Role of Higher Education examines innovations in arts-teacher training. Best practices at 24 higher-education institutions are featured, along with proceedings from Dana’s national symposium, an event that examined ways in which colleges, universities, and conservatories can enhance arts learning.

A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn

by Peter Perrer And Janet Fox

Dana Press

A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn documents an acclaimed music and education program developed a decade ago by Winston-Salem Symphony conductor and music director Peter Perret.

Acts of Achievement: The Role of Performing Art Centers in Education

Edited By Barbara Rich, Ed.D., Jane L. Polin, Stephen J. Marcus

Dana Press

Acts of Achievement: The Role of Performing Art Centers in Education, a 168-page publication, provides the first study of K-12 education programs offered by performing arts centers nationwide, and showcases 74 performing art center institutions, large and small, partnering with their local schools.

Planning an Arts-Centered School: A Handbook

Edited by Carol Fineberg, Doctor of Arts, Prolegomenon by William Safire

Dana Press

Planning an Arts-Centered School: A Handbook is comprised of eighteen essays by artists and educators highlighting best practices and offering approaches from their varied experiences in the development of successful arts-centered schools. There is also a prolegomenon and an opening commentary.

Partnering Arts Education: A Working Model from ArtsConnection

Edited By Barbara Rich, Ed.D.

Dana Press

Partnering Arts Education: A Working Model from ArtsConnection details the importance of classroom teachers and artists forming partnerships as they build successful residencies in schools. Partnering Arts Education provides insight and concrete steps in using the ArtsConnection model.

Center Theatre Group 1 

A Center Theatre Group training session for teaching artists in Los Angeles. (Kimiko Broder. Photo courtesy of the Center Theatre Group)