The mission of the Dana Foundation’s arts education program is to support innovative professional development programs leading to improved teaching of the performing arts in public schools. 

Dana arts education grants fund programs that provide training to in-school arts specialists and professional artists who teach students in preK-12 in public schools.  Grants are given solely to nonprofit organizations that provide such training.

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. 

Grants

Three-City Initative Grants

The Foundation supports professional development projects as described above that originate in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and their surrounding areas within a fifty-mile radius. For more information on this program and guidelines click here.

Rural Initiative Grants

The Dana Foundation funds professional development programs for arts educators who teach in rural areas of the United States. To be considered for this round, all applicants must describe why the proposed service area is considered to be rural, what challenges this presents and how the proposed project addresses these challenges. For more information on this program and guidelines click here.

Grantees

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

Grantee Surveys

Dana Arts Education Publications

Arts Advocates Are Left Behind Online
News Column

Arts Advocates Are Left Behind Online

by Janet Eilber

Arts Education in the News | October 2008

The subject of arts education is woefully absent from the education blog community.

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?

See also

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.

Lincoln Center Institute 1 
A group tableau activity at the Lincoln Center Institute's Aesthetic Education in Rural Settings Conference, 2006. (Cathryn Williams. Photo courtesy of the Lincoln Center Institute)