On November 17, 2010, 50 Washington, DC arts organizations convened for a one-day intensive conference to foster collaboration and promote partnerships in arts education to better serve the children, youth and families of Washington, DC. Sitar Arts Center planned and hosted the conference in response to the growing demand for affordable arts education for children in DC and a challenging new economy that highlights the need for shared resources. The conference brought together over 90 administrators, educators and artists from a wide range of organizations including The Kennedy Center, The Washington Ballet, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington National Opera, DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, The National Endowment for the Arts and the District of Columbia’s Public Schools.
The conference featured panels with experts from the field on:
- comprehensive arts education plans in DCPS;
- working together to create effective partnerships;
- out-of-school program time at DCPS;
- sharing community resources;
- and getting Board support for educational arts programs.
In addition, the conference provided a forum for colleagues to meet each other, share ideas for overcoming mutual obstacles, think strategically together about how to share resources and assess the gaps where arts education is not reaching students living in Washington, DC. At the start of the day, Conference Director Maureen Dwyer said, “If we want to serve more children and youth, we must research together, advocate together, embrace curriculum standards together, present together, perform together and evaluate together towards the real outcomes of arts education. Together, we can allow DC to shine and be a model for doing education the right way. Why not become the nation’s capital for arts education?”
The conference, which was completely full, filled an apparent need in the community to facilitate a conversation across organizations. The clear takeaway from the conference was that the participating organizations agreed that they need and want to work together. Sitar Arts Center is currently conducting a survey to better asses the needs of arts education organizations and opportunities for partnerships and will work with other organization to strategize the next steps for facilitating an even more collaborative arts education community in order to achieve the ultimate goal that every child in Washington, DC has access to a comprehensive arts education.
