New York, NY – National Young Audiences Arts for Learning (YA), in partnership with 11 national arts and education organizations, has released Arts Education for America’s Students, A Shared Endeavor, a statement outlining the importance of high quality arts education and identifying those responsible for providing it to students.  A Shared Endeavor articulates the purpose and value of art education in the balanced curriculum of all students, asserts its place as a core academic subject area, and details how sequential arts learning can be supported by rigorous national standards and assessments.

The statement was created to respond to the alarming marginalization of quality arts education in America’s schools in recent years, as funding, staffing, and school time has increasingly focused on tested subject areas. Acknowledging the long history and support for arts education by public and private partners, A Shared Endeavor defines what quality arts education looks like at the local level, encourages partnerships, and calls on organizations and individuals to actively support and promote:

• Policies and resources for arts education.
• Access to arts education for all students.
• Collaboration between school-based arts educators, other subject area teachers, community-based artists, and arts educators.
• Long-term advocacy partnership between all providers of arts education.

A Shared Endeavor reflects the value YA and its partner organizations place on the work of our members and others who contribute to high quality arts education. In its 60 year history, YA has consistently advocated and contributed to collaborative initiatives on behalf of all arts education that seeks to expand access and equity for all students and to validate its educators in and out of school-based environments.

We encourage parents, educators, and policy makers to use Arts Education for America’s students, A Shared Endeavor as an action tool to help prompt dialogue and engagement with your community arts education leaders in a Q&A conversation about how students in your community access arts education, beginning with these questions:

• How do your students have access to arts education in your community’s schools?
• How do your community-based arts educators such as art museums or community schools of music connect with your community’s schools?
• How do your teachers connect the learning in their classrooms to learning in the arts? How can you support them in that endeavor?
• Where do you have strong support for arts education at your school? What does your state require your schools to do?

Young Audiences Arts for Learning will launch a website-based community dialogue to begin conversation around A Shared Endeavor during the coming months of 2014. The following are the partnering national organizations: American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Americans for the Arts, Educational Theatre Association, League of American Orchestras, National Art Education Association, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, National Dance Education Organization, National Education Association, National Association for Music Education, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and National Guild for Community Arts Education.