This toolkit, commissioned by Irvine and developed by Public/Private Ventures, offers program managers a practical, hands-on guide for implementing quality programming in the after-school hours. The kit includes the tools and techniques that increased the quality of literacy-focused programming and helped improve student reading gains in the Foundation’s Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) initiative–an eight-year, $58 million after-school endeavor to improve education achievement in low-performing schools in five California cities.
Improved Academic Performance for Arts-Involved Students
A one-pager that shows improved academic performance from students who participate in the arts. This is one of many short documents from Americans for the Arts.
Local Arts Agency Statistics
Local arts agencies are a growing presence in communities across the country. They provide vital services to sustain their local arts industry, and endeavor to make the arts accessible to each member of the community. Included with other statistical data is the estimated growth in number of local arts agencies from 1965-2012.
Arts Programs in US Hospitals
Percentages of arts programs in hospitals, including visual art exhibits, in-hospital performances, bedside art activities and arts activities for staff.
Sources of Revenue for Nonprofit Arts Organizations
Nonprofit arts organizations are generally able to earn only half of the money it takes to sustain their operation. The other half of their revenue must be raised through contributions and grants. Even small fluctuations in contributed revenue can mean deficits for many organizations. Earned income is the largest source of revenue for the typical nonprofit arts organization. Yet most people are unaware of the funding challenges that must be met to keep America’s arts organizations in operation.
Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts
Faced with intense competition for audiences and financial support, as well as adverse political fallout from the “culture wars” of the early 1990s, arts advocates have increasingly sought to make a case for the arts in terms of their instrumental benefits to individuals and communities. In this report documenting the most comprehensive study of its kind, the authors evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these instrumental arguments and make the case that a new approach to understanding the benefits of the arts is needed.
Critical of what they view as an overemphasis on instrumental benefits, the authors call for a greater recognition of the intrinsic benefits of the arts experience, provide a more comprehensive framework for assessing the private and public value of both intrinsic and instrumental benefits, and link the realization of those benefits to the nature of arts involvement. In particular, they underscore the importance of sustained involvement in the arts to the achievement of both instrumental and intrinsic benefits. This study has important policy implications for access to the arts, childhood exposure to the arts, arts advocacy, and future research on the arts.
