The MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education (PIAE) program, begun in 2005, developed out of shared fundamental values of the MetLife Foundation and the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Their common beliefs were that access to arts education must be universal, must address issues of inequity, and must take place over a sustained period to have durable impact. The two institutions chose to invest in the development of the practice of partnership because they recognized that the ability to partner well makes a significant difference in the quality of arts learning.