Background and Administration:  Founded in 1961, Arts for Learning, the Indiana Affiliate of Young Audiences, empowers children to achieve their creative and intellectual potential through arts in education.  We fulfill our mission through artist performances, workshops, and in-depth residencies designed to serve young Hoosiers from preschool to grade 12, and by providing professional development opportunities for teachers and teaching artists.

 

Based in Indianapolis, Arts for Learning is the oldest and largest provider of professional arts in education programs for children in the state. Arts for Learning’s programming provides direct experiences in the arts. Part of the national Young Audiences Arts for Learning network, Arts for Learning is one of more than 30 affiliates and fully certified by our national office.

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During the 2016-2017 school year, we served an audience of nearly 50,000 children.  The majority of those children are racial/ethnic minorities and come from low-income households. 

 

Board Structure and Function:  Arts for Learning has a governing board of 18 voting members, with a capacity for 27, elected to staggered three-year terms.  The Board meets bi-monthly, in February, April, June, October, and December.  The function of the Board is: to establish and review goals and objectives; to approve strategies and action steps through development of long-range plans; to oversee the fiscal policies of the organization, to approve an annual budget; to help raise funds; to set general policies; and to hire the chief executive officer.  Committees of the Board (such as Executive, Development, Finance, Marketing, and Programology [programs + technology]) work with the staff to offer guidance and expertise as necessary.  Every Board member serves on at least one committee. 

 

Staff Responsibilities: The President & CEO is responsible for working with the Board to fulfill the mission of the organization, for hiring staff, and for the overall fiscal and program management of the organization.  Staff, along with the Programology Committee of the Board, selects, trains and monitors teaching artists; plans and directs programs carried out in partnership with schools and other organizations; markets and publicizes our programming; designs our website;  manages accounting; raises funds; evaluates programs with the help of outside consultants; and builds community relationships.

 

Arts in Education Programming:  With our full focus on arts in education and how the arts can positively impact the lives of children and because of the breadth and depth of our 50+ years of experience of delivering high-quality programming, Arts for Learning is unique among Indiana arts organizations. Our teaching artists present programs in a range of arts disciplines, including music, dance, theater, storytelling, literary arts, and visual arts. Rather than requiring children come to come to us, we bring the arts to them by sending our teaching artists to schools, libraries, parks, community centers, juvenile detention facilities, etc.

 

All Arts for Learning programs are carefully constructed around the following Four Essential Elements, developed at the national Young Audiences Arts for Learning level: Students who participate in a program will 1) experience the work of professional artists, 2) understand the art form in relation to the world around them, 3) create the art form themselves, and 4) connect the art form to other academic learning and life skill development. Our programs occur  in, after, and out of school. The following is a sampling of the programming we provide:

 

In School:

• Young-at-Arts provides children ages 3-5 with unique experiences in the arts through appropriate, meaningful, and creative hands-on activities and participatory performances specifically designed to promote the development of a variety of skills.

• School Partnerships vary from school to school; there are schools that focus on exposure to the arts and there are those with comprehensive arts in education plans, some of which are district-wide. Arts for Learning's experienced program staff work with school administrators and classroom teachers to design a plan that combines our Signature Core Services (performances, workshops, residencies, and teacher professional development) to meet each school’s specific needs. Some of our school partners participate in Run for the Arts, a fundraising tool we offer, to raise funding for their Arts for Learning programming.

• Arts for Learning Lessons offers professional development for teachers in tested, arts integration techniques that dramatically improve student reading skills and reading motivation.  The program fully integrates best literacy practices, based on principles outlined in “How People Learn,” developed by a National Research Council team led by Dr. John Bransford, with opportunities for creative expression and reflection through the arts. Companion teaching artist residencies allow students to deepen their learning experience through the translation of texts into different art forms.

• Collaboration of the Generations is an intergenerational program that engages senior citizen and students in the art of storytelling. Teaching artists elicit personal histories from the seniors that they then share with the students. The students, in turn, rehearse re-presentations of these stories for a culminating event. The program bridges the generations through experiences in the arts and enabling seniors and students to share their talents and resources.

 

 After and Out of School (utilizes arts to bridge two spectra – education and community services):

• ArtForce is a summer apprenticeship program that introduces teens to the arts as a collegiate and career path. For three weeks, the apprentices work independently as well as in diverse teams under the guidance of practicing artists and learn how to create community impact through art. Two tracks are currently offered: a Visual Arts track and a Performing Arts track.

• Inside Arts provides programming to young offenders ages 13 through 17 in juvenile detention facilities in Bartholomew, Hamilton, Madison, and Marion counties. In 2014, we began to serve incarcerated women at John P. Craine House, a court-ordered work release facility in Marion County for non-violent female offenders. Most recently, in early 2016, we began collaborating with Lutherwood Residential Treatment Center and the Julian Center, an emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence.

• ​Inspiring Scholars is a four-week arts enrichment program designed to support the Summer Advantage academic curriculum. For two hours every afternoon, the elementary-age scholars participate in hands-on creative activities aimed to improve their motivation for learning by leveraging their creative potential.    

 

Professional Development:

• Over the past two years, we have transformed our professional service for teaching artists through the Indiana Teaching Artist Institute and the Expert Teaching Artist Development Program. These programs enabled us to transition from thinking about possible ways of helping artists improve their teaching skills to providing tangible resources to them.

• We have added to our online learning lessons, which are presented via the Lessonly platform, for our teaching artists to grow their knowledge on their own schedules. Many of these lessons help prepare the teaching artists for success in a specialty area, such as early childhood education, or nontraditional educational environment. Each lesson takes ten to 20 minutes to complete; some of the more
  advanced courses involve multiple lessons. 

• We also recently convened our first Teacher Advisory Group (TAG) to gather information about 1) the relevancy of our current programs, 2) needs for professional development in arts integration for teachers, and 3) the most effective marketing strategies to build school relationships. TAG will also serve as a professional development opportunity for the participating teachers, enabling them to connect with, learn from, and encourage one another.

 

Artistic Strength:  Arts for Learning selects artists for our roster based on their excellence in artistry, educational relevance and communication skills. Our audition process includes the submission of an application, an interview, an audition with the Programology Committee of the Board, and an in-school audition with students. Our program staff works closely with artists to develop programs that connect to national and state curriculum standards. Our teaching artists are professional, practicing artists, and are valued with compensation for their expertise and investment in their professional development. Arts for Learning advocates fair compensation for artists.

 

Program Evaluation:  All Arts for Learning teaching artists are annually evaluated against a standard observation rubric developed at the national Young Audiences Arts for Learning level. Program quality and efficacy are assessed using several tools, including other rubrics, questionnaires, and surveys, that analyze student engagement and teacher and teaching artist satisfaction. Additional assessment methods include open- and closed-ended questions for students and parents, partner and teaching artist journal entries, and documentation in the form of photographs and student artwork. For several larger initiatives, Arts for Learning has contracted outside evaluators to design and implement a participatory evaluation plan.

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Collaborations:  Over the next several years (2016-2021), we will be working with the Arts Council of Indianapolis and other arts organizations in the Any Given Child Indy initiative to ensure that every K-8 student in Indianapolis Public Schools has the opportunity to have transformative and educational encounters with the arts. Our President & CEO JoEllen Florio Rossebo and Senior Director of Programs Ploi Pagdalian have both taken active roles in Any Given Child Indy; Rossebo was appointed to the preliminary Community Arts Team and currently serves as co-chair of the Professional Development Committee, while Pagdalian sits on the Creative Engagement Committee.

 

In addition to the schools we serve annually, Arts for Learning collaborates with more than 75 community partners, including libraries, community centers, and other nonprofits. Through ArtForce, for example, we partner with Ivy Tech Community College and Marian University. We have long-standing relationships with Day Early Learning, Head Start, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis Art Center, and more.

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Comparison to Other Arts Organizations:  Because of the history and scope of our programs and professional development, Arts for Learning is recognized as a leader in the field. In the October 2003 Nuvo Newsweekly’s annual "Best of Indy" issue, Rita Kohn named Arts for Learning "Best Silent Partner" for bringing the arts to schools,  citing, “building lasting partnerships” as a strong suit of our leadership. We differentiate ourselves from similar youth-serving arts organizations by focusing on arts in education, wherein the arts are used to raise learning outcomes in other academic areas. Arts for Learning encourages open dialogue with our peers in the field in order to avoid duplication of services; often, we are able to collaborate with other organizations on programs or teaching artist trainings.

 

Notable accomplishments:

2011 Woman of Influence - JoEllen Florio Rossebo, Indiana Business Journal

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2008 Coming Up Taller Award,  Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

 

2007 Community Crime Prevention Task Force, City of Indianapolis: Arts for Learning was cited in the City’s report of the Community Crime Prevention Task Force Solutions for Youth as a leader in providing programming that connects youth with the arts, thus engaging young people in the community.

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1993 National Chapter Achievement Award of the Year, Young Audiences Arts for Learning national office