Arts Education & Internships: A Road To Success
by Assemblyman Steven Sanders

With headline after headline focusing on standards and high-stakes testing, it is too easy for New Yorkers to lose sight of some of the important success stories in our public schools—among these, the restoration of arts education.

I was pleased to help The Center for Arts Education launch an unprecedented public awareness and advocacy effort sponsored by UBS PaineWebber to promote the value of arts education for children and its vital role in public education. The Center is creating important linkages for our students, in over 80 public schools that have been funded for partnerships with 135 cultural and community-based organizations, colleges and universities.

These arts education programs already reach 54,000 students, 4,200 teachers and teaching artists and 22,000 parents.

The Center’s programs were made possible by a $12 million challenge grant from the Annenberg Foundation in 1996, which was matched with an additional $24 million in public and private funds. The Center has served as a catalyst to stimulate a coalition of public and private organizations and businesses to support arts education for our great city’s children. A tangible result of the Center’s efforts is the Mayor’s recent allocation of $75 million annually to the Board of Education for Project ARTS, which is equitably distributed to all public schools for restoration of arts education.

In March 2001, The Center for Arts Education received a new $12 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation as well as a $2.5 million commitment from the New York City Board of Education to continue the restoration of the arts in the City’s public schools. These funds will enable the Center to expand its remarkable accomplishments, including its Career Development Program, which places students from eight high schools in internships in arts organizations and in arts- and entertainment-related corporations.

Through this program, students attain invaluable skills and knowledge about the world of work, develop a greater interest in the arts and school in general, and gain a heightened understanding of the many careers in the arts that they may strive to enter.

Education is more than academics. Here, in the world’s cultural capital, what a terrible waste it was when during the fiscal crisis in the 1970s, arts education was decimated. And make no mistake about it—the arts are often the impetus to inspire children and teenagers to succeed academically, while also increasing their motivation, their self-worth and their appreciation of living in New York City. Arts education and linkages through our public schools—to museums, theaters and the recording, television and film industries—are indispensable. #

For more information about The Center for Arts Education, contact Steve Sanders at sanders@assembly.state.ny.us. or 212-979-9696. Assemblyman Sanders is the Chair of the Education Committee, NYS Assembly.

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