Sustaining Arts Education Through Collaboration

From the New York State Alliance for Arts Education (NYSAAE):

December 15 is the early registration deadline for the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s institute, Powerful Partnerships: Sustaining Arts Education Through Collaboration, to be presented January 18 and 19, 2011 at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

This two-day, highly engaging hands-on workshop will explore how nonprofit arts education providers can more deeply engage their communities; gain access to a broader array of resources including expertise, credibility and funding; and increase sustainability through internal and external collaboration. The Institute is supported by the NEA, New York Community Trust and New York State Council on the Arts.

John McCann, president of Partners in Performance, is designing and facilitating the workshop. He will be joined by a faculty of experts, including Beth Vogel, the director of the Guild’s Partners in Arts Education program.

Collaborating effectively may require the acquisition of new skills and a profound shift in perspective. To take maximum advantage of this opportunity, arts education organizations are therefore encouraged to register three person teams.

After completing the institute, each team will be better able to:

  • Identify their organization’s core institutional and programmatic assets
  • Identify potential partners (other organizations, funders, advocates, etc.) with whom they can work to ‘co-create’ sustainable programs
  • Understand what is required (e.g., sharing authority, trusting others) to achieve sustainable collaborations
  • Understand common challenges to collaboration and learn methods of overcoming them
  • Capitalize on “lessons learned” through prior experiences, and
  • Develop an action plan for execution upon return home.

Each team will receive a set of tools for assessing institutional and programmatic assets, identifying prospective partners and “lessons learned,” planning collaborations, and developing an action plan.

Institute Location:

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Joan Weill Center for Dance
405 W. 55th Street (at 9th Avenue)
New York, NY 10019

Register by December 15, 2010 and Save! You may download the Registration form [PDF]. Questions about the Institute may be directed to National Guild program manager, Jay Samios, at (212) 268-3337 ext. 12.