SCHOOLS PROGRAM

Arts Every Day’s School Program at a Glance

The Schools Program aims to advance Arts Every Day’s goal of increasing equity of access to the arts across Baltimore City Public Schools through two main approaches: by cultivating partnerships with schools directly and by providing engaging and relevant professional development on arts integration.

School Partnerships

Every year, Arts Every Day partners with a cohort of schools throughout Baltimore City Public Schools. Applications for this partnership opportunity open in the late winter/early spring of every year. In order to become a Partner School, schools must demonstrate a cohesive commitment to the arts and arts integration within their schools, which includes support from prospective schools’ administration. Partner Schools receive enrollment-based grant funding that can be used to fund a variety of arts experiences from Arts Every Day’s extensive Arts Directory. These experiences include workshops, residencies, assemblies, field trips, and teacher professional development offered by a variety of local teaching artists, organizations, and institutions. As partner schools expand their involvement and commitment to arts integration, per-student funding levels increase, thereby creating more opportunities for schools to engage in the arts.

As part of this partnership, schools not only receive funding but structured guidance in planning and implementing arts integration throughout their school community. This is offered in a variety of ways, including:

• Access to AU-credit bearing synchronous and asynchronous professional development on City Schools curriculum-specific arts integrated topics
• Access to a broader community of arts integration specialists by connecting teachers across our network of partner schools through formal and informal gatherings
• Access to pathways for leadership and growth for arts integration coaches within their school communities. Arts Every Day Coaches become arts integration leaders within their school and have the opportunity to earn additional AUs by supporting members of their staff.

Arts Integration Professional Development

Throughout the year, Arts Every Day offers a variety of professional development opportunities to teachers working in both our Partner Schools and across the district.

Baltimore City Teachers, including teachers at AED Partner Schools, have access to a growing catalog of asynchronous virtual professional development courses created through the Baltimore Arts Integration Project, a USDE-funded project that creates arts-integrated learning content developed by teacher-teaching artist partnerships. These PD courses are tied directly to City Schools curriculum and are based on the neuroeducation-informed Brain-Targeted Teaching Model®.

Arts Every Day also hosts a variety of live, synchronous professional development opportunities throughout the school year that are open to all City Schools teachers. Courses are presented in both virtual and in-person formats in an effort to increase access and meet the demanding needs of educators. 

The flagship event among AED’s professional development offerings is our annual Summer Arts Integration Conference. This conference, usually hosted in early August, offers teachers across the district the chance to network and learn from a variety of experts in the field of arts integration, including other teachers from within the district.