Gallup data indicates that students in South Carolina’s arts-rich schools are more likely to stay in school, report excellent grades, and have high attendance in addition to outperforming the national mean. Research also shows a direct correlation between the length of time at an arts-rich school and student engagement. Students in poverty especially benefit from arts integration programs. Yet, funding for arts programming in public schools often gets put on the backburner.
Locally, one program is working to integrate the arts with all areas of education in K-12 Greenville County schools.
SmartARTS is a partnership between the Metropolitan Arts Council (MAC) + Greenville County schools that connects students, artists + teachers to deeper learning and self-awareness through arts integration into local schools.
SmartARTS has been in a total of 73 out of the 106 schools in Greenville County. This school year, the program will be in 33 schools and will include 43 new teachers. Seven of these schools are Title I schools, where the poverty index is 96% or higher. The program is funded by a mix of federal grants, business partnerships + generous gifts.
SmartARTS goals include:
- Training new teachers in the planning + use of successful arts integration methods.
- Pairing artists with teachers to plan rigorous arts-rich units.
- Implementing, documenting + assessing units (or classes) that are inquiry-based and highly experiential to encourage career-ready creative problem-solving by students.
During the 2018-2019 school year, SmartARTS, housed at the TD Center for Arts Integration, channeled $192,155.00 directly into schools in the form of resident teaching artists and art supplies that reached 6,905 K4-12 students.
For the 2019-2020 school year, SmartARTS will serve over 10,000 students, teachers + artists. All of this year’s participating teachers + artists attended the SmartARTS 2019 Summer Training Institute this summer.
Click the button below to learn more – and if SmartARTS is not offered at your child’s school (but you want it to be), contact your school’s administration about opting-in to the program on a first-come first-serve basis or contact kimberly@greenvillearts.com for more info. If you’re interested in supporting the program to keep the arts alive in local schools, donate here. Ⓟ
