Accomplishments

Recognize milestones in the Corps movement.

Arts Corps has undergone massive growth since its 2000 inception. In its first year, Arts Corps served approximately 400 students at 10 partner sites. During the 2008/2009 school year, over 3,000 students were enrolled in 175 quarterly classes at 35 program partner sites. In addition to rapid programmatic growth, Arts Corps has risen as a leader in the arts education field both locally and nationally.

Awards

The City of Seattle has identified Arts Corps as an outstanding arts education organization and agent of social change:

Awarded the 2005 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for commitment to the ideals of Dr. King
Inaugural recipient of the Award for Excellence in Arts Education at the opening of Seattle's 2003 Bumbershoot Arts Festival

Recognition of Exemplary Programming

Arts Corps has been deemed a national leader in excellent arts programming:

In 2008, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities named Arts Corps one of 50 semifinalists out of 320 nominated for its "Coming Up Taller" award. "Coming Up Taller" recognizes organizations nationally that have achieved distinctive success in youth after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities learning. No Washington state-based organization has received the award since 2000. Click here to read more about "Coming Up Taller."
Harvard University's Project Zero, a graduate research program on arts education and creativity, chose Arts Corps as one of only 12 exemplary case study sites in the nation to help the research team best identify the qualities of high-quality arts education. Research began in fall 2006. Details: http://www.pz.harvard.edu
National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning also selected Arts Corps in 2006 as a national model site for best practices in after-school programming. After evaluating 1,600 different programs on quality of programming, the partnership compiled a list of 40 leading programs, of which only seven, including Arts Corps, were arts education organizations. This landed Arts Corps a film opportunity with WGBH (Boston Public Broadcasting Station affiliate) demonstrating best teaching practices in arts education for the partnership's online toolkit. To view the film, click here.

Local Leadership in Advocacy: Seattle Arts Education Consortium

In 2005, Arts Corps was awarded grants from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Mayor's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs to lead a consortium of seven arts education organizations. From 2005 to 2007, the Seattle Arts Education Consortium accomplished the following:

Provided formal education opportunities about evaluation and assessments and improved the quality of members' individual evaluations
Shared best practices and resources in arts education
Piloted a successful, yearlong professional development program for the growing pool of professional teaching artists in King County
Developed the most potent communications tool to date about arts education in our region, the 20-minute documentary, "Powerful Learning through the Arts"

To see a full report with findings from the Seattle Arts Education Consortium, click here.