Arts Integration Project

After 35 years of research, the Education Department of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts published a definition for arts integration that includes four very important principles:

·         Arts integration is a powerful way to help students learn

·         Arts integration takes place over time; it is more than a stand-alone activity

·         Arts integration requires higher order thinking skills

·         The heart of arts integration is student engagement in the creative process

Including those four principles, the Kennedy Center adopted the following definition for Arts Integration:

Arts Integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate learning through an art form. Students engage in a creative process that connects an art form and another subject area and meets involving objectives in both.

Following the Arts Learning for Life's(formerly OCAEC) mission to ensure that all students have access to equitable and quality arts education, the Center is partnering with Dr. Mary Palmer and Associates to adapt that definition locally through the Arts Integration Project. The project aims to create a comprehensive creative learning process that infuses the arts into all aspects of the educational experience. In two Orange County Public Elementary Schools, the Arts Integration Project focuses on administrators, teachers and students to create a culture of change where the arts, creativity and innovation in learning are the standard. Student experience authentic arts experiences from practicing artists; teachers engage in professional development introducing new strategies to integrate the arts into the curriculum; and the entire school is involved creating a new culture and curriculum that enhances student engagement and learning.  

For more information on the John F. Kennedy Center’s definition of Arts Integration, read Defining Arts Integration by Lynne B. Silverstein and Sean Layne (pdf).