Arts Integration in Schools: What a Partnership with ArtsNOW Looks Like
Arts Integration in Schools: What a Partnership with ArtsNOW Looks Like
At ArtsNOW, strong partnerships with schools are the engine behind arts-integrated learning. These relationships help us build lasting capacity for educators while creating engaging learning experiences for students that blend the arts with core academic content.
Since 2006, ArtsNOW has worked with more than 600 schools to translate standards into joyous learning experiences that authentically combine the arts with academic subjects.
In practice, a partnership with ArtsNOW looks like engaged students, confident teachers, and measurable growth in learning. The path to that outcome is never one-size-fits-all.
Each partnership begins with strategic planning and is customized to align with the specific goals and needs of the school or district, ensuring that arts integration becomes both sustainable and transformative. Most partnerships extend over three to five years, allowing schools the time and support needed to fully implement and sustain meaningful change.
Here is how we approach that work, and what schools can expect when they invite ArtsNOW in.
Step 1: Collaborative Needs Assessment for Arts-Integrated Learning
Every engagement begins with an intentional needs assessment. This is a collaborative process with school leaders and teachers that looks at current curriculum, student work, assessment data, schedules, staff capacity, and school goals.
Typical activities during this phase include document review, classroom visits, interviews with teachers and administrators, and the collection of baseline measures.
The purpose of the assessment is to identify the learning gaps that matter most and to establish a small set of measurable goals that we can pursue together.
Step 2: Customized Strategic Planning for Your School
After the assessment, we move into planning with school leadership and teacher teams. We’ll create an actionable plan that addresses immediate needs and sets a realistic multi-year path for sustained change. That plan covers three practical elements.
- Capacity building: schedules for professional learning sessions, digital coaching, and development of teacher leaders
- Instructional design and delivery: sample lesson templates and modeled lessons for demonstration
- Sustainability: staffing and budget considerations, integration with the school improvement plan, and strategies for maintaining momentum
Each plan includes clear deliverables and checkpoints so both the school and ArtsNOW know exactly what success will look like.
Step 3: High-Impact Arts Integration Experiences for Teachers and Students
We deliver a mix of seminars, professional learning, and personalized digital coaching sessions led by expert ArtsNOW Consultants. Sessions are practical and standards-driven. Teachers leave with ready-to-use strategies for integrated lesson design, assessment practices that capture student thinking, and classroom routines that support creative inquiry.
We provide:
- Quarterly professional learning sessions each focused on different art forms that include demonstration lessons and planning sessions with classroom teachers
- One-on-one digital coaching cycles focused on implementation, observation, and feedback
- Professional learning through our annual Foundational Seminar, a multi-day event that supports teacher and leader learning across every stage of the arts integration journey
Preparing Your School for an ArtsNOW Partnership
Every school is unique, and our approach reflects that. ArtsNOW works alongside your team to design a fully customized plan that builds lasting capacity for arts integration in your school.
Thinking about working with ArtsNOW? Here are a few simple ways schools can prepare so the experience is as meaningful as possible:
- Start by determining the goals that matter most for your school.
- Pull together recent assessment data or samples of student work to help guide the conversation
- Identify teachers and a school liaison who can help champion the process
- Set aside time for collaboration and classroom coaching so new strategies can take root
- Begin thinking early about how to sustain the work, including staff roles and budget
A partnership with ArtsNOW is practical, evidence-focused, and designed to change teaching and learning from the inside out. We bring expert arts consultants and a fully customized implementation framework that matches the realities of your school life.
If you are ready to explore how arts-integrated learning can address your school’s specific needs, reach out to our team to schedule an initial conversation.
