Art groups present their work to NYC schools as funding challenges remain

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Dozens of cultural and arts organizations flocked to Lincoln Center Tuesday, joining elected officials and educators for a celebration of arts education in the city’s schools, featuring a performance by dancers from the Juilliard School.

This was the second “Arts and Culture in Schools Showcase,” organized by Manhattan Council Member Gale Brewer, aimed at promoting connections between local schools and cultural arts organizations.

This showcase comes at a time of growing concern about the state of arts education in the city.

In recent years, students, activists and elected officials have pushed for the city to provide more funding for arts programming in schools. Meanwhile, critics of a state law mandating smaller class sizes have argued it could push schools to convert dance, music and art studios into classrooms — as the city is working to bring tens of thousands of classrooms below the legal limit over the next few years.

And although City Council members reached a budget deal with Mayor Eric Adams last year that restored more than $40 million in funding for arts education that was previously supported by expiration dollars Federal aid – in addition to more than $50 million earmarked for cultural institutions – city data shows stubborn gaps persist in students’ access to arts education.

“Nobody needs more money than schools and the arts,” Brewer said at Tuesday’s event. “It’s the backbone of New York City.”

The state Department of Education requires middle school students to complete at least two semesters of arts education in two different disciplines taught by certified teachers before entering high school. But many New York City schools are not meeting that requirement, with only 36% of local students achieving it in the 2022-2023 school year, according to a city report.

That’s a slight increase from the previous year, but still well below the state’s mandate.

Although a majority of public schools offered visual arts and music instruction in the 2022-23 school year, fewer than half of the city’s middle and high schools offered dance and theater classes – with figures falling to 21% for high schools that taught dance. That same year, according to city surveys, about 2,400 full-time certified art teachers, as well as about 800 part-time teachers, were employed in the public school system.

“We’re going to continue to fight and push for more funding,” said Laurie Cumbo, commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. “We want to see art teachers in every school in New York. That’s really the ultimate goal.

More than 50 nonprofit arts organizations attended Tuesday’s showcase, ranging from music to performing and visual arts to computer programming. Citywide, more than 600 cultural arts organizations partnered with public schools during the 2022-2023 school year, with the majority of those partnerships taking place in elementary schools, according to a city report.

Jada Foster, manager of Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools program, said her organization has facilitated visits to local schools by a range of LGBTQ authors, including Roya Marsh, Mark Oshiro and Maulik Pancholy.

The program partners with approximately 180 schools across the five boroughs, hosting writing workshops for students in grades K-12 and providing a safe space for students to discuss books addressing issues of homophobia, racism, sexism, etc. It’s a program that has become especially important in the wake of book challenges in schools and libraries across the country, which have largely targeted stories written by LGBTQ authors, she said.

“We always want to invite educators and encourage those who want this inclusive curriculum to apply to our program,” Foster said. “With book bans on the rise, this is a program that will provide students with the space they need.”

Lulu Fogarty, director of education at Symphony Space, said the cultural education organization has worked in partnership with schools for about 40 years, educating students from kindergarten through high school about traditional cultural art forms.

“If a school studies Latin America, for example, we have a series in which we will send a group that does folk dances from Mexico, there will be a samba music class from Brazil, there will be an Afro jazz workshop -latin, there is a capoeira workshop,” she said “In addition to this series, there is a field trip opportunity, so students can come to our theater at Symphony Space for. see their teaching artists perform live on stage.”

Symphony Space partners with more than 50 schools across the city, serving about 15,000 students each year, Fogarty said.

Meanwhile, New York City Children’s Theater partners with schools and shelters to help students adapt stories into theatrical performances, said Yvonne Roen, the organization’s development director. The program invites students to participate in multiple languages, an aspect that Roen said has been particularly helpful in recent years as the city has seen an influx of asylum-seeking and other migrant students.

“When students work together and construct a play, they suddenly see something in a classmate that they have never seen before, because that person is speaking their own language – they are having their own experience and it forms a bridge between the class. “, she said. “It also gives students an opportunity to present themselves in a way that they normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to be in a classroom setting.”

Before the pandemic, NYCCT worked in more than 30 shelter sites in partnership with the city’s education department, said Frank Ruiz, the organization’s education program manager. But after losing their funding in 2021, their shelter work was limited to just two sites, Roen added.

Three years later, with funding from the city council and various foundations, NYCCT has partnered with 11 shelters, in addition to more than 40 schools.

“As long as we get the funding, we’ll continue to expand it, because it’s really important,” Roen said. “We truly believe that everyone has a story to tell. »

Julian Shen-Berro is a journalist covering New York City. Contact him at [email protected].