The Arts – Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual, and Media Arts – are essential components of a complete and well-rounded education. Through the Arts, we share and celebrate humanity’s highest achievements and develop enduring historical and cultural understandings of ourselves and the world around us.
A balanced, comprehensive, and sequential program of study in the Arts allows Arizona’s students to learn and practice 21st-Century skills and behaviors that foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creative problem solving. The Arts seamlessly integrate with other disciplines and subject areas to create engaging and rigorous learning opportunities for all students. Instruction in the Arts builds discipline, enhances self-esteem, inspires creativity, fosters linguistic, numeric, and aesthetic literacy, and encourages students to make and reach personal and academic goals.
“As an artist myself, I know that the Arts have the power to change the way we see and understand our world. I believe that is what makes the Arts a valuable contributor to students’ success and an imperative part of a well-rounded education.”
~ Diane Douglas, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Mission
The mission of the Arizona Department of Education Arts Education Office is to provide support to Arts educators, classroom teachers, school and district administrators, and Arts stakeholders – including Arts and education organizations, community groups, and service organizations – so that every student has the opportunity to experience the power and beauty of the Arts, and the joy, creativity, and intellectual stimulation that instruction in the Arts provides.
Arts Education Specialist
The Arts Education Specialist will serve the internal and external customers of ADE by championing Arts Education for the State. They will work closely with arts agencies and schools to create a unified revitalization of values and goals for arts education providing content expertise while continuously creating arts opportunities for our students, teachers, teaching artists, administrators, and policy makers. It is through these actions that the artistic literacy of our state will flourish.
Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Serving as a liaison to the state’s Arts educators
Serving as primary Arts Education Advocate for ADE
Providing professional development in Arizona’s Academic Arts Standards, Arts assessment, and Arts integration
Promoting quality Arts education programs in all of Arizona’s schools
Providing a variety of high-quality tools and resources for LEAs interested in learning how to create balanced, comprehensive, and sequential Arts learning programs for their students
