Arts Education Home Page

Student Ticket Subsidy

Quick Links

New Program!

Arts Education

Ann Brown
Director of Arts Education
(615)532-5939
ann.brown@tn.gov

Nan Zierden
Special Projects Coordinator
(615)532-5934
nan.zierden@tn.gov

Arts Education (AE):

The Arts (music, dance, theater, and visual art) are challenging subjects with rigorous state and national achievement standards just like Math, Science, and Language Arts. Experiencing and making works of art benefit students in their intellectual, personal, and social development. Learning in the Arts can be particularly beneficial for students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those who are at risk of not succeeding in school.

Learning through the arts is equally beneficial when dance, music, theater, and visual art are integrated into the daily school curriculum. Arts integration involves teachers of non-arts subjects working alongside arts specialists and teaching artists to create collaborative lesson plans that infuse the arts into core subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies. In arts integrated schools, not only do students score higher on achievement tests, but critical thinking skills, self-confidence, and teacher and student retention increase.

Research shows that every child learns differently. Some learn through what they see or hear; others through drawing or building with their hands. Some process information through writing or acting out a story. The arts are the critical link to meeting the individual learning needs of each child.